bad box

As was the case after Hurricane Sandy, volunteers from outlying areas went to the areas that were impacted. The businesses in these outlying areas were functioning.

It should not be the responsibility of a business owner to provide personnel to respond to emergencies at the expense of his / her business. Granted the business owner is not mandated to pay the employees who choose to volunteer at a disaster scene, but businesses depend upon their employees showing up to work to insure a profitable operation. Business owners are already required to pay their fair share of taxes, this law results in forcing business owners to contribute more via lost productivity which will cause him / her to suffer reduced revenue.

It should not be the responsibility of a business owner to provide personnel to respond to emergencies at the expense of his / her business. Granted the business owner is not mandated to pay the employees who choose to volunteer at a disaster scene, but businesses depend upon their employees showing up to work to insure a profitable operation. Business owners are already required to pay their fair share of taxes, this law results in forcing business owners to contribute more via lost productivity which will cause him / her to suffer reduced revenue.

It should not be the responsibility of a business owner to provide personnel to respond to emergencies at the expense of his / her business. Granted the business owner is not mandated to pay the employees who choose to volunteer at a disaster scene, but businesses depend upon their employees showing up to work to insure a profitable operation. Business owners are already required to pay their fair share of taxes, this law results in forcing business owners to contribute more via lost productivity which will cause him / her to suffer reduced revenue.

It should not be the responsibility of a business owner to provide personnel to respond to emergencies at the expense of his / her business. Granted the business owner is not mandated to pay the employees who choose to volunteer at a disaster scene, but businesses depend upon their employees showing up to work to insure a profitable operation. Business owners are already required to pay their fair share of taxes, this law results in forcing business owners to contribute more via lost productivity which will cause him / her to suffer reduced revenue.

The police officer didn't appear to be all that concerned, you can't be certain he even had the keys to move those THREE police vehicles blocking the block. This wasn't overly aggressive, he didn't smash through the cop cars at speed causing any serious damage or potential for major catastrophe, he moved them until he had enough room to get by and squeezed through. He even had his guys out of the rig spotting him as he went through. I don't think he did anything particularly terrible, stopping where he was on a tight block like that, before the fire building, isn't exactly the ideal spot for an engine. He would have further blocked out any other apparatus, particularly ladders who should be in front of the building. None of us know all the facts, but this isn't exactly a video to freak out about, sometimes you need to pull a maneuver like this, should you be trying to smash into a police car on every run? No, of course not, should the police be a little more cognizant of their vehicle positioning at a fire? Quite probably. I don't think this guy made a mistake or had bad judgement, I don't think it was the oh the fire department can do no wrong mentality either. He decided pushing those cars and doing some damage was worth the reward of getting himself into position, it looks like it worked out just fine.

Good for the chauffeur...I wish I was driving. Seeing that fire on arrival, minutes count... I cant stand cops that need to park so close... its happened to me many of times.
We block the road ...the cops want to arrest us.

I saw "A Good Job" and thought it was well done. I have no problem with documentary's about the fire service that focus on loss of Firefighter and civilian lives as that is the reality that I remember from my 21 years of career service and 17 years of volunteer service.

Understood you're glad to see him go and we're glad to have him back.

36 years ago today, at approximately 9:20 AM six heroic F.D.N.Y. Firemen were killed in the line of duty when the roof of the burning Waldbaum's Supermarket they were operating on collapsed. Please take a moment today to remember these heroic Firemen and their families:
• Lt. James E. Cutillo, Battalion 33
• Firefighter Charles S. Bouton, Ladder Company 156
• Firefighter Harold F. Hastings, Battalion 42
• Firefighter James P. McManus, Ladder Company 153
• Firefighter William O’Connor, Ladder Company 156
• Firefighter George S. Rice, Ladder Company 153
Rest in peace Brothers, you will never be forgotten...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTzBg1YIZmI

Here's a great and detailed write up by Steve Spak in firsthand story format:
http://stevespak.com/waldbaums.html
And the NIST report:
http://www.fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/fire97/art141.html
RIP to those who died yet taught us many lessons saving many future lives.

Why does that EMS vehicle have ghost graphics? Seem very stupid to me.

Link doesn't work

Thank you!

Its pretty obvious even to a lay person. i mean they didn't do much...

As a fire instructor I had to again notice the push back from the chief who stated he only had to take a 60 hr course, and now it is 112 hrs. "Who wants to drive 2x a week to Carmel". It is thinking like that NY State is on the lower
end of FF-1 course hours. And that always leads to the Career vs Volunteer debate. The last class of recruits traveled 5x a week, 8 hrs a day, for 16 weeks. That is 640 Hrs. With the constant threat of failing out due to poor grades, or not being able to pass CPAT. 19 out of 20 that started finished. It isn't a game, it isn't about how many members your
dept has, it is about giving the customer the service that is expected from a group of people that raised their right hand a swore to protect to the best of their ability the life and property of the residents of their community. If we do nothing the fire will still go out. The ends don't justify the means. TRAINING TRAINING TRAINING AND DEDICATED MEMBERS.

This could be a fire where nothing much went wrong. Or it could be a fire where nothing at all went right. The outcome is that firefighters showed up to a well involved fire where residents had self-evacuated, could not make an interior attack, and performed surround-and-drown operations while they watched the building burn down. We don't know if they had 5 members show up or 50 members show up. We don't know if it took them 5 minutes or 25 minutes to arrive on scene. That was my whole problem with this article. It seems like this article is praising a group of individuals for unfavorable outcomes and potentially shoddy performance. "Great job showing up and watching a house burn down."
This gives the volunteer fire service, the residents, and the public a false (poor) sense of what is expected and what is favorable. The volunteers now know that they get a pat on the back regardless of whether or not the building is saved. The residents gain a false sense of security since the newspaper has just told them how great their local department is (that just allowed one of their neighbors houses to burn down without mounting a coordinated interior attack). The public now thinks that the volunteer fire service does a great job (when we all know that most volunteer departments are seriously lacking in manpower, training, and professionalism these days). I would imagine that this fire was not much different than the Vista helmet cam fire where everyone bashed them on this very website for their poor performance (we saw the article that they Huffington Post wrote about how great they were). This article is complete bullshit. Write an article when rescuers make a save. Not when a bunch of losers watch a house burn down.
Don't mistake me for a career firefighter who love to bash volunteers. I am not a career fire fighter and have never been one. I spent 10 years in the volunteer fire service as a Firefighter, Lieutenant, and Captain and quit because I believe that the volunteer fire service is a façade and a waste of taxpayer dollars where members are more concerned with social functions than they are with training and firematics.

It's a no no when anyone, who is supposed to be operating at a fire scene, is taking pictures instead. Paid or volunteer, I don't think anyone is stopping during an operation to take group shots. If so shame on them. You obviously have an axe to grind with the FDNY but there's a legion of buffs who follow them around taking pictures, is that so wrong? No one is "grandstanding", and guys take pictures together after a job? There's nothing wrong with that on either side of the fence. You're ignorant if you think that guys are just out for 3/4, it's not an FDNY problem, there are just as many skells in every job, FD, PD, EMS, nameless other civil service jobs, and even the private sector who are just out to get theirs, to bilk the system and sit on their a-- collecting checks. I'm sure as a NYCMEDIC you see plenty of people abusing every system out there. Quit whining like you know what's going on if you want to ignore that larger truth about people and society as a whole, there are dregs everywhere.
As far as who calls themselves a fireman, it's all about training. I wouldn't go as far as to say most volunteers are capable, a good amount definitely, career guys with more training, sure there are still some useless ones but not quite as many. Their are plenty of useless EMTS and Medics out there too, and police officers on the rubber gun squad, we all know at least one or two. Being paid isn't the difference, training and ability is the difference. If someone said they just wanted to volunteer and help, had no training and about all they knew how to do was put on a bandaid, would you let them run around and call themselves paramedics, stick needles in people's arms, intubate, and give drugs. Oh and would you respect them more because it was free? Do you respect volunteer medics more than yourself? Or guys who just do it for less even? I know I know, there are licensing and education requirements for paramedics, but then following that logic, shouldn't the same kind of standards exist for firemen too? Go ahead though and think it's the fact that someone who does something for free deserves respect rather than someone who actually cares about being good at their profession and knows what they are doing, be it career or volunteer.
One more aside, it seems to be very common that the people who are the most inept and incapable, are the ones who don't realize this fact at all.

Rather then constantly attacking members of the middle class who are employed as firefighters and law enforcement personnel, wouldn't it be refreshing to see elected officials putting an end to corporate welfare?

Congrats to R1SmokeEater, EMTBravo's July 2014 MOTM.
R1SmokeEater has been a member of EMTBravo since January of 2004. He regularly contributes great photos of Yonkers FD and Westchester fire history He has over 1,000 posts, and is a sustaining and active member on EMTBravo, always interacting in a positive and constructive fashion. Many members look forward to seeing his photos.
R1SmokeEater is just one our many, many excellent and dedicated members who are deserving of this recognition, and we will continue to recognize the members who make this forum what it is every month.

Is it really necessary to build a new Station that won't be manned 24/7/365? Maybe it's time for Yorktown to consider incorporating themselves into the Towns/Villages FD tests and take some of that $$$ to hire a handful of Career Guys if they're so worried about adequate Fire Protection and shorter response times. After all it is 2014, nothing wrong with having a Comb Dept.. Ive always wondered where much of the property tax revenue for some of these smaller Communities who have Volunteer FDs, VACs. Private Refuse Collecting Cos, etc. etc. goes? I believe Yorktown has a very small PD and was once told by a resident there, they only have 4-5 POs a shift, covering roughly 40 sq miles which is incomprehensible so I can't even imagine how a Volunteer FD can handle providing F/P for an area that large with adequate response times. JMO.

Governor Chris Christie (R_NJ) gives the keynote address at the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Tell me again how the GOP doesn't claim Christie?

I am unable to get to either of the websites mentioned in the 1st post, so I can't comment on that move by Gov. Christie. BUT, on another great move he made, he refused to pay the required amount into the Fire and Police pension funds this year, saying that NJ didn't have the money. This, after he and the unions signed an agreement several years ago that required the FD/PD ,members to pay more each paycheck into the pension, but also required the state to pay what they were obligated to pay into the fund. Governors in the past never paid in the required amounts, hence the big deficit in the pension fund. Gov Christie backed out of the agreement due to his fiscal mismanagement. He "got his cake and ate it too" (look at the size of him). God forbid he ever gets to be President.

Rather then constantly attacking members of the middle class who are employed as firefighters and law enforcement personnel, wouldn't it be refreshing to see elected officials putting an end to corporate welfare?

You'd also be pretty upset when an ambulance doesn't show up at your emergency...