Disaster_Guy

A first alarm assignment in Yonkers is 4 Engines, 2 Ladders, 1 Battalion Chief, and Rescue 1.If a 10-30(All Hands) is transmitted, an additional Ladder is assigned as F.A.S.T., an additional Battalion Chief is assigned as the Safety Officer, and Squad 11 is assigned. If the second Battalion Chief is unavailable, an Engine can be special-called to the scene and the officer of that company can serve as the Safety Officer.
A second alarm assignment in Yonkers brings 2 additional Engines, 1 additional Ladder, and usually a Deputy Chief. Often the Mask Service Unit and the Rehab. Unit are brought to the scene by the second alarm.

Bronx Box 3000 is a Mutual Aid box to Westchester, staging at E081.

FDNY does not send a few units on Mutual aid. They send a 1st alarm assignment and they expect when they come to be put to work. I have never seen them come and cover.

Any where do you suppose the Federal Dollars to fund such grants come from? (They just don't say "print some money for this grant" !). It comes from taxpayer dollars (yours and mine). So the statement that non local or regional tax dollars were used, really doesn't make any sense, as "TAX DOLLARS" were used to fund the grant. And who pays into these "Tax Dollars"? You, I and everyone else. So we all should have a say into how our tax dollars are spent and used and to ensure that it is being used "Wisely and Effectively" and not used to be wasted on a piece of apparatus that just sits in a Garage in Valhalla. I say "Maximize" its potential use (As an Mass Casualty Unit Ambulance and Transportation Unit and not just as a unit to Mass Transport Nursing Home Patients)

And NYC's can be used in an MCI so it was a decision by Westchester to limit the uses of the resource.

Right, no loca/regional tax dollars. Just federal tax dollars. So we paid somewhat less for something that may be used once in a decade vs. making minor modifications so it could be used more frequently to support our already strained EMS system.

The YPD METU is the only one of the 18 purchased by the U.S. Government via the grant program that is set-up for treatment and rehab. The remaining 17 (FDNY, WCDES, NJ, Nassau, etc) are only set-up for transport and are essentially identical.

METU is the acronym for “Medical Evacuation Transportation Unit”. It was designed specifically “to assist in the evacuation and relocation of stable individuals confined to a hospital, nursing home or assisted living facility during an emergency or catastrophic event.” It has the capacity to safely transport from one medical facility to another. It is not a MERV, MCI unit, or big ambulance as it is not set-up or equipped to treat, only to transfer.
I believe that 18 METU units were purchased under the New York City Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) and they are assigned to agencies in NJ (several cities/counties), Nassau County, Suffolk County, FDNY, City of Yonkers (YPD), as well as with WCDES here in Westchester.
Again, they are NOT units designed to treat or transport victims from MCIs…their mission is very specific and it is to transfer and transport people between hospitals and/or other health care facilities.
I hope this answers your question and clarifies the continued confusion regarding the METU and its mandated function.

Live footage http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Metro-North-Train-Hits-Car-Valhalla-New-York-Harlem-Line-290716911.html
Good job keeping up with all the units on scene so far Seth. I think OEM was just requested/ arrived on scene. Also Cortlandt EMS enroute.
Tech rescue team now requested.

While the math may be tough to do. You basicly have said get the number correct or dont do it (in your 1st post) then you say wing it. I did the math for your comparrisons and 10 gallons will work for 650 sq ft of patrolium based products. But if its an alcohol based spill you will need 6 times the foam (AR foam) or it will only cover 108 sq ft. and if its an alcohol based fire you will need 9 times or it will only cover 72 sq ft.. While this sounds like your 10 x rule it does not address if its burning in a tank, because then we need 4.3 times more
Thats 26 and 39 times (not 10 times) more foam if its an alcohol spill or fire.
Your formula for a 10 gallon x the extra 10 (same size as the training fire) or 100 gallons of foam just cost the dept $2,500 Thats kind of overkill (for a 2 bucket petrolium fire) by $2,250 and underkill for an alcohol tank fire. So go back to rule #1.
My whole point is You need to know how much you need before you start and there are a number of factors that calculate into this.
Everyone knows not to start till you have enough, but again if you do not do the math how do you know if you have enough?
And for those who need to bring the water along, you need to maintain 189gpm for 15 min or 2,800 gallons (at 3% foam solution) for the alcohol fire and 812gpm for 15 minutes or 12,000 gallons of water for an alcohol tank fire.

Ah, yes, the Math. Forget any complicated formulas, you will be too shaky to punch in the numbers correctly on to your iPhone, and you will wind up with numbers like a million gallons.
Try this: Do a few foam drills and get a feel for how much fire surface area 10 gallons of foam will cover. (Use 10 gallons because it's easier to do the math in your head) When you get to the real fire, wing a guess at how many times your 10 gallon drill would take to fit into this big fire and multiply. If your fire is 10 times bigger than your 10 gallon drill, then you would need 10x10gal, or 100gal of foam. (Of course if the real fire is smaller than your 10 gal Drill fire, then just use the two cans that are on the rig....Duh!) Now, take that answer you got and multiply it by 10 again. It sounds like over-ordering foam but you will surely have enough to do the job. Even if you over-ordered, you will have to re-stock anyway because you used a lot of foam.
It's like the old NFA Fire Flow Formula. If you have a 2ft x 2ft couch cushion burning in a 1 1/2 residential dwelling that is 25 x 35, by using the formula, you will need about a gallon of water to complete extinguishment. This is normally done by the Can Man with 1 1/2 gallons left to cover rekindle. However, to put this fire out, and to comply with standards we must amass 1- 1 1/2" attack line, a backup line, a 5" supply line, and 17 people.
While you guys were out working on the hurricane, I had time to think this up. Thanks for all your hard work.

We did not have the Foam Unit then (pic is from around 1995). All the foam cans used off the rigs, then FDNY was called in for foam. Our Master Stream Foam equipment was purchased after this incident, and used about a week later on the gasoline tanker crash/fire on CPA by Thruway.

http://www.emtbravo.net/index.php/topic/47583-high-volume-foam-f500-drill/?hl=%2Bfoam+%2Bdrill
This was a foam drill that we did at DES at the request of ConEd. They wanted to see different ways to deliver foam to a burning substation (in particular the one that just burned). We were able to test a number of systems.
The DES trailer carries F-500 (it was donated by ConEd and refilled by them), DES has order a new trailer with Universal Gold 1-3% AR-AFFF.
We carry 24 gal Universal Gold 1-3% AR-AFFF on every engine and 3 55 gal drums as seen in the pictures.

The Foam Unit carries a supply of AFFF in 5 gallon containers and has Master Stream Foam Delivery equipment. It responds with E313 and L73 whose crews are trained in its deployment.

Pat is a great guy who would go great lengths to help a brother in need.
A little more on him:
Full Time Montrose VA FD
Vol FF @ Vails Gate FD
Asst Chief of Orange County Haz-Mat Team
Facilitator at Orange County FTC
Former Huntington, Stewart ANG, & Walden FF
His wife is also a member of the New Windsor Ambulance corps. They have 3 small children at home with the youngest less than 2 years old. As soon as other donation channels are confirmed I will share those as well.

No. Engines are the primary EMS response to EMS runs. This vehicle is assigned to the EMS Officer. It replaces an 11 year old Ford Expedition. The EMS Officer responds to major and unusual incidents or if special called by a Batallion Chief.

Not even on the radar. Our mission is provide first response EMS and support the transporting agency (Empress) any way we can.

We have an MCI trailer, a rehab trailer, a shelter trailer, and others. This vehicle, along with other Field support units, is available to tow these.

Just press them all and muffle your voice. Haven't you learned that trick yet?

Here's the agility, it's essentially a modified CPAT but on air, and the time limit is how long you can last on your bottle.
http://emergencyservices.westchestergov.com/firefighter-1-update
Does anyone know the reason for not just going with the CPAT? Also at what point in the class will the agility be given?

I doubt very much that more people die in fires or water related incidents than from heart attacks, strokes, and other medical emergencies in Northern Westchester or Putnam yet we sit here debating about how a 20 minute response time for a dive team may be too long while at the same time accepting that for an ambulance response time. 3rd tones, going mutual aid. Tick tock, tick tock.

The hypocrisy and misguided priorities astonishes me.
If dive teams are so important, put one in every department. Then do the same for haz-mat, tech rescue, etc. etc. etc. Pretty soon everybody doing nothing and we are revisiting this thread when everyone is selling their gear like Somers.
It's a pity that Somers has to disband their dive team. They had invested a lot of time, resources and effort to maintain it.

Nobody ever survived for long under water huh ? Depends what your definition of long is, but 20+ minutes is longer than most people would think.
Also as far as I know, many dive teams will stay in rescue mode for up to an hour before going to recovery due to the possibility of survival.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/boy-survives-25-minutes-underwater-rescued-12-year/story?id=14271832
http://www.today.com/id/36190954/ns/today-today_news/t/miracle-boy-ok-after-minutes-underwater/#.VHT5jMmK1mg
http://www.12newsnow.com/story/16200067/boy-2-survives-30-minutes-underwater
http://www.scotsman.com/news/world/miracle-boys-defy-death-under-the-ice-1-1299632
They're not dead till they're warm and dead !

I believe the NYSP has divers. Last drill we had with DEC ESU (yes DEC has their own ESU) they were pushing for dive status but were not there yet. Much dive work is in the resevoirs.

Departments sharing resources? Crazy idea.

Hey guys here for an update-my father was responding to a full assignment on Monday when he suddenly collapsed. My brothers from WPFD used an AED to bring him back almost immediately. He went in for surgery yesterday and all went well. The doctors expect him to make a full recovery. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

If only it were that simple. First, there are only two agencies with CON's for our area. Us and a small commercial outfit that is in deep financial trouble. Yes, we could call them, but there's no guarantee that they will even be available and if they are, that they will accept the run.
It's even worse to the north. Distance to an EVD hospital is greater, and they are backed up by the same commercial outfit that we are.
And even if BEMS granted some kind of waiver on the CON system for the EVD crisis, we still have limited options. If us little guys are dealing with a PUI or worse, we can be pretty sure that the larger squads and the commercials are dealing with even more. Their availability is doubtful at best. If they'd even accept the job would be even more doubtful.
There are other commercials in the region but they do not have CON's for our area. I suppose we could meet them at the border, but by then we've already contaminated the ambulance so we might as well go all the way.
In all fairness, all of us here need to be conscious of the great differences of these things around our state. What works well in the more populous areas won't fly in the rural and wilderness areas. What we do up here on a routine basis would be laughed at or scorned in other areas.