WCFCX613

It's the same old story...the current admin. hates (for want of a better word) the fire dept...107 members do the very best they can with what they have which is not much.The admin. cancelled the hiring of several new members and spare parts are nil.Hopefully after the election we may see some progress...it's a long road but it has to start somewhere. The taxpayers of Mount Vernon are being short changed and no one in city hall cares...this opinion is mine and not official...

From the New Rochelle Firefighters Facebook page:

I hope the best for the 5 injured Brother's. The above quotation is the type of thing so many of us should be doing. We cannot continue to do more with less and suffer the effects in silence. At this point, our silence has become tacit approval.

Have New Rochelle consolidate with who ??? Pelham ? Larchmont ? Scarsdale? How would New Rochelle get additional manpower by consolidating ?? New Rochelle needs to get the New Rochelle City Counsel agree to fund a minimum number of firefighters per shift. Back in the 1980's there were 31 firefighters per shift
5 engines X 4 firefighters = 20
3 ladders. X 3 firefighters = 9
D C and his aid = 2
_______
31 Total
NRFD needs to go back to this level of manning plus 1 additional firefighter on each ladder and 2 firefighters to man to rescue every shift. NRFD needs to be funded for a minimum of 36 firefighters per shift,

Verizon FiOS 1 News did a story on this today:
http://www.fios1news.com/lowerhudsonvalley/new-rochelle-mergency-services-uptick#.VjEPTdF4fIU

the answer to this problem is simple CONSOLIDATION

Larchmont TL-7 was sent to cover a Yonkers station during last night's 4th alarm.
They sent all their career staff, and put the Town Of Mamaroneck FD on standby to cover Larchmont for 9 hours.
Larchmont strips down it's department by sending 1 truck M/A, and by doing so to the point they need another department to cover for the most basic of alarms, taking from that department's coverage as well. What's wrong with this picture?

Larchmont had 3 members in quarters. But volunteers cannot drive so their apparatus was useless. They did a callback of career staff but that didn't place an engine into service until 5AM, several hours after the TL left with all the career staff on duty to go to Yonkers to standb

That happens in Orange County daily, for small calls. Cascading mutual aid. Department one can't get enough people out to handle the emergency (Fire, AFA, MVA, cat in the tree, etc.) so they call for an engine on automatic response from Dept. 2, a ladder from Dept.3, and a FAST team from Dept.4. All of those departments, if they can get out the door, each call the next department for standby, and it goes on and on. Volunteer departments don't want to acknowledge that they have a man power problem, commissioners don't want to recognize there is a problem, and the county doesn't want to enforce the mutual aid agreement preventing cascading mutual aid, because then they would be admitting there is a problem. I'm sure most counties are like this.

They should have initiated a Notification Call to all the Larchmont residence to advise them that they are on Fire Watch for the evening. LOL
Very poor judgment by the LFD IMO.

How many career staff were on the assignment. 3? 4? If that's all that's on duty at the station on any given shift, isn't Larchmont playing a shell game to begin with?

They initially asked for a truck from Scarsdale to relocate into Yonkers.
However, Scarsdale did not respond.
Could be due to manpower issues.

Isn't Scarsdale a career department

So a department made up of career and volunteers couldn't respond,wow

The mutual aid request to relocate was declined because their spare truck was out of service.

If Larchmont is a combination department, why didn't they fill out the engine with a career firefighter driving and a volunteer crew, leaving the remainder of the career guys to keep Larchmont apparatus in service?

Sending Vols to a all career department is a no-no. To Yonker, A very big no-no. Don;t know if the vols can drive in Larchmont, but i know some departments send some of the on duty crew and then back fill with career guys.

The Volunteers in Larchmont are not permitted to drive other than thier rescue.

So one department couldn't respond because their rig was broken, another department sends 3 career guys on a truck leaving their department understaffed because the vols can only drive the rescue, what a joke

SIMPLE AND SOUND ANSWER TO ALL OF THIS - CREATE AND ESTABLISH A "COUNTY RUN FIRE DEPARTMENT" THAT IS MANNED BY CAREER (AND STATE CERTIFIED TRAINED) FIREFIGHTERS. THIS WAY, IF YOU HAVE A MAJOR FIRE, BE IT IN YONKERS, MOUNT VERNON, NEW ROCHELLE, WHITE PLAINS, LARCHMONT, DOBBS FERRY, ARDSLEY, NORTH SALEM, YORKTOWN, OR PEEKSKILL, YOU WOULD ALWAYS HAVE A CAREER 'COUNTY' FIRE COMPANY WHO COULD/WOULD FILL IN. THERE WOULD BE NO SUCH THING AS 'MUTUAL AID' AS WITH THE COUNTY RUNNING THE ENTIRE FIRE SERVICES, THEY WOULD BE REQUIRED TO GO AND HELP

I agree

If there was a fire who were they going to call-Ghostbusters?
Larchmont was not understaffed, it was closed for the night as no one was left behind to cover the district. If volunteers responded to HQ, there would have been no one to operate the equipment as the 3 Career FF on duty took off, asking the Town of Mamaroneck to standby in the TMFD quarters with 1 and 1.

Larchmont also did the same thing a couple of weeks ago when they went to the fire in Greenville.

I think Larchmont just has the mentality "The Town Of Mamaroneck will cover us". What if they have their own calls to cover? I can't imagine the Town is OK with this.
What happens if somebody is trapped in a fire in Larchmont? How will they justify sending all their career firefighters, the only ones who can drive Larchmont apparatus, to cover a firehouse in Yonkers? In effect, they took the entire department out of service to go mutual aid to standby for another department that's not even nearby. How will they explain that to the residents? I hope Larchmont comes up with a better plan for next time.

Does yonkers stand by in other jurisdictions when asked or do they only go mutual aid when responding to the scene?