boca1day

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you are an exterior firefighter when you can still perform duties such as driving, organizing, setting up and supporting fireground equipment and operations but are not physically up to wearing SCBA, advancing an interior line or bailing out if need be, etc.
 
Or to put it another way, you can still help out and be of use even if you are older and maybe too out of shape to go inside to extinguish the fire.  That's not necessarily a knock, there are alot of functions to be performed at a fire and it takes a team effort.  Not every player can carry the ball. Somebody has to set up the play, hand off and block.
 
They didn't have the distinction between interior and exterior when I joined in the early 70's.  It came much later.

EMS 4 2014 Ford E 350 Bruan at the ER This afternoon  1 of2 Bruan's they run

Ardsley FD
Westchester County NY Battalion 14
New Engine 164
 
2015 Spartan Gladiator/Spartan ERV
1750GPM
750 Gallons
30 Class A Foam
15W Harrison PTO Generator
TNT Central Hydraulic System
Hurst Extrication Equipment and single core reels
Command Remote Control Light Tower
 
**NOT ALL EQUIPMENT IS ADDED OR MOUNTED YET**
 

 





























 





 

This has nothing to do with volunteer vs. career or anything other than someone being an ASS!!!

 
 
LA City FD covers about 4 million people over 471 square miles. They have a huge fleet including over 162 Engines, 42 trucks, 100 ambulances, and tons of support vehicles, including ARFF trucks and helicopters.  This truck (and it's spare)  responds to about 30-40 calls where the boom is placed into rescue service each year.  It's also on call to tow any disabled apparatus.  Additionally, it also provides support services, such as uprighting overturned vehicles and trucks or removing them from cliffs, etc. It's also a good tool for moving debris during large scale emergencies such as earthquakes and other USAR operations.

 
They kept saying one career firefighter on one fire engine shows up and they are correct. What they are not doing is finishing the rest of the story . When I got hired we had 16 strong career with 400 Volunteers with about 300 give or take and the rest [ 100 ]the older members . The Career staff runs Engine 58 and Engine 59 . When a call came in on the fire phone the firefighter at HQ answered the call and got the info . When it was determined whos call it was [ Eng58 lower Port Chester ] with most of the work or Eng 59 with more area but less work [ mostly bedroom  but some very large buildings [ General  foods 1900 by 500 ] and so on . If it was 58's call he would stop talking and the Sta. 4 firefighter [ Eng 59 ]would get the rest of the info with 58 hitting the road mostly in 60 or so sec. I pulled up to many working fires to find Volunteer firefighters either already standing there or in the building looking for people or the fire . Engine 58 & 59 have 800 gallon tanks and preconnect  lines more scotts to handle the guys already on location .the firefighters would take the lines in and starting to attack the fire . As a rule we did not hit hydrants but had the tools to do so . The next in engine would supply 58 or 59 .That is what was taken away from the dept . 

#RyeBrook Mayor Paul Rosenberg responds regarding elimination of paid #PortChester firefighters. 
"To my Rye Brook Friends and Neighbors:
I want to bring you up as to date with a very important issue which has arisen in in the past 24 hours.  A shared fire services contract with the Village of Port Chester requires them to staff the Rye Brook firehouse with one “career” firefighter from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM daily.  In the event of a fire, they would respond together with numerous Port Chester volunteer firefighters.  
Last evening, as part of its budget adoption, the Port Chester Board of Trustees voted to remove the “career” firefighters from their budget, moving to an all-volunteer fire department.  When that happened, Port Chester put all “career” firefighters on leave, including the firefighter who was staffing the Rye Brook firehouse.  At that point, we made the decision to staff the Rye Brook firehouse overnight with Rye Brook Fire Department personnel.  
Despite Port Chester’s breach of contract, the Village of Rye Brook will ensure that the Rye Brook firehouse will be staffed around the clock while we consider all of our legal options.  As in the past, the Port Chester volunteers will continue to respond.
Please be assured that the safety of our residents is of paramount concern to us, and we taking every step to protect your safety. 
I will continue to keep you informed as events warrant."

I wouldn't be calling PCFD ENG58 out over anything that is taken out of context on this site.  The guy devoted his whole life to the PCFD both with and without a paycheck.

Last wet down I went to in Larchmont was maybe in 1974 when they purchased their 75 ft. Mack  aerialscope. I got home three days later. I doubt political correctness will permit a repeat of that type party.

Yes, you read the title right. How do I not remember this episode?
 

Enclosing the cab would involve moving the turntable back about 3 feet which means re chassis-ing the rig.  It also means the rig wouldn't fit in the firehouse well enough to make the turns out of the bay. For our circumstances the refurb option was/is the best choice. This rig has plenty of life left in her, especially in our little corner of Stamford. Keeping her pretty much to her original design is actually a benefit here since she can go where no other new monster aerial can.

Here's a couple of pics of Westchester Airport firefighters doing some night training. The first is Airport 7 in a low attack setting, the second is a few of the firefighters doing some handline training (with a probie on the knob).  The photos were taken by duty supervisor Peter Garber.

Here's Cliffside Park's 2012 E340 Bruan Unit ID CPA1 One of 3 Braun's in thier fleet Cliffside Park EMS is staffed by full time EMT's they  sometimes run 2 crews to staff 2 buses  

Quint/midi was a shell game to cut firefighters 
 
standard engine and and ladder in a double company with 3ff/1of each =8
 
then quint with 5/1 and midi with 1/1
 
hey the quint is a ladder and it only needs 3/1.   Bang you now have 6

The new broom installed him in January 

First and foremost, the incident, and the outcome, sucks.  I do not believe anything anyone did or tried to do last night would have made a difference.
 
Going back a few years, maybe 2009-2010, a Response Plan was developed by the "Westchester Marine Emergency Response Association" along with Westchester County Department of Emergency Services.  That plan basically called for a three-tiered response to all Hudson River incidents, meaning the area of jurisdiction - as well as the next closest agency to the north and south - would be dispatched.
 
From a MOS standpoint with my FD, this is an "OK at best" approach.  During my time as Chief we modified this to include Rockland units, since many incidents happen to fall on or beyond that imaginary line that divides Westchester & Rockland.  At the time, according to this "plan" we attempted to utilize Marine 22 (I think) as a radio channel for all FD, PD, etc. vessels to communicate during river operations.  When we had a river incident that fell under our Command, we always tried to steer everyone on to this channel, since we should all have this capability.  I could be wrong but this sticks out in my memory, and it was designated to keep Marine 16 open for emergency traffic.
 
Last night's incident is just another reminder that when someone dials 911 from a cell phone, it's truly a crapshoot as to where they really are vs. where they think they are.  And this doesn't just apply to waterways - a lot of cellular 911 calls for land based incidents require some searching to find them.  Because of this, it highlights the benefit of starting out resources from different angles.
 
Since Rockland switched to their new radio system, communications on the river have suffered.  But there's no reason why the four counties (Westchester, Rockland, Putnam & Orange) can't develop a plan to always work off the VHF Marine radios.  Afterall, as boats, we should all have them and the signal is decent.  Command vehicles should also install this capability.
 
The frequency of incidents, and the complexity of them on the Hudson River is only going to increase the demand for our services.  There needs to be a standard of training for boat operators, crew members and people responding and playing command.  If EMS is getting on a boat, they need proper training too.  It's 2016 and the fact that the same stupid stuff continues to happen irritates me, because we should be well-trained, well-prepared and have pre-plans developed where we can all work together and provide a professional-level of service.  
 
The days of letting the first people to the dock get on the boat needs to end, and the Chiefs of all of these FDs with river response responsibilities need to work all of this out.
 
Additionally, I think it's time for the FDs that are going to be in the marine operations game to seriously look into grants to get the training we all need and the proper vessels to do what is needed.  We all can't stand around, holding our d**ks waiting on County PD or someone else to get there when someone's life is in the balance.
 
 
 

Here's Englewood's 2002 Mack MR Saulsbury  rescue with walk in box & features a light tower unit ID's Rescue 1 Unit is manned as needed by a driver & crew of 2 This is a well stocked unit that covers 3 highways as well Englewood 's a career dept

I do not know GFD's details, but your assumption of 24 on duty (based on 96 assigned to suppression) is not likely unless they are backfilling about 20% of the time with ot. This is needed to cover contractual time off (vacation, personal days, sick etc.) it often does not cover long term service connected injury or sick leave. If they are not covering it, that would leave them closer to 19 per shift or 4 staffed rigs plus command with an aide.
 
How many engines do you think they need?
 
Greenwich is 67 sq miles. If properly located an engine company (based on ISO & NFPA standards) can cover 1.5 road miles in any direction, that's approximately 5 square miles. When a station is located along a distric (or in this case a state line) the area for that company is cut in half. Even at the maximum road distance of 5 miles, that's about 15 square miles, but your rating will be very poor.
 
now add truck companies, a rescue and tankers.......
 

But it does not go out the window when you pull up and your told everyone's out.  Being told everyone is out does not mean a primary search is not needed and without more staff your options for an interior attack is delayed, allowing the fire to grow and making it more hazardous when the rest of the troops arrive 

Are you sure it's not the other way around.  Paid supplemented by volunteers?  Are those two paid firefighters in house waiting for volunteers that may or may not show up before they respond?  
 
I don't know enough about their SOP's but most paid departments supplemented by volunteers are expecting those volunteers to either pull shifts in station, respond to the scene or to the station to bring additional apparatus to supplement the first out apparatus manned by the paid personnel.
 
My earlier post was essentially to say if Greenwich can't or won't afford to put three firefighters on an apparatus, who can?

I hope people show up in support of retaining the money for the staffing.  Even with volunteers supplementing personnel, I remember from the papers Greenwich was  very busy, and had an arson problem on top of it for the past two years.  Need the trained personnel 24/7 available, hate to see them undermanned and over worked. 
 
 
 
Removed a "very"

You got to remember that the County Police have many different functions. Not every guy assigned to the Marine Unit is strictly on the Marine Unit. He might be out patrolling the Hutch or out in Cortlandt Manor. Yes, with all the equipment and funding they get you wonder what their actual capabilities are. But, they are out there doing what they can at this time. Nothing wrong with that at all. Also, there is nothing wrong with contacting another agency that has specific units doing this 24/7. The NYPD SCUBA, Harbor, and Aviation Units are doing these tasks around the clock, whether it be in training or on actual calls. They also have the equipment available to them that some agencies don't. Guys assigned to those units are specifically assigned. So, it's not like they are pulling a guy out of the 44 or from Midtown South to come get on a boat or chopper. Not to mention, it builds many different connections for different municipalities, and when you're in need, it really makes the difference having those connections. And like Morningjoe mentioned, the only really capable unit that I know of that can perform these tasks in the County effectively is Yorktown Heights FD Water Rescue Unit. They were out there that morning capable of getting guys in the water and doing a side sonar scan.  And honestly, nothing wrong at all with a volunteer agency taking that initiative to be a great unit like that. I give them a lot of credit for what they got going on up there. But, you also got to remember the basics and what is behind all of this. You need commercial divers and salvage teams to get that tug out. That's not a task that a law enforcement or fire-rescue agency would conduct. Also, the initial minutes were crucial and the Tarrytown Fire Department did a great job getting out there as fast as they did and performing at the level that they did. Technology aside, it goes back to training and having the equipment available to enact a rescue effort, and those things were present that day by the first responding agencies.  

The first step is admitting one has a problem, and since agencies can't or won't do that even after the 3rd or 4th tone out.
 
the leadership in most agencies do not want change! 

5/15/85 Mt Vernon Snorkel 1 at 4th Alarm on 4th Ave & 2nd St and Millwood Squrt in 1996 White Plains parade.

Snorkels:
 
Bedford Hills
Mt. Vernon
Scarsdale
Verplank