drgripsthrowawaytowel

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Posts posted by drgripsthrowawaytowel

  1. Posted

    You pay for everything yourself, with no guarantee of getting hired (both PD and FD). Then when you do miraculously get hired, the state is an "at will" state, with no protection from lay offs and the union basically has no bearing on anything. Its not civil service either, its a private sector job application and hiring process with a public sector title.

  2. Posted

    Date: 12/27/2012
    Time: 1915 hrs
    District: Yorktown Heights
    Location: Dispatch - Rt 35 IFO Clarks Funeral Home. Actual Rt 35 and Ridge St.
    Units: Engine 270, MA - 8 with tool, Engine 272, Car 2531
    Frequency: Dispatch 46.26, Response / ops - Fire 17
    Weather Conditions: Cold, clear

    Description: 2 Car T-bone MVA with single driver entrapment.

    1915: Yorktown Fire, YVAC. 34-Medics dispatched to Rt 35 IFO Clarks Funeral Home for an MVA with extrication

    1921: Engine 270 on location with a 2 car MVA with entrapment, going to work. Actual location will be Rt 35 and Ridge St.

    1955: Patent extricated

    2019: All Yorktown units clear

    x4093k likes this

  4. Posted

    Peekskill VAC, Continential Village has a water rescue going at Annesville circle

    Yorktown's swift water team was dispatched as well and performed multiple evacuations and rescues with continental village. They were originaly dispatched for a car in the water with people in the water, which turned out to be an incorrect report. However, they were put to work to rescue an inaccessible aided case, another incapacitated victim loacated in the water was found as they were responding to the aided's location, and evacuated 4 individuals who were stuck in the mobile station.

  5. Posted

    On another note, how many of you have employers that support you as volunteers? When talking about the storm at work, one of the guys who is a volunteer FF said he might not be in Monday/Tuesday. He was told that if he didn't come in, not to show up the rest of the week either.

    Wasn't a law just passed that allows volunteers to take off a few hours with no penalty, but anything over that, needs to come out of their own time off bank?

  8. Posted

    A few yrs ago we responded to a report of structure fire on the boarder of our district we arrived on scene heavy smoke coming from a 1 story commercial building. The paid dept. which we boarder was on scene also and was stretching lines the building was the first building over our boarder. The IC said its ours our chief said ok do you need any assistance they said no we got it. we stayed a few min the fire started to go through the roof the IC called a 2nd alarm then a 3rd alarm. My point is the IC had 25 guys ready to go to work and assist why turn down help that is already there? If I was the store owner I would be really mad that help was turned away because we are not paid and I lost my whole building.

    Career training vs Volunteer training. Hundreds of hours that are mandated, or 10 hours that are mandated. With career personnel, you know that every firefighter is trained the exact same way as the guy sitting next to him, or the guy in your department. State standards mandate this. Volunteers, because of the "wonderful" work FASNY has done, have 0 requirements. All that is required is the federally mandated 10 hours of "on the job osha training," which varies from department to department. 10 hours... which is less then 1 hour a month of training, to go inside a burning building and be responsible for people's livelihood.

    Yes, many volunteers go way above and beyond the call and perform hundreds of individual hours. No one here is doubting whether or not volunteers hearts and minds are in the right place. It takes some serious balls to run into a burning building for free.

    Where in the problem lies, is that there is 0 standard as to what volunteers need. It's left up to the "authority having jurisdiction". That AHJ could mandate that all interior members need FF1, FF2, Fast, Survival, hazmat ops, confined space rescue, cat in tree rescue, aircraft rescue and vehicle rescue before they step foot on a truck to respond, or the could say, "meh, our in-house course is good enough. Here's a hand-line, this is how you open the bale, stay low, now go and put the wet stuff on the red stuff."

    A set list of mandated training across the board (which is what MANY other states have done) requiring that career and volunteer personnel are trained exactly the same way would be in the best interest of everyone; volunteers, career, mutual aid, and most importantly, the citizens you took an oath to protect.

    JM15, wraftery, Dinosaur and 3 others like this

  9. Posted

    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.

    Because the career departments have firefighters who are staffed in house ready to go. If I was an IC of either a career, volly or combo department, if dept x is a little closer, but need to page out for members, have them respond to the firehouse, and then finally get going, or department y that might be a little farther away, but can instantly have a staffed rig on the road, I'm going with department y.

    You also have the issues of training. Volley vs career. 10 hours minimum per year, versus hundreds minimum per year. I think the answer is clearly obtained why departments call who they do, when they do.

    BFD1054 likes this

  10. Posted

    Shouldn't the more appropriate dispatch for a CO call be:

    1. Supervisor

    2. EMS

    3. A Truck Company

    If evaluating, treating, transporting victims, locating and eliminating the CO source, then ventilation are your priorities, I would prefer a truck company for ventilation as opposed to an engine company.

    Just my opinion.

    Most engines up here carry CO meters and fans. Just the name of the game

  11. Posted

    (I researched a bit..) Somers operates with 5 Engines, 2 Ladders, 3 buses, 1 brush truck, and 3 rescues (one for scuba rescue) and a few utilities. Somers FD dispatch did 7 tones, and only got a chief and the paid ambulance (over the air). The other day, they had something like 10 calls (Fire/EMS) in 1 day and covered every one of them. This is uncommon for Somers, I have never heard of them failing to cover a FD call. (I am not listening at ALL times, obviously)

    By fail to respond, do you mean getting a chief on the road, or gettin appropriately staffed apparatus responding?

  12. Posted

    Shhhhhh. maybe the public wont notice and we can keep the hundreds of unmanned or undermanned rigs, because its clearly not about the public but about us.

    I present to you "Zen and the Art of the Fire Service: http://firehousezen.com/2012/08/18/tell-me-if-this-applies-to-you/

    Maybe its time everyone reads this, from the first time offenders on a water condition, to those putting other firemans lives on the line by taking 20+ minutes to get a FASTeam out because their pride is too big.

    Bnechis likes this

  15. Posted · Edited by drgripsthrowawaytowel

    You guys must have nothing else in life but the firehouse. Most places have monthly drills for people to train, if you start to make mandatory attendance you will lose guys cause people have lives besides this. You have to find a happy medium or you will drive guys away. You should hear the crying at work when guys have to go to the rock!

    Monthly drills? Drill for 12 days a year, at maybe pushing 3 hours a drill? 36 hours of drill time a year? That's freaking pathetic. I'm sure you don't have 100% attendance at all the drills either.

    Quit making excuses as to why training isn't required. Sack up and train more. Require it, and see your members go from looking like C league squad rookies, to a well oiled machine.

    Edit:

    Would you rather look like this: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CEEQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DRhD_5T4F7aw&ei=Z4guUIGELKPuyAGEzIDIBA&usg=AFQjCNEocq5T5DqbhCmC9CdU0xt6Im0fBQ&sig2=jJbg6SCPJM7Xja_oigXe3Q

    or like this: http://statter911.com/2011/03/15/helmet-cam-durham-north-carolina-house-fire/

    The difference is constant training, retraining, and training on top of the training. Don't get dead out there because of your attitude.

    Bnechis, SageVigiles, JM15 and 1 other like this

  16. Posted

    The way the county calls it's 'alert levels" is inconsistent with the way the rest of the flight world. HPN has classified 3 different types of calls, Alert level 1, Alert level II and Alert Level III (have yet to figure out what they mean)... The rest of the world has Alert 1, Alert 2, and Alert 3, with levels 1-5. So you can have an "Alert 2 level 4" incident.

    The levels are laid out like so:

    Alert 1 Airport (Possible Crash) - minor problems or equipment failures

    Alert 2 Airport (Probable Crash) - major problems (mechanical or electrical) or major failures of equipment / systems

    Alert 3 Airport (Crash/Aircraft Incident)

    Level 1) 1-2 Souls

    Level 2) 3-10

    Level 3) 11-25

    Level 4) 26-50

    Level 5) 51+

    once again it seams as if the county wants to be completely different then the rest of the world......

    JM15, Disaster_Guy and RJB896 like this

  21. Posted

    Instead of alerting to the danger of melting face pieces, why not spend the money, time and effort developing one that is more resistant to intense heat and flame?

    one would think that the NFPA would have already recommend that face pieces be able to withstand the high heat of a structural fire. Has any research been done to figure out at what temperature most face pieces are failing at? If they're failing before flashover point, there's a serious issue.

    efdcapt115 likes this

  23. Posted

    I read the article and it is always a good idea to evaluate your tactics and see what works and what doesn't. I am certain thhat FDNY will do scientific studies and end up with valid results.

    I remember, however Lloyd Layman's experiments with fog. To some it became like the word of God. Others were skeptical and stayed with smooth bore nozzles. It started a debate within the fire service that never looked like it was going to end. Many were very opinionated regarding fog vs. straight, but very few actually went to their live burn place and tried both under the same conditions to form their opinion. They simply sided with one or the other. A large number of our colleagues sided with fog only because it was "new" and if you use something "new" you are progressive. We don't do that, do we? (PPV on attack, magic penetrating solutions , etc.)

    Some of the FDNY article mentioned "Force the door...Control the door...wait to hear the glass break...then open the door slightly and bang the line off the ceiling" The reporter made it look like something new. I learned this method from FDNY's last set of fire tactics experiments. They tried many many tactics on many many fires. They did it over and over, and mostly at night. They kept and used the tactics that worked and discarded the ones that didn't. You say you never heard of this batch of experiments? It was done in about 1968-1974 in the South Bronx and called Burn Baby Burn. Thanks, Bronx firefighters of that era. I learned a lot.

    Knock down a basement fire before going in? Now I think it's called Pushing a fire. Once again, thanks Bronx guys.

    So the things that the FDNY study are probably nothing new, but I am sure they will tell us what worked and what didn't. I suggest we all just sit down and wait for the results and then try the ones that worked for FDNY.

    Once again, fantastic post.

    For those who were wondering what the Layman's experiment was, here an article done back in February of 2000 by fire engineering:

    http://www.firedistrict7.com/tpdffiles/nozleproject/FFebruary2000LITTLE.PDF

    firemoose827 likes this

  24. Posted

    I am not saying it's right or wrong, but legally, the individual fire companies are not public entities. They are merely social organizations, much like the Elks Lodge or Lions Club. There is no oversight because legally, there does not have to be. The meetings are closed meetings, the budgets are closed budgets, and everything else about them is closed. The buildings that they own are not public property as one might think. There is no legal requirement for them to "show the books."

    Even if you went to FOIL them, I'm sure it would be shot down since the company is private and there is no legal requirement to disclose anything. What the village or district does with the tax money is all public information. every appropriation, receipt, and cent is (should be) accounted for and spent accordingly.

    Asking someone to show the funds of a social organization on a public forum is not going to happen, whether you want/like it or not.

  25. Posted

    Anyone who claims that an increase in training will cause volunteer numbers to drop has their head up their brown pipe. Just take a look at numerous other states that require that volunteers are at par with career. No drop in membership, but an increase in effectiveness... imagine that!

    If someone wants to quit because the requirements are too strict, good. gtfo. My life, my crews life, and the life of the public is too important to place on the back of a federally mandated 10 hours of OSHA training once a year. If you personally go out and train more, excellent. What needs to happen is the state needs to grow some cajones, manup, and force training requirements that are on par with your counterparts.

    Unfortunately, this state's biggest opposition is FASNY, and it will take a large army to change anything.

    Anyone who thinks otherwise has drank the kool-aid.

    JM15, firedude and helicopper like this