Dinosaur

Why is asking questions perceived as bashing? You can learn from asking questions so why isn't that encouraged especially when run numbers are so low and actual experience may be lacking.

I don't think many of the discussions were "bashing" or "career vs. volunteer". If someone has a different opinion it doesn't mean they're bashing yours. It means they have a different opinion.

There used to be some great insightful discussions here but now they're few and far between!

Where was the DES METU? Why have a METU respond from Yonkers when there is one literally up the street?

1000 calls but what's the number of actual structure fires? There are a lot of busy FD's doing way more than 1000 calls per year but the number of actual fires is not that high.

Just wondering if SV's are really that disparate?

High quality Chinese plastics of today are no comparison to the "low" quality American made steel shovels of years gone bye.

From the news reports, the weather channel, and the politicians, you'd think that snow in the winter was some unusual event that we hadn't seen before. It's winter people ! It's GOING TO SNOW! And be COLD. That's what happens in the winter.

Its not about the fine, its about the finding, which will be used against the village in any civil litigation from the families.
The lesson is ignorance of the law is no defense (particularly when DOL can prove you knew the law at some point in the past)

Actually what the run numbers mean is we have way to many rigs in Westchester covering 1 - 2 calls a day. And since most depts. can't properly many the rigs they have, all we are doing is fooling ourselves and the public.

Mllax, actually in the past few months Charles County has been added as agency #10.
Howard County and Anne Arundel also use similar systems that allow us to talk to them, even though they aren't part of the COG.
A few months back during an incident at Six Flags America we had PG County, Howard County, Fairfax County and Andrews AFB talking on the same channel with no complicated patches or $1 million dollar FieldComm units necessary. Everyone just switches to PG Talkgroup 8-Delta-3 and we're good to go.
If we can get the technology to support 2 states and a major city on one system, then why can't Westchester county do the same?

G) A lot fewer chiefs and a lot more Indians.
H) Fewer departments based on logic, study, response times, resources, and capabilities.
I) Less politics in the process.
Now I'm going to go buy my winning PowerBall ticket... LOL

What year was that? NYC*EMS went out of business almost 20 years ago.

What year was that? NYC*EMS went out of business almost 20 years ago.

That was really my point, albeit reading back on it, it didn't come out clear at all. Run numbers mean absolute jack. It's stats like BFD1054 is asking for that really matter.

Port Chester , nobody left to do reports ?

How about posting the numbers that mean something; i.e. Response times, # of INTERIOR FFs per call, etc?

The lights help, a lot, often. Many, many, many drivers appropriately reduce speed and move over. It's the exceptions that present the danger.
I hope the impetus behind this is not cost. Many tow operators charges hundreds of dollars, just to hook it up and take it off the parkway, while a tire change is considerably less profitable.
Anyone who thinks you can completely remove the dangers of working on a parkway are delusional. PD, FD, DOT, tow operators will always face some level of risk as long as they operate on open roadways.

A word to IC's:
If you are anywhere near New Rochelle and get a run requiring foam, special call Capt Nechis as a Technical Specialist. (And I am not kidding or being sarcastic either.)

This subject is being discussed in January 2015. I'll check in again in January 2020. I'll bet not much will have changed.

I don't know your county and can not speak to your personal experiences but generally speaking your arguments against a regional 911 system are flawed. The State of Rhode Island uses a statewide 911 center and as you get further away from the northeast more and more people approach things at the regional level. Not just dispatch but everything, hmmmm. Wonder if they're on to something.
1. Accountability at the local level is a joke. I have heard incompetent local dispatchers and they worked for decades because there was zero accountability.
2. Protocols get established by the dispatch center and the agency. There isn't a take it or leave it line in the sand. Although some completely unrealistic expectations may not be met.
3. If local dispatchers were moved to a regional 911 center they would still have the local knowledge. It isn't like Yonkers would suddenly be dispatching Albany or vice versa.
4. If the system is built properly this doesn't happen. Westchester's trunked system wasn't built properly. It was never really designed for emergency services and because NYC also uses some of the frequencies, the county had to limit where some frequencies are used and their power or some nonsense like that.
Westchester's demographics are ripe for all kinds of consolidation. Nobody has the balls to do it though. But sticking to the communications issue, there are so many radio frequencies in the county that they could probably build a state of the art system using combinations of VHF and UHF with repeaters and all that other geek stuff that would be truly impressive. Of course nobody wants to do that.

I don't know your county and can not speak to your personal experiences but generally speaking your arguments against a regional 911 system are flawed. The State of Rhode Island uses a statewide 911 center and as you get further away from the northeast more and more people approach things at the regional level. Not just dispatch but everything, hmmmm. Wonder if they're on to something.
1. Accountability at the local level is a joke. I have heard incompetent local dispatchers and they worked for decades because there was zero accountability.
2. Protocols get established by the dispatch center and the agency. There isn't a take it or leave it line in the sand. Although some completely unrealistic expectations may not be met.
3. If local dispatchers were moved to a regional 911 center they would still have the local knowledge. It isn't like Yonkers would suddenly be dispatching Albany or vice versa.
4. If the system is built properly this doesn't happen. Westchester's trunked system wasn't built properly. It was never really designed for emergency services and because NYC also uses some of the frequencies, the county had to limit where some frequencies are used and their power or some nonsense like that.
Westchester's demographics are ripe for all kinds of consolidation. Nobody has the balls to do it though. But sticking to the communications issue, there are so many radio frequencies in the county that they could probably build a state of the art system using combinations of VHF and UHF with repeaters and all that other geek stuff that would be truly impressive. Of course nobody wants to do that.

As I mentioned in another thread, why is the radio communication system in Westchester County is over-complex? I understand that there are a lot of cities and jurisdictions that want things to work the way they want, but it seems to me that everything here is a bit overboard when it comes to the radio/dispatch systems.
The first big thing I'd like to focus on is the need for TWO SEPARATE RADIO SYSTEMS. Why? We get dispatched low band, respond and talk from car to car via trunk, and operate on fire ground low band channels. Can we not find a way to use the trunk system to dispatch? Can we not use the ground ops channels instead of FG1 through 8?
And why do so many departments choose not to be dispatched by 60 Control? Wouldn't a consolidated e911 system work for us?
The way I see it is that the trunk system has all of the technology to do what we need it to do, which is COMMUNICATE (albeit I don't know if you can be dispatched on it....refer to the question above). I just find it ridiculous that the radio communication system for Westchester County is incredibly complex. I'd really love some good answers on this, because this has been boggling my mind for almost seven years now.

I actually see that as a valid question and not a statement that 60 is in someway incapable of doing the job. A YFD dispatch would probably be better familiar with streets, locations, unit assignment and problems that crop up in certain areas with calls. Based on this valuable added resource a YFD would be a great asset.

Because you always say who you are speaking to, and they are speaking to 60 control at that moment so they say 60 control.

Trained to the same standard regardless of the patch on their sleeve. Makes the concept of mutual aid pretty easy to implement. Everyone who shows up has the same basic training. Imagine that?
FD7807, you're missing our (at least my) point. Want to clear up a lot of the BS that exists in the NY fire service today? Adopt one common standard for FF training. That's a huge step in the right direction.
There will always be differences from department to department but if they basic training is the same regardless of patch or pay status, we'd all be better off.

We can mandate whatever training we want as the "minimum," but what a department does for it's members after that is what truly separates the "men from the boys."
There's departments that take your FF1 and consider it "enough." That's wrong no matter how you slice it.
Training + experience = good firefighters. We all know "that guy" who has taken every class, but rarely shows up on calls and when they do, you wish they didn't.

If you're saying that I'm vollie bashing because I don't think advocating lower standards for volunteer FF than career FF is right then I'm guilty.
If you're saying that supporting a single FF training standard for the state of NY is vollie bashing then I'm guilty.
I am equally tired of coming to this site to hear that people are going out and doing the job with un or under qualified people, inadequate numbers, and a completely blind and or deaf administration that condones it.
If you've ever read any of my posts, you know that I'm equally critical of the so-called career or combination departments that respond with 1-2 FF per apparatus. That's just stupid!
If lobbying for a single standard isn't being part of the solution, please enlighten me. What is?