boca1day

All of the 18 Fire Companies with the current manning are necessary for fire and emergency protection, regardless of the existence of a First Responder Program. There is no certainly as far as I can tell that "several" companies would be eliminated if the First Responder Program were eliminated. In my educated opinion YFD manning levels are not excessive in relation to similar sized Northeast Departments.
It should be noted that many who post on here, including occasionally YFD members, engage in speculation and do not necessarily have an adequate understanding of the "big picture".
I would like to emphasize that in this post as well as in any post I make on EMTBravo, or elsewhere, I am expressing myself as a private citizen, in a non-official capacity. The content of my posts is not being disclosed in my official capacity and such content represents solely my opinions and does not necessarily represent the official position of the city of Yonkers or the Yonkers Fire Department.
And yes, I realize it would be safer to express myself anonymously, but that is not my style and never will be.

Well, luckily we have some pretty knowledgable fire folks on this forum who have a lot of insight, and I hope they don't feel dissuaded from joining the conversation solely because they might not live there. I for one, encourage their contributions (past and future) and hope they continue!

My take on the wording of the comments made by the YFD website regarding Empress is they are taking a public jab at Empress and their response time, for whatever their reason.
Unnecessary and unprofessional, in my humble opinion.

Those silver, metal things are ladders....

Couldn't have said it any better Chief.

Could not agree with this statement more. In our town, a spare pumper truck is used for Santa Claus to ride on top of the hose bed on. There are a least 5 people riding along side Santa (with the driver and captain riding up front). In addition, there is a Chief Car riding ahead of the truck and an Assistant Chief's car riding behind. Add to that all 3 vehicles have their sirens blasting as they ride thru neighborhoods, with "Santa's Helpers" throwing out candy to the kids who waiting along side the curbs. Is it 100% safe? No, but according to local officials, for the past 80 years that they have been doing this in our town, there hasn't been a single incident. And yes, the kids love it, year after year.
Taking the proper precautions to make sure that safety is looked at, first and foremost, makes this aged old tradition wonderful.
Letting Politics impact this, will be just like cities, towns and villages now have with people preventing their communities from putting up Religious Symbols, such as Christmas Trees and Menorahs, are just wrong.
Just my 2 cents

This is not a issue in most cases, but as usual one bad apple could spoil the bunch. I think that in the case Santa riding on the fire truck is not the same as why the policies are in effect, they are there to warn against riding these outside positions while doing higher speeds to calls. Which one might ask, why we make a policy to prevent accidents with people riding outside positions instead of teaching how to drive safely instead.
The case with the Santa who almost had his taken off, they was stupidity on the part of the rider not watching or his spotter watching his travel path.
Leave this issue along, it is nothing to do with violations of fire department policies on riding to calls on the outside of the apparatus.

We are drifting off topic somewhat but using this tragedy as an excuse and in attempt to ban LEGAL gun sales is the wrong approach to ending gun violence, and is is a joke. Plus Feiner is a consummate news-hound virtuoso. If there is any way at all for him to get his name in the paper, he will find it.
As far as cancelling the show or banning future shows, that's the County's business, they own the place.
Needless to say, the bulk of show attendees are all law-abiding citizens, they undergo background and license checks before being allowed to purchase certain LEGAL firearms.
Don't like gun shows? Then don't go to one.

One of the very first things OoO posted is this:

And.... We did!
As easy as it is to bash an agency or one of it's members let's not forget
that (errors/mistakes/incidents) also happen in Westchester County.
I can name a few over the years BUT I WON'T.
Let's be EMS Professionals!
Hatzolah EMS does have ALS and BLS units.

The current municipal economics in NYS is no longer sustainable, so It does not matter if they need the personnel or not they can no longer afford it.
I have been writting that this was coming for the last 5 years and almost no one wanted to make any changes to prevent it from happening.
I feel very sorry for the employees, thier families, the coworkers who are left holding the bag and the commuity, but this is going to continue every year in more and more communities until we rework the entire way government is structured and funded in NYS.
Its going to be a long and painful slide.

I found the following on the DOJ's website.....
Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs) are organizations whose members use their motorcycle clubs as conduits for criminal enterprises. OMGs are highly structured criminal organizations whose members engage in criminal activities such as violent crime, weapons trafficking, and drug trafficking. There are more than 300 active OMGs within the United States, ranging in size from single chapters with five or six members to hundreds of chapters with thousands of members worldwide. The Hells Angels, Mongols, Bandidos, Outlaws, and Sons of Silence pose a serious national domestic threat and conduct the majority of criminal activity linked to OMGs, especially activity relating to drug-trafficking and, more specifically, to cross-border drug smuggling. Because of their transnational scope, these OMGs are able to coordinate drug smuggling operations in partnership with major international drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs).
Just because you may know some of them and they are "charitable" doesn't mean they aren't part of a criminal organization. When you see a gang poster in a precinct, the hells angels are listed right along side the bloods and the crips, they are all gang members there is no difference.

There is nothing " UHOH" about this. These 2 cops ran after and confronted a murderer who was armed with a .45 caliber canon and had already displayed his complete disregard for human life. The video clearly shows that he pulled out on them first and they reacted in a split second in accordance with their training and they effectively neutralized the threat.
The fact that they did this during rush hour in mid town manhattan and nobody else was killed is a miracle but the bottom line is that THEY HAD NO OTHER CHOICE. Thankfully all of the innocent bystanders that were hit by rounds (3) and the others who were hit by debris from the rounds (6) will be OK and will fully recover. Undoubtedly they will all sue and the city will settle with them but as for the " Heat" on these cops.. I don't think you will see it that bad due to the fact that these 2 cops are heroes.
If they didn't take this guy out as quickly as they did, who knows what else he would have done.

Amen Brother...........and to those who have never worn a badge and gun, please refrain from the second guessing of these 2 brave men.
And yes, I have worn the badge and gun!

now lets see whos the first person to say that its not needed and a waste of money... im sure there'll be somebody
Hope it serves them well yet another nice rig in UC.

This was sent to us by our brothers out west. Real class acts!

To all those reading this thread, the banter has been going on since 2002 when a parade invitation was lost in the mail.
Mill Plain started last and it has become a highlight of Mill Plain and Brewster to see what will happen. When you look at the relationship between the two it started in 1945 when Mill Plain was born, some 85 years after Brewster was started.
A brotherhood was formed that still remains today. Eight years ago Mill Plain and Miry Brook started coverinng for Brewster and Mahopac Falls so that they and their families could enjoy themselves at the convention in Lake George and the interaction between them is amazing. We have become one department spanning two states enjoying each other stories and families. Also the residents of Southeast and visitors applaud like crazy when they come through.
This is written by the past chief of Mill Plain who helped start it and who is now a captain and vice president of Brewster. As for mill plain and all the rest when stuff happens they are top notch organizations and i am proud to have been a member of three out of four of them so heres to brewsterfalls ,mill plain and miry brook, some of us salute you

Totally agree. A very nice departure from the norm, there should always be room for a little levity whether you are in on the joke or not.

Sonny, you really need to lighten up! This wasn't an annual inspection or an emergency response. It was a parade and they were having fun, as they should. I thought it was funny and I knew none of the back story or the relationship between Mill Plains and Brewster (thanks FitzJr for sharing).
I think the "skit" as fitz described it is a pleasant distraction from the line of trucks and the rigid formations of uniforms. So people may not have known the inner workings of the relationship between the departments but they had to laugh at the folly and the departure from the norm.
Personally, I'm glad someone was having fun! "LIKE" to the boys (and girls) from Mill Plains.

Mill Plain and Brewster have a great relationship. For many years Mill Plain has been last in the parade and always come up with some kind of skit. They are a class outfit and no disrespect should be given for a bunch of guys having fum with tier neighbors.
Sorry, fun with thier neighbors

Why does it matter aside from maybe helping figure out what is wrong with the patient? Forget about how its just wrong to treat someone differently based upon a medical condition, what if they don't know they're carrying some disease. Everyone gets treated the same unless I suspect an infection requiring droplet precautions.
Moderator note: This was the very last post made by Lenny, before he left us for keeps. RIP.

Hi guys,
I've had a rough couple of months.
I became critically ill in June while on a trip to Chicago, and was hospitalized in ICU intubated for several days.
A few days after I got home to Texas, same thing happened, I had a procedure to corrrect the problem, but while I was intubated I aspirated vomit somehome and came up with severe double pneumonia. Physically, I can only use the computer for a limited amount of time right now, and am still extremly weak but am getting better by the day.
While I was in the hospital, I had no access to my phone or computer. I lost my job because I wasn't elegible for FMLA yet and I ran out of time that I could use, so I'm on a very tight budget. I can reapply for my job, but read on to find out why I won't.
My PayPal account that I use to pay for this site was hacked, and I was cleaned out of all the funds for this site. Although PayPal will be reimbursing me, it will be several weeks. I'm on a limited budget right now, and bills for the website are due soon and I can't bill, sell, or design any ads right now to raise money, nor will I be soliciting donations.
Earlier this week, my luck started to turn around the best it can at this point. A very awesome longtime friend and great person helped me out, big time. I am thankful for him and his bosses because his actions and concern gave me great motivation to keep going and renewed my passion. For right now, all I'm going to be saying is that I'm moving back to NY in the next week.............................I think I'll be much happier back there, especially because I miss all my friends from NY and working there. I LOVE Austin and Texas and will miss it (I've lived here for 4+ years already), and have been succesful and had awesome experience with the agencies I worked for , but at this point I need to start taking care of myself. After I was no longer healthy enough to be a career firefighter anymore, my heart was broken and I really wasn't the same-it destroyed me, but I've finally had closure on that and want to have the old pre-2007 Seth back.
There is MUCH more to this story, but please don't speculate.
I also apologize for not getting back to all those who hae been calling and emailing, it just gets a little overwhelming right now as I recover.
I have over 1,500 emails personally from friends, collegues, and EMTBravo members and related to me since May 26th, and eventually I will get to them all.
I traded in my car and sold off a lot of my things and bought a small 2005 Ford F-350 Super Duty/Winnebago Aspect 23' RV with only 7,000 miles on it. It's got all the comforts of home, and is cheaper and easier for me to live, especially since I will still have the home in Texas.
Does anyone know of RV Parks in the NY/CT area that are affordable and have electric and water hookups?
I was hoping I could park it at an FD or EMS, and in exchange join that agency and they would technically have a driver in house. I am stilll a certified Firefighter and Paramedic, and am capable of driving, operating, and maintaining any type of emergency vehicle. I can drive ambulances, midmount and rearmount aerials and tower ladders, engines (I am certified in pumping and water supply), rescue trucks, tankers, brush trucks, etc. If someone knows of an agency that could work something out with me, I would greatly appreaciate it. Email me at seth@emtbravo.com if you know of anything, even if short term.
I hopefully will have a job lined up, but I am looking for a second job, if anyone knows anything that's open and pays decent. It doesn't have to be emergency services. Email me at seth@emtbravo.com .
I wish I never gave up some of my Westchester jobs I had, I always thought the grass was greener and kept moving up jobs, but I look back now and had it great right where I started.
Thanks guys for your concern, and whatever help you can offer me. I hope that some of you guys can come up and hang out with me when I get back.
There is more to what I am going through, but please don't speculate or comment on that.

PLease Dont Feed the Troll

Yes, the truth. As we know, it's all black and white. No shades of gray. You should take the advice of the revered efdcapt115. Stop while your ahead, or in your case, not that far behind. Unless you have more "proof" to offer?
I, for the life of me, after reading all of your posts, cannot possibly fathom why you have so much trouble finding a position in this field. Just completely flabbergasted here.

To quote the artilce from lohud:
"The new budget proposal also restores $560,000 to the Yonkers Public Library, allowing it to stay open Saturdays and evenings.
Erich Schoen, president of the Friends of the Yonkers Public Library, called the restoration “good news” today but said the city will likely have to issue bonds to purchase new books that the library sorely needs.
“We applaud the mayor and the council for putting money back in,” Schoen said. “In this economy, people need the latest library services.”
In my opinion I would much rather have seen more money go to "public Safety" then making sure the public Library can be open on saturday's.
will the yonkers public Library come to your house when there is an emergency?
The last time I steped foot in a library was in college over 10 years ago.
chris