FF1

Couldn't agree more on point #1. The Mutual Aid agreement in Westchester has gotten out of hand. For certain communities, the staffing levels (career, volunteer, and or combi depts.) isn't a concern, nor is it addressed, because they just call in as many mutual aid neighbor departments for help an every 10-75. By doing this you are essentially stripping numerous depts. in order to fight your own fire. Not to mention the fact that these career firefighters of departments that are abused in this mutual aid process are basically getting paid by their municipality to fight fires in other towns, villages and cities.

Mutual aid is intended for you to help other depts. and other depts. to help you during those times when your district "blows up" and you have multiple calls at once or you have a multi-alarm fire or extraordinary incident that exhausts all of your resources.

Mutual aid is not intended for you and your municipality to ignore staffing levels and choose to not spend money to hire career personal, buy more apparatus, recruit more volunteers, ect and in turn just say "Why should we spend money on this issue when we can just call others every single time we have a fire, rescue or more than 1 call in the district?"

1) "Mutual" Aid does mean you help me and I help you. If you need a million $$$ ladder everytime you have a call and you cant send one to me when I need it, its no longer mutual, its just your cheap taxpayers leaching of mine.

2) ISO requires every response to have a ladder or service company (based on building size and fire flow requirement). If you do not have one your rating goes up. Depending on what their rating is, it could cost millions per year in increased insurance premiums to not have a ladder.

Couldn't agree more on point #1. The Mutual Aid agreement in Westchester has gotten out of hand. For certain communities, the staffing levels (career, volunteer, and or combi depts.) isn't a concern, nor is it addressed, because they just call in as many mutual aid neighbor departments for help an every 10-75. By doing this you are essentially stripping numerous depts. in order to fight your own fire. Not to mention the fact that these career firefighters of departments that are abused in this mutual aid process are basically getting paid by their municipality to fight fires in other towns, villages and cities.

I THINK FOR ANOTHER 2 YEARS GIVE OR TAKE

Booster lines are good for what you mentioned, but other than that, not much else.

even your trash can or rubbish fire doesn't justify the use of a booster line. You still need to put the rig in pump so why not stretch an attack line?

If a can cant knock it down you are better off stretching an 1 and 3/4 line. You are better having more line and water than less.

I have been an member of my fd for almost 6 years and I have never have used or have heard of a booster line being used for much of anything at all.

knock it down with a water can that is

Booster lines are good for what you mentioned, but other than that, not much else.

even your trash can or rubbish fire doesn't justify the use of a booster line. You still need to put the rig in pump so why not stretch an attack line?

If a can cant knock it down you are better off stretching an 1 and 3/4 line. You are better having more line and water than less.

I have been an member of my fd for almost 6 years and I have never have used or have heard of a booster line being used for much of anything at all.

Guys, it hasn't been long at all. NY State takes 4-6 month average. 6 months should be the average time you expect though.

Westchester county PD is going on 8 months in July with no word yet.

Be patient

Seth,

My FD has 100 ft more than the longest stretch in our response area. We roll 2 Engines to full alarms, so even with a bad hydrant, we would be able to relay pump with no issue whatsoever

I'm in

Mount Vernon has a working commercial fire @ 302 South Fulton Ave. around 1100 -1300 Hrs. I was at work and didn't have enough information for an IA

Type of construction (3 story OMD, 1 story commercial, Ect)

What is showing upon arrival (smoke, fire, nothing)

360 of the structure if possible (some buildings are 2 stories in the front and 3 in the rear)

What your exposures are and how close to the fire building they are and if any exposures are in danger of extension

What additional resources are needed (2nd alarm or additional Ladder, ect)

What your current resources are doing (2 L/S/O and Ladderpipe in operation, ect)

Seth,

I have a pretty good amount of tattoos. (both arms half sleeved, both lower legs and my upper back.

1st, tattoos dont "wear out" from flexing that part of the body. Like SFRD said, just protect it with sun screen.

2nd, good work isn't cheap and cheap work isn't good. the normal rate for a good artist is 100-200 dollars an hour.

3rd, DO NOT walk in with a picture and say "i want this". The tattoo artist is an artist for a reason, they know what will look good and translate well as ink in your body. My best advice is to give the artist youre general ideas and themes and tell them to run wild and let their creativity take over. After all, they are the professionals.

I use Jason Eddington at Hard Knox Tattoo in Yonkers.

P.S. any tattooer that claims that they are good at every style is lying. Each has their niche and area of focus and expertise. You need to look at portfolios and see who specializes in the style you are interested in. (ex. Black and Grey or Traditional or Lettering or Japansese or Color Bomb.....ect)

Not that I have any more insight since we're in the same boat but you have to think that everyone had similar scores because some guys we're great In the strength events and slow in the running events plus some guys we're totally out of shape and obliviously we're not in shape. Also you don't know your written score so that may be the biggest deciding factor

thank you! feeling a bit more confident, but we will wait to see when the list comes out

related question for a yfd member who may be able to answer. I passed both, but as far as the agility goes, I did better than what the admins call "competative" on 2 stations, competative on another, and poorly (5 seconds off the pace) on another. How much do you think the poor station will effect my overall?

Here in Westchester county, 60 control dispatches up to a "Structure Fire". When in scene, a chief will transmitt a 10-75 or working fire to 60 which will strike our 1st alarm assignment (extra engine, extra ladder, FAST, and ambulance to the scene and our standby units in our quarters)

Seems like you got it right Chief. Kudos for putting saftey before pride and ego by pulling out to regroup. That gets lost in the fire service today. Two thumbs up for what seemed like a safe and efficent opperation.

#1100 HAS A 102% SOMETHING ISNT RIGHT HERE

An IC at a job, career or volley shouldn't have to find out the qualifications of the mutual aid he called.They should be qualified to perform the tasks assigned to them,have a officer able to make decisions and get the job done and not be another thing the IC has to worry about he's got enough already. Carreer depts in Westchester call each other cause they know what they're getting.

there is a bigger issue then. the administration of these depts are flawed. the chief or commissioner should require a certain level of training for their members. Either way there are other reasons volis arent called to assist career depts. I'd be nieve to say otherwise

In the early to mid nineties, the dept im with called in a few suburban volunteer depts for either cover assignments or to work. In multiple occasions, a bc would put them to work only to be told "we dont have any interior guys" or something to that effect. The final time they were sent home and a different arrangement was instituted after that.

I agree with that. M/A in voli depts should be a list of qualified guys with a certain level of trainning. The question is, how do you police the guys responding to m/a jobs? there is a huge grey area

Im sure this is going to cause a debate... Can you cite some instances?

i'm not taking sides... im stating a fact.

ex #1 when pelham had a fire about 6-8 months back on Wolfes Ln. in a resteraunt, they called Yonkers, White Plains, Scarsdale, Hartsdale, Greenville, Mount Vernon, Eastchester, and New Rochelle.

there was a rediculous amount of aparatus at the scene. Reason being they needed manpower and wouldnt call voli depts. they got rigs with 2 men on them from career depts. You are taking aparatus out of service in your 1st due area, because you are using them as taxi cabs for 2 guys to the scene.

In lower westchester county, career depts. only request m/a from other career depts, many times skipping over several neighboring volunteer depts in the process. If all the career depts are exhausted, it is also not uncommon for career depts to request combo depts m/a with only the career staff and no volunteers.

Residents scoring in the top percentile have recieved letters to participate in the physical. Don't quote me,but I believe the cut off was 90's and better are being invited.

I see the same issues being a LT. in my mid-20s. I had older members refuse to come to monthly training, live fire training, walk throughs, ect., and not come to the residential alarms, CO alarms, and service calls, but be the first one on the scene ready to go to work when the dispatch "sounds good".

As much as we need manpower and can use all the hands we can get, that member was told to do exterior support work or leave the scene.

Now I'm viewed as the hardass on a powertrip with no respect for all of the years of service 15-20 + year members put in, but at the end of the day, I know that the guys, who's ability I know and who I've trained side by side with, can be given tasks that will be completed efficiantly and more importantly, safely. At the end of the day, I cannot jepordize peoples safety by sending the 20 year guy, who has been in 50 + fires, but hasn't kept up with training, into a fire and hope he remembers what to do from his last worker 5 years ago.

Maybe I'm the a******, but at least I know safety will not be compromised

I can understand all of the thoughts on how to prevent another tragedy like this from happening, but the fact of the matter is, a great man is no longer with us, along with his wife and two teenage girls who barely began thier adult lives. Not to mention his son who survived the fire, but will have to live with out his home and more importantly his family. Pray for the Sullivan family and end the discussion. This happened one day ago!! Discussing the details and giving suggestions and ideas so soon is very disrespectful to the Sullivan family.

The main point of this rant is that Yonkers does not have their proirities straight. They have extremely busy fire and police departments, yet this is the first area they cut and instead of trying to find ways they can save money and spare jobs, they ask no questions and just layoff.

P.S. Where is all of this revenue from the red light cameras?

So what about that honors student that is forced to go to a failing inner city school? What do you tell them and their family, sorry your poor and can't afford to live in a better part of town or send your kid to private school?

It has nothing to do with poor neighborhoods vs. wealthier neighborhoods and better schoold being located in better neighborhoods. Each school should have the same ciriculum and oppertunities for the students. There are also certain schools, such as the Charter School and Yonkers High with the I.B. program, that those honor students can be enrolled in. I just feel that there is no reason to bus a student across the city to get the same education as he could in his or her own neighborhood.

Its a total waste of tax dollars.

I don't want this discussion to go in the Yonkers Public School direction thought. I feel that is simply one way that tax dollars can be saved and jobs could be saved.