boca1day

Here's Edgewater NJ EWA1 's Ford E350 PL Custom This unit served with Leonia NJ VAC Before they were disbanded & unit was sold to Edgewater  Unsure of the year of this rig  Leonia  had a newer PL Custom rig  (2002?) that was turned over to the fire department & converted into a field comm unit

As far as I know the area VAC's welcome it  They use direct billing here Englewood hospital provides full time EMS to  Palisades Park Leonia & Englewood Cliffs We took over their areas when these squads disbanded  We cover City of Englwood VAC 6 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday We also back up squads needing extra BLS units @ scenes  All dispatching handled by MICOM Double Medics on both units working Our unit #. 's are ALS 211 & 213 Tour chief 's are 294 /298 BLS are # 231/236

     No one should be out of a job. Simple math is that the number of calls has not gone down, just the number of companies  answering those calls has gone down; by ONE.
     The staff will  need to shift to other providers that are expanding into the Transcare void. Sadly though, many will lose  vacation pay, salary, seniority, schedule and partners. ALL of which is very sad. A forced job change is always traumatic.
    Company names no longer in the picture:
Abbey-Richmond, A1, AA, Approved, Ambassador, Empire, Care 1, Park, Admiral, Metropolitan, Metro-North. Hudson Valley, Transcare, National... any others? Still lots of open jobs and hiring despite all those companies going away.
 

Ummm.  Hmmmm.

At the Old Station 8 (Carriage House) that was located just north of their current quarters, along Warburton Avenue (This building was torn down about 2 years ago or so).

1968 photo of YFD's Engine 8. 1961 Ward LaFrance before the wooden riot shield was installed. Photo by Ron Frehm

That was Ladder 39 a 1947 American LaFrance Its stick was 65ft. originally it was an open cab. If memory serves me correctly the cab was added in the late 80's and the beacon light also, to meet the standard of a warning light visible 360 degrees. the siren light used to be mounted up top in the center. The tower ladder was a 1973 - 74 (not sure, Greenville also had one), which was purchased to replace L-39 but when it arrived or while being built it wouldn't fit in the firehouse, so the tower bay was added and then it was decided to keep L-39. the tower in fact responded out of Pocantico Hills firehouse till the addition was done. I remember the old mutual aid run card at County Control having a note to specify aerial or tower ladder when Pleasantville was requested. If you pass Fire Headquarters on Washington Ave. there is a corner stone on the tower bay that will tell you the year.
L-39 was retired in the early 90's.
Don't hold me to all these facts but I'm pretty sure I got it straight Its been a long time

Pleasantville's Daniel P Hays Engine followed by Pioneer Hook and Ladder during the Mamaroneck fire parade in 1988. Photo by Ron Frehm

Pleasantville's Pioneer Hook and Ladder in Mamaroneck's annual fire parade in 1988.

Information from the https://www.facebook.com/MTVFC1/ Milford Township FD Facebook Page:



Stay tuned to http://www.EMTBravo.com for further information

Kudos to the DPW workers who likely stopped this fire from becoming a further tragedy.
As a DPW worker myself, I can say that we are all too often the eyes and ears of the communities in which we work. I have personally observed incidents that required fire, police or medical attention. My fellow workers and I have helped on countless occasions during residents times of need.
It is quite common (in my experience) that DPW employees happen to be volunteer firefighters, EMTs or both. That being said, we are on many occasions, the true first responders. Even my fellow workers who have no emergency services backgrounds have been there to lend a helping hand to a person in need. I believe most DPW workers have a strong sense of community pride and it shows.
Again, hats off to the Mount Kisco DPW crew who happened upon this fire and put their lives on the line for the Village!

Batt1-4 is One of the Deputy Chiefs. Car2 is the car the DC utilizes and also the radio designation of the DC's Aid. Sometimes they shorten Battalion blank to Battalion because usually there is only one working at a time.
Signal 211 is the National Standard Signal and is used to signify Flag Raising and Lowering (more or less)
Signal 2-2-2 is the pay signal and is not used anymore.
Signals 123 and 124 are snow chains on and off respectively.

Awesome info. So statistically speaking chances aren't looking terrible. I'll keep my eyes peeled, fingers crossed, and just keep training as if my CPAT was next week. Thank you gentleman.

I never said that departments like the ones in Fla., MD.,Va., etc are failures. Departments like those were establish due to a lack of any fire protection or not enough due to a growing community. Most were due to post WWII development, not to consolidate existing departments. They were able to plan and construct fire stations in ideal locations for timely responses to the entire area. These were areas that had little or no community services to start with so the counties were providing most of these services so the tax rates were equal across the board. In Westchester there are communities that have been around (providing services) for over 100 years. It would be easy to do what those other counties are doing if Westchester was a new developing county. Palm Beach County F.D. (Fla) was organized in the mid 1980's due to massive development in Palm Beach County west of I-95 where there was little or no fire protection. Fairfax County F.D. (Va) was organized in 1949 to assist the existing vol. depts. and didn't really grow until the post WWII development exploded in the late 1950's and it wasn't until the 1970's that they built new stations to handle the growth of the county.
The Pace study on consolidation talks about how to consolidate and how many personal are needed, but they have not done a comprehensive financial study to see who pays what. That question has been asked on these forums many times without any answers.
My point to my previous post was asking 61MACKBR1 why he is so worried about what is going on in Westchester. He seems to have a dog in this fight. And I say the same to you from Derry, N.H., It seems more out of county people on here have a strong opinions how Westchester should be run. When you can tell me that you were part of a new county consolidation program in YOUR state, and it worked, then please jump in and gives us some insight as to how we can make it work. Not just jump on these forums and say CONSOLIDATE IS THE BEST.

I know they aren't that new anymore, but I forgot to post them when they were. These are the new FDNY Haz Mat Tech units second pieces, produced by Ferrara on 2015 Ultra chassis. They are all paired with Squad or Engine companies, and for the most part, replace Step Vans. The one picture is going to Engine 165 on Staten Island, which has a Squad pumper....but isn't a Squad Company....yet.
Hazardous Material Technician Unit 165
2015 Ferrara Ultra

The paid departments in Westchester have had companies disbanded over the years.
Yonkers:
Engine 1 - 5-7 New School St. - Disbanded January 1, 1976
Engine 302 - 53 Shonnard Pl. - Disbanded July, 1983
Engine 305 - 5-7 New School St. - Disbanded 1982
Engine 311 - 433 Bronxville Rd. - Disbanded 2004 (Became Squad 11)
Ladder 76 - 433 Bronxville Rd. - Disbanded 1982
Squad 1 - 5-7 New School St. - Disbanded March 6, 2000 (To reorganize Rescue 1)
New Rochelle:
Engine 20 - 496 Stratton Rd.
Engine 26 - 60 Harrison St. (Originally quartered at 1530 North Ave.)
In New Rochelle up until the 1970s, Engine 21/Ladder 11 were quartered on Huguenot St., Engine 22 and the Battalion Chief were at HQ at 14 Church St., Engine 23/Ladder 13 were at 756 North Ave., Engine 24 was at 155 Drake Ave., Engine 25/Ladder 12 were at 170 Webster Ave., Engine 26 was at 1530 North Ave. Engine 20 was at the new Station 7 at 496 Stratton Rd. Engine 20 was disbanded when Engine 25 moved to Stratton Rd. during the 1970s. Engine 26 moved from North Ave. to the quarters of Engine 21/Ladder 11 on Harrison St. until it was disbanded. Engine 22 moved from Church St. to 170 Webster. and the Battalion moved from Church to Harrison St. There was also a Lighting Unit quartered on Harrison St. at the time.
Mount Vernon:
Engine 1 - 9-11 Oak St.
Engine 2 - 9-11 Oak St.
Squad 1 - 9-11 Oak St.
Chemical 1 - 23 S. 6th Ave.
Chemical 2 - 151 S. Fulton Ave.
Chemical 3 - 446 S. 5th Ave.
Chemical 4 - ?
In Mount Vernon during the 1970s, Engine 1/Engine 2 were at 9-11 Oak St., Engine 3/Engine 4 were at 211 S. 4th Ave. (HQ), Engine 5/Truck 3 were at 435 S. Fulton Ave., Engine 6/Truck 2 were at 470 E. Lincoln Ave., Truck 1 was at 23 S. 6th Ave. (formerly Chemical 1), and Rescue 1 was at 151 S. Fulton Ave. (Formerly Chemical 2).
Engine 2 used to be on E. Sidney Ave. before they moved to Oak St. Engine 6 had formerly been on S. 3rd Ave. between 1st and 2nd St.'s s before they moved to E. Lincoln Ave. Truck 1 had formerly been at 211 S. 4th before they moved to S. 6th Ave. Truck 2 had been at 9-11 Oak St. before they moved to E. Lincoln. Also, Chemical 4 became Engine 6.
Mount Vernon recently went from 5 engines down to 4, losing Engine 2.
White Plains:
Engine 4 - 232 S. Lexington Ave.
Engine 5 (aka 69) - Robertson Ave. & Harding Ave. - Early 1970s
Eastchester:
Engine 28 - 25 Underhill St.
Rescue 5 - 2 Poplar St.
Not sure of the dates when the Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, or Eastchester companies were disbanded. I'm sure I'm missing a few, including the volunteer companies. Feel free to correct or add to this list.

Unfortunatly, this issue is not confined to "rural" NY. Declining volunteerism is an issue from the city line, north. That said, there are a lot of dedicated volunteers who could (and would like) to do more. The current system is truely a hindrance and a serious overhaul is needed. Smaller town and village fire departments shouuld be combined into larger area districts. The pool of active volunteers would better service a larger area and more call volume. In areas where necessary, by population and call volume, could be supplemented by a career staff.
Towns and villages really need to give up a little control and allow for a vastly superior, efficient reorganization. Emergency services can operate more effectivly on economies of scale, to some degree.
I live in Westchester, in a high-tax community. I work in the poorest congressional district in the United States. The residents of said congressional district recieve vastly superior Fire and EMS service. Why does anyone think this is acceptatble? Everyone, regardless of municipality should demand equal emergency service protections.
This is not a volunteer/career issue. This is not one municipality vs. another....this is a life safety issue for citizens and responders. We can better utilize our emergency personel, improve and better utilize volunteer service and compliment with career firemen when needed.
Lets smarten up.

Med flight is called based on weather, timing and obviously at the ER MD's descretion. We only have ferries running from 6am-945pm but we rarely will go off island after 8pm so we don't get stuck off island until the next morning in "America" as we call it....
Based on how serious the pt is we will do the Med Flight run but we are all Critial CareParamedics and can take vented puts, drips, etc...
On average I can say we go off 2-3 times a day during our peak season (April-October) and once a day off season.
It's definitely different being a municipal service doing long CCTx and being with a patient for that length of time but also it s cool as we can be a paramedic vs. doing renal roundup or having 10 min tx and moving on to the next call.
It can be challenging tho as during peak season we regularly get called in early and get out late for off islands holding from the night before, and discharges from the Acute/ICU floor to another hospital in "America". A typical 10hr day shift turns into a 14-16hr shift.
And yes we have power, lights, A/c and heat on the ambulance during out 45 min ferry ride because we have 30amp shoreline power and plug into the ferry. We do get priority on the ferry and if they need to they will bump cars to fit us. We can also ride on the open Frieght ferries if needed..
Great perks of the job to go to sea and watch sunsets as the picture below show.

We finally got into our new HQ over the past week. Here is a quick rundown.

Almost a year to the day from the start of construction, the Oak Bluffs fire department moved into the new $8.3 million Fire/EMS building on Wing Rd, on Sunday, December 6. There are still small list items to be fixed, computers to be installed but the new 20,250-square-foot, 12-bay station is up and operational. The are sleeping quarters, a gym, medical treatment area, decon area, two training rooms, a full kitchen etc.....
The department is staffed by a combination of Paid Fire/Paramedics and Volunteers. Providing Fire / EMS Protection to the Town of Oak Bluffs on the Island of Martha's Vineyard. We also assist other local communities with Fire/EMS mutual aid. Oak Bluffs FD/EMS also provides off Island EMS ground transport for patients that need a higher level of medical care than what Martha's Vineyard Hospital can provide after they provide initial medical stabilization. Yes, that's right we take the Ambulance on the ferry and typically transport to Boston Area Hospitals (approx 3hr transport one way).
The station houses: An Aerial Ladder Truck, Rescue, Dive Unit, Rehab Unit, Fire Command vehicle, 4 Engines, 4 Ambulances, and a Paramedic Quick Response Vehicle. In addition they also have have two boats on the water (MetalCraft 39.6 foot Jet Drive Boat and 19 ft skiff), a bicycle unit and separate house for the Antique and Museum.
The house also features custom embroidered duty chairs with department patch
About Martha's Vineyard: Marthas Vineyard is approximately 96 square miles, roughly triangular in shape, 25 miles (42k) at its longest point east to west, and 9 miles (12.8k) at the longest point north to south. The Vineyard is home to 15,000 year-round residents. During the summer months the population increases to 115,000. Sixty-three percent of the homes on the Vineyard belong to seasonal residents. Martha's Vineyard is only accessible by Air and/or boat. A typical ferry ride is about 45 minutes to reach one of the two island ports.
**Oak Bluffs primary response area is about 26 sq miles.

I know they all have other jobs. I was with someone once who needed an ambulance and when the small cart showed up there was a 3 man crew. One was an elevator mechanic, another was a ticket clerk and I think the third was a track worker.
A few years ago I took my EMT refresher at the yard in Stamford, I was one of only 4 in the class not to work for the railroad. At the time they said they had the goal of having an EMT on every track crew, because they would be closer to any incident than a local service.

This whole thread makes me want to chop up Excedrin and snort it...
The issue is a commissioner candidate who is looking at it from a financial standpoint and not a service one.
The issue isn't 60 Control. The issue is cost savings which ultimately would mean a drop in manpower.
Dispatch might be the only place a brother on light duty can go until they're fit for full duty.
Could 60 handle Hartsdale, yup - 100%. One day that time will come but if it does, it should be at the decision of the HFD Chief and Officers and not the commissioners. The men doing the job are the ones that should decide on what's best for that job.

Pocantico Hills T12 does a decent amount of Mutual Aid. Their Engine often goes to Sleepy Hollow.
Archville is so close to Briarcliff's west side, there's really no advantage of moving them up to E92's house, in my opinion.
Ossining's 10-75 plan calls for Sleepy's TL38 to relocate. It's currently OOS (for a long time, I am told).
If TL38 is OOS, the next on the list is Croton TL44. With Croton down an Engine (E119) - it's a tough call pulling both their FAST (using U14) and TL44 out of town. Next on the list would be Briarcliff TL40 - which if R37 is already there it might be tough to staff. Next on the list is Pleasantville. When that Main Street fire came in, there was a large brush fire in Ossining that Briarcliff was working at (since it was actually in both districts). Briarcliff had Pleasantville Engine in their HQ, so the next available Truck in the area was Montrose.
Sometimes, it is better to leap frog and pull a unit to relocate from 2 towns away then the one next door. IE if Ossining has a job and calls Montrose TL8 to relocate instead of Croton, it could be argued that Croton runs a lot more calls and has a higher probability of needing their TL then Montrose would.

I remember when I was an officer in HFD that no one would show up for these calls. We could get L56 up there with a crew of 3 on average, and it was always awful. The kids never respected us, and we started to refuse a response until PD was on scene. We even worked with the staff to do fire prevention programs, mostly to prevent kids from pulling the alarms, but that had little effect. And the EMS calls are 99% of the time either EDP or assaults. No wonder volunteers stopped showing up for the calls....total BS....but a few of us kept responding because someone had to.
Now I'm seeing the effect with 1606 Old Orchard Street. No one wants to waste their time for another BS commercial alarm, and the County doesn't seem to care enough to fix that alarm.
The frequent flyer calls are a waste of taxpayer money and a waste of time for the volunteers that respond. And there is no way you're going to entice responders to respond if they know it's going to be the same old story. On one side you have this annoyance that you don't want to deal with, and the other there is still a duty to respond to make sure that the building is still not on fire. It's the very definition of crying wolf, and it's going to hurt someone someday.

This afternoon, I had the opportunity to photograph the fleet of the Shepherdstown, West Virginia FD. A very special thanks to Chief Morgan and his firefighters for their assistance in getting these shots.

Shepherdstown, WV is located in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, located on the Potomac River about 1 hour outside of Washington, DC. It borders Maryland.

The Shepherdstown Volunteer Fire Department is the oldest in the state, founded in the 1700's, along with Shepherdstown. Their first due consists of a dense downtown main street, and dense area of houses built in the 1700's and 1800's. The district also includes a major university, hundreds of acres of Revolutionary War battlefields, and agricultural properties. They also provide EMS.

They raise all their own money for capital expenditures, such as apparatus purchases, via community fundraising, such as bingo, game dinners, and their famous apple butter.

They are a very proud, and progressive department. They are an all-volunteer department, with 7 live in members. The only career person is the Paramedic provided by the County to them.

THE FIRE DISTRICT MAP/COVERAGE AREA: http://www.jeffersoncountywv.org/home/showdocument?id=43

Their website is: http://www.shepherdstownfiredepartment.com/index.html

Engine 3 is a 2013 Pierce Velocity 2000/750

Rescue Engine 3 is a 2007 Pierce Dash 2000GPM/850 Gal/30 Foam

Truck 3 is a 1997 Pierce Arrow 75' 1500/500

Tanker 3 is a 2000 Mack RD/Semo 2000/3100

Brush 3 is a 2003 Ford F-450 4x4 200/150

EMS-3 is a 2005 Dodge Durango equipped for ALS response

Ambulance 3 is a 2007 Ford F-450 4x4/Medtec, which is being replaced in March 2016 with a Dodge/PL Custom

Ambulance 3-1 is a 2007 Ford F-450 4x4/PL Custom, which is being replaced in March 2016 with a Dodge/PL Custom

Duty 3 is a 1995 Chevrolet Suburban assigned to the Duty Officer as a take home vehicle when on duty

Here are some of the photos I got, hope you enjoy.

1) The land owned by the Bedford Fire District is actually located on the corner of Old Post Road and Southbrook Rd, directly across from Greenwich Road. Not at Route 172 and Route 22.
2) Bedford is in committee to replace Engine 110, a 1987 Seagrave Engine. The members of the department and district feel that replacing the engine is what they need to better serve the community.
3) As a Chief of a neighboring department that has an excellent social and working relationship with the Bedford Fire Department I can say that the departments in our area (especially the 13th and 16th Battalions) train multiple times a year and we run through as many "Water Supply" and structural firefighting scenarios as we can plus we all run together on a regular basis.
We all know the resources the BFD has to offer. Engine 109 is the scene engine, going directly to the seat of the fire. while Engine 108 lays to or from a water source, while the mutual aid tankers nurse or set up for shuttle operations. The Chief Officers of BFD have done a great job for pre planning all of their box alarms for Greater Alarms. On any reported Structure Fire in their district, they get at a minimum of a mutual aid Ladder Company and Tanker, and as the incident envolves so do the resources called in their predetermined Greater Alarm polices.
4) In this time with all of the talks of how Fire Departments should be consolidating, sharing resources is the most economical and fairest option for the taxpayers of the Bedford Fire District and the Town of Bedford.
5) Lastly, in regards to the Pound Ridge Incident, The Chief called the resources he felt were necessary for THAT incident, and in no way was he trying to "shaft" BFD out of the mutual aid assignment.
Thanks for reading and have a great Thanksgiving!
J.Nickson
Asst. Chief BHFD