Disaster_Guy

I am wondering why none of you have started to talk about this here? Have you not seen it yet?
https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/ebola/docs/commissioner_order.pdf
It contains the actual order from DOH plus specifics required of hospitals, ems responders, and ambulance services. If you have not read it yet, I urge you to download the entire pdf and read it in its entirety. IMHO, this is going to have a major impact on every ems responder, but in particular the volunteer services may be even harder hit than others. I suspect many volunteers are going to be unwilling to comply with the initial and the ongoing requirements. This may to even more true of those volunteers who are not at least CFR's or EMT's.
Most material referenced in the order can be found on this page:
https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/ebola/#ems_providers

It is very dangerous to use a "standard" vac truck to rescue a trapped worker.
When we use Con Ed's trucks we have extension tubing (which also gets the vehicles noise, weight and vibration away from the trench) but of great importance it has a safety break. Without one you should never be in the trench with one...very dangerous to the victim and rescuers..
In the Rye incident, we used both Rye's and ConEd's. Rye's was on scene well ahead of all mutual aid. Was way to close to the trench and luckily it did not cause the trench to collapse.
Also Con Ed sends at least 2 trucks, because once filled its out of service till it can be dumped and depending on location this may take some time. By using the extensions the truck can be released easily to go dump. Rye's truck was pinned in, so if it needed to dump it would not be able to.

Is Yonkers using that Excursion as their M.S.U. on a permanent basis as opposed to their ALF air cascade unit, or is it just temporary?

To clarify. The County did not refuse to dispatch the METU. I requested it and was advised through the proper dispatch procedure that the vehicle was not yet placed in service and that it was not available. This is no different than any other fire apparatus or ambulance. The County did coordinate the dispatch of two Bee Line buses in its place. Many of you need to climb out of your glass house and visit the real world. Stop posting and spreading rumors before knowing the facts.

Seems to be a lot of unanswered questions...isn't there a published protocol on the use of this unit available to Incident Commanders? Does WCDES publish protocols for these special units?
Also, I found an article from LoHud.com:
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/2014/04/25/tax-dollars-work-g-medevac-bus/8146841/

A bigger question is why are 150 children being transported to a hospital for no medical reason?
I spoke with one of the ER directors this evening and he said they did not treat 1 of these children because none had been exposed to anything. But he did say that the care for actual patients in the ER was significantly delayed because resources had to be diverted.
Some one referred to the bus as a MERV, it is not, unlike the Yonkers unit the Westchester unit has not equipment, it along with the other counties did not set these busses up for MCI's. They were set up like giant ambulet to move stretcher and wheelchair persons.

What??????

Caught this at the ARFF Facility at Albany International Airport(ALB). Belongs to the 109th Airlift Wing based out of Stratton ANGB in Schenectady, NY. Also caught there another day is their Fire Chief's car.

Some photos from a Barricaded Suspect/Hostage Situation that happened Monday night in Waterford, NY just North of Albany. SORT was activated for this call. Suspect was held up for 6 hours and eventually surrendered at 2am the following morning. The situation started with the suspect brandishing a gun in front of the local police causing one officer to break his arm in trying to find cover.

If rifles weren't included in this program, would they still be complaining?

Don't forget, Michael Frey was executed by a man with a rifle and the responding cops had nothing heavier than handguns to deal with it until Yonkers and NYC showed up.

And that was right next door to Tuckahoe in Eastchester.

As a 30+ year EMT/28+ medic and 4+ CPRP medic, I just can't imagine waking up and seeing a call that I did getting a 13 post thread. You give it your best. You make critical decisions in the span of seconds, decisions based on presentation, training and experience. If it works, you feel great for little while. If it doesn't, you feel like s*** for a long while. We all know that when we show up. I wasn't anywhere near this call, but I sure do feel bad if the person who was is watching it get dissected here.
That said, the Bird thread is valid.

When they were 1st available to us out of Westchester they got overused.
What finally mad everyone think about its use was an extended extrication we had on a local road (car wrapped around a telephone pole). The closest landing zone was 1/2 mile away. 2 patients both critical. 1 ambulance was sent to LZ, got the crew an transported to the scene. Other went to the scene. The more critical patient was removed and transported to the copter. 10 minutes later the 2nd was extricated and was transported by ground to Westchester Medical Center. The medevac crew had advised that the 2nd patient should go by ground.
The 2nd patient was in the treatment room at WMC before the 1st patient, because the flight crew was "stabilizing the patient for flight" for close to 30 minutes.
We stopped using them after that,

I live in the southern Adirondacks. The nearest Level 1 Trauma Center is Albany Med which is about an hour and 15 minutes from my home. From the far north end of our ambulance district, it's another 20 minutes at least; and even more if it's up one of the back country roads and into the woods. So we use the birds a lot, and have many saves because of the time saved over ground transport.
I used to live in Ontario County and worked full time as a Dispatcher II for Rochester-Monroe County 911. Inside Monroe County, we rarely used the helicopters. Primary reason was short ground time and choice of two trauma centers, even from the edges of the county. The only exceptions were MVA's with long extrication times and other rare situations with long time frames prior to getting the patient into the ambulance. Ontario County on the other hand used the birds a lot. Mercy Flight Central is based in north central Ontario County and has very short response times to anywhere in that county so they are a very valuable resource.
It's all about the time. In the situation that prompted this thread, I tend to agree with the original question of why call the bird with a 21 minute ground time. But not being on the team that treated the patient, it's not fair to judge either.
I would offer that if you can have the bird on the scene when the patient is packaged and ready for transport, there can be benefits, even with relatively short flight times, over ground transport. If there is any appreciable wait for the bird when the patient is ready to go, the value drops off rapidly. But it's the more distant situations that really prove the value of air transport.
Side comment here... Living and working in the Rochester area was good when it came to burn patients. Strong Memorial is one of the best burn centers in the US and being close meant that we got our burn patients there fast and had lots of good outcomes. Up here, the nearest burn centers, I believe, are Westchester or Syracuse. Both are several hours by ground from here at a minimum. Couple that with the fact that helos don't fly under certain weather conditions, and it you have a very scary situation for EMS dealing with burns.

Yes but do they have the trained personnel available to operate all of that equipment that was purchased with our grant (read tax) money?
If it sits there with no one to operate it, its useless
If it responds, but with only a small % of the personnel needed to perform the mission, its useless
and if it responds to incidents without being called, and ignores policies, procedures and ICS in general, because "nobody can stop us", its more than useless it is a danger to themselves, other responders and the community.

Specials have evolved into the rangers- uniform change and lack of firearm. I believe they used to carry until about 7 years ago when they were taken away after an incident. I dont think adding more police officers will matter as we see police officers were attacked by these perps in both incidents as well.

Peekskill Bicyclist Struck 8-22-14 13:40
Hudson Ave. @ South St
Peekskill VAC 75-B-1, 35-M-1, 35-M-2, Peekskill FD Rescue 134 and 2344, Peekskill PD
Lifestar 1 declined response due to weather
All photos by me.

they need more trucks?

Other then some I-95 traffic... today is a perfect day to go.
Thank you! I only saw 1 ambulance, 1 Medic Flycar and Playland EMTs. But according to others, there were 2 ambulances there. They staged at the enterence until the scene was deemed safe. I do not know if anyone was transported.

OK, so this may be old news to some of you, but it's newer news to me since nobody else has bothered to share this here lol. Greenburgh PD has gone to black and white and I wanted to share some photos:
OLD scheme:

NEW scheme:

News 12 this afternoon and again this evening with three different reporters reported that Rye boarders New Rochelle. Since both are city's one can only assume that Harrison, Mamaroneck village & Town and Larchmont have been eliminated.
Its a good thing that news 12 is as local as local news gets.
http://westchester.news12.com/news/i-95-ramp-to-i-287-reopened-after-fatal-crash-in-rye-1.8989131

Meriden, CT just fired one of their Officers after several videos surfaced of him beating handcuffed, minority suspects on multiple occasions. IAD tried investigating him, but being the Chief's son, it took a federal civil rights charge to finally get him gone.
Is it annoying when people video the police? Absolutely. Does it get edited by those with an agenda? Sure does. Does it sometimes catch a good cop on a bad day? Without a doubt. Do we live in America, where people have a right to videotape in public? You're goddamned right we do.

I stare at your initial post and I wonder.... 'Is this Vladamir Putin typing this post?'.. I am seriously heated about this. Arrest people for recording the actions of the State... Hmmm what's next? Not allow people who disagree with the State to testify at trials? Maybe restrict peaceful protests? Maybe re-education camps so no one disagrees with the actions of the police?
All kidding aside, (and I wasn't kidding)... The people, the citizens, have a responsibility to make sure the officers of the State act accordingly to the rule of law and that they are not above the law... All too often we assume the police are always or almost always right. And now you want to remove a new tool in the fight against abuse of power, a tool against the ever teetering balance of security and liberty, a tool against bad officers of the State... But your choice would be to make it illegal to record the police? Well hell why don't you just drive down to D.C., enter the National Archives and rip up the Bill of Rghts?! This may be the most uneducated post I have ever seen. Am I being a bit harsh? Maybe. But I like my rights as an American. And I appreciate my duties as a citizen. And one of my duties is to make sure the police don't violate my fellow citizens rights.
Finally, the only officers who need to worry about being recorded are 'dirty' officers. If you do your job right, then don't worry about being on video. Actually embrace it. And if the police are going to place video cameras every where to see me and watch my actions , then fair is fair, I'll pull out my camera and make sure the State is following the rule of law when it makes arrests.
I'm sure there will be some, if not many, who disagree with me, especially in the law enforcement field. I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend your right to say it.
Rant over and I'll try to avoid this post

Disagree. Civilian shot video of arrests can give clear evidence that proper procedures are being followed should claims of police brutality be made. On the flip side those same videos can give clear evidence that brutality has occurred if in fact it has. Those who perform their duty in accordance with the law, their department's procedures and a suspected perpetrator's constitutional rights have nothing to fear from being filmed. Now if the person or persons filming should interfere with the police doing their job or in some other way create a problem they should get whatever they have coming to them under the law.
Censorship in any form is a very dangerous road to travel once embarked upon especially when it concerns the actions of government or municipal agencies. To protect our rights every effort should be made to maintain transparency and allow scrutiny of these agencies, up to and including the public filming of arrests.

New Rochelle & White Plains are part of the Westchester Special Operations Task Force (WSOTF) and both regularly train together along with Eastchester, Fairview, Greenville, Hartsdale, Scarsdale, Mt Vernon, Yonkers and recently Pelham Manor and Larchmont have been added. Our plan is to always send a minimum of 2 squads giving us at least 10ffs/2off.
At todays Incident NR, WP & WCTRT were all dispatched at approximately the same time. NRFD command officers arrived seconds ahead of WPFD R-88. Afew minutes later NRFD R4 & R54 (collapse Unit) arrived another approx. 7 minutes WPFD Collapse unit arrived.
White Plains & NRFD personnel worked as a team using NRFD & WPFD equipment. Their struts from R-88 were staged 1st and used while our trench panels arrived and were in the ground before theirs arrived.
The local IC decides, based on input from the teams.
WCTRT arrived at some point after that (a few of their members were on-scene earlier, but without equipment). They were staged as a back-up and also assisted ConEd in setting up the 2nd VAC truck..

I guess I'm not sure why you're getting upset over the fact that this is an all female volunteer corps. This is a culture that places much more importance on modesty and separation of male and female than most cultures in the U.S.. Now yes, every EMT, male or female, gets all the same training to handle any emergency we come across, and we all conduct our selves in a professional manner. However, some times people are just comfortable with care providers of the same sex. Think about it this way, your a middle age man, you walk into the urologist's office cause you're experiencing erectile dysfunction, you walk into the exam room, and the doctor's a 29 year old woman. Are you really gonna tell me that you'd feel just as comfortable talking about your ED to a young woman as you would a man? Also, anyone one who is going to call this corps is most likely also going to be calling Hatzalah, who are the same culture, and are going to understand. Plus, isn't making the patient comfortable part of any EMS job? Finally, I don't think they're trying to question anyone's moral, rather they are just looking for someone who understands and follows their wishes based on their religion and culture.