SteveC7010

The more important issue that needs to be focused on is if these young adults want go on to a career in emergency services they are going to need a HS diploma with a decent GPA because most promotions now look for college credits. If they are looking in other directions and being a volunteer is just for the "volunteer" section of the college app then they still need to focus on that GPA. A side from that if they are content on practicing the line "do you want fries with that?" then by all mean stay out all night seven nights a week. What needs to be understood is these "unfair" rules are being "imposed" by a group of well seasoned adults that "have been there, done that" and trying to provide guidance that to a young mind can appear to be restriction.

If there is a New York State law regarding this, please provide verifiable section, etc. I am not familiar with any law like this and I'm sure that others may be wondering, too.

I was working at R/M. No family up here, one of the reasons I will be moving is to be closer to what family I still have. Now that it's nice out, I like the city a lot more then when I moved here last November. It did snow a lot, but it's never really a big deal and I was very impressed by how quickly the city handles it. I live in the Corn Hill area, so I'm really close to just about everything. Just discovered Charlotte, never been that far down Lake Ave before. I don't know how I'm going to do without Wegmans, I love that store. Upstate NY is so different from downstate, I found most Rochester natives to be meaner (up front) then downstate and have a different kind of attitude. I love the history, just was taking photos of what remains of the Rochester Subway (transit not sandwich for people not from ROC lol) the other day. The only downside is there is still a lot of violent crime in the city, and a lot of abandoned house and vacant buildings, and remnant's of big industry, like Kodak, Xerox, etc. Makes for a VERY busy EMS system as you know. But still some very cool and nice areas. Very affordable too, probably one of the cheapest places in the country you can actually buy a decent home in a nice suburb. Would have never thought there was a portion of NY that was not rural that that was possible.

School rules before FD rules for students who have yet to graduate from high school.
If the FD is that dependent on FF's who are still in high school, then the FD bears responsibility to find itself some qualified people who are beyond high school. The school is not cutting into the FD's resources; the FD placed too many eggs in one basket.

Kids in High school belong in bed well rested for the school day. They don't need the added stress of responding to emergencies, nor do they need the distraction. If your dept. relies on 18 year olds in school, then they're in trouble.....

I think that before you take to the keyboard you should get the facts. You make quite a serious allegation of your department being influenced by an outside source, do you know this to be true? Question these types of things in house before going to the all mighty internet.
Now as far as the policy, good job! They are kids in school. Schooling is required for a job, a job is required to feed a family. I don't think my volunteer department had ever bought dinner for my kids.

2 problems I have with this. 1: as a student athlete I NEVER had a good nights sleep. Especially when I had homework on the weekends or week nights. There was nights where I was in bed by 1am.
2: should work with the school and make rules. If your department tones out more then 2x for the same call then the students should be able to go and be excused with a note from the chief with a call number and to ask the chief if the student was on the call.
Final food for thought, you as a department can not mess with someone's service award points. It's against the law!!!

School rules before FD rules for students who have yet to graduate from high school.
If the FD is that dependent on FF's who are still in high school, then the FD bears responsibility to find itself some qualified people who are beyond high school. The school is not cutting into the FD's resources; the FD placed too many eggs in one basket.

School rules before FD rules for students who have yet to graduate from high school.
If the FD is that dependent on FF's who are still in high school, then the FD bears responsibility to find itself some qualified people who are beyond high school. The school is not cutting into the FD's resources; the FD placed too many eggs in one basket.

School rules before FD rules for students who have yet to graduate from high school.
If the FD is that dependent on FF's who are still in high school, then the FD bears responsibility to find itself some qualified people who are beyond high school. The school is not cutting into the FD's resources; the FD placed too many eggs in one basket.

School rules before FD rules for students who have yet to graduate from high school.
If the FD is that dependent on FF's who are still in high school, then the FD bears responsibility to find itself some qualified people who are beyond high school. The school is not cutting into the FD's resources; the FD placed too many eggs in one basket.

School rules before FD rules for students who have yet to graduate from high school.
If the FD is that dependent on FF's who are still in high school, then the FD bears responsibility to find itself some qualified people who are beyond high school. The school is not cutting into the FD's resources; the FD placed too many eggs in one basket.

School rules before FD rules for students who have yet to graduate from high school.
If the FD is that dependent on FF's who are still in high school, then the FD bears responsibility to find itself some qualified people who are beyond high school. The school is not cutting into the FD's resources; the FD placed too many eggs in one basket.

School rules before FD rules for students who have yet to graduate from high school.
If the FD is that dependent on FF's who are still in high school, then the FD bears responsibility to find itself some qualified people who are beyond high school. The school is not cutting into the FD's resources; the FD placed too many eggs in one basket.

School rules before FD rules for students who have yet to graduate from high school.
If the FD is that dependent on FF's who are still in high school, then the FD bears responsibility to find itself some qualified people who are beyond high school. The school is not cutting into the FD's resources; the FD placed too many eggs in one basket.

According to the way your post reads, the local Fire Department implemented the policy, not the school.

Dispatch up there is one of the top 911 centers in the country. They hold every accredidation possible for comm centers. When I retired in '03, there were 178 employees. They're up to 220 and growing. I was hired in '76 as one of the very first civilian replacements for police officers by RPD. (I made the jump to Dispatcher II (police/fire/ems) in '87 or '88.) That was the start of forming up 911 since RPD dispatch was the largest dispatch group in the county and we already occupied the site of the planned 911 facility. RFD dispatch moved over from HQ and joined up in the first half of the 1980's. We jumped to our first CAD system, turned on 911, and began absorbing other dispatch operations from around the county in the mid 1980's. We moved into our own custom designed and built stand-alone 911 facility in 1994. Today, typical on-duty staff is a shift manager, 3 supervisors, a dozen police dispatchers, a dozen calltakers, and half a dozen fire/ems dispatchers. Our center manager ranks with the police and fire chiefs. 911 is funded mostly by Monroe County but operated by the City of Rochester.
Quint and midi was controversial, but had its good points. The two man midi's were great for ems runs and service calls. Since the midis were Class A pumpers, they used them extensively for water supply at fires. The firefighters felt the midis were a way to reduce manpower. They were a dispatcher's bad dream because of the complex rules for response. Sometimes they could go alone and other times they were treated as just part of the quint and not counted as a separate unit.
RFD uses one of the slickest dispatch systems I've ever seen. The city is divided up in to hundreds of small areas called nodes. There's a huge database of response time to each node from each firehouse and other RFD facilities. When a job comes in, CAD automatically determines how many of what type units are needed, and recommends them based on who is in service and where they are currently located. For most runs, the dispatcher reviews the CAD recommendation and makes the dispatch as recommended. Occasionally, there's variations from the recommendation but not often and always with a good reason.
I moved east to the southern Adirondacks a few years ago so I don't get back that way as often as I'd like. But I was there last Wednesday for lunch with the retirees and then the annual awards presentation at the center. And, yeah, western NY has a lot going for it, particularly the Rochester area.
BTW, 911 is continuous recruitment and they are constantly hiring. I am not sure what the starting pay is these days, but you can stop by Rochester City Hall and pick up the job notice and application. IIRC, there's no residency requirement except to live in the county.
Sorry to ramble but you asked some great questions...

Thanks for all the info, Steve! I always pictured Monroe 911 being much smaller. Are they all in that small building across from Nick Tahou's? Or maybe it's larger then it looks from the street. Westchester County should use their entire system as a model, but that will never happen because everyone wants their own sandbox when it comes to dispatch.
Another question.....what is a "2:2:2" I know the fire was a second alarm, but is there anything more to the number?

Thanks!
RFD is such a no-frills "keep things simple" yet progressive, skilled and aggressive departments when it comes to firefighting. I am always very impressed when I see them operate.
From the traffic I monitor, sounds like dispatching is the same way. When did they switch over to Monroe County? Did you work for them or 911, or both? I assume Fire Dispatch used to be at HQ. I always wonder what the city was like when Kodak and Xerox were at their height, and I wish I could have seen how the Quint/Midi concept in action.
For this fire, I was just exploring the city with my camera and happened to drive by HQ to see if anything was out or around to take a photo of, when Car 99 and the Protectives doors were opening. I cracked my window and heard Q's coming from all over the city. Then saw a plume of smoke. Arrived right after Truck 4, but parked down the street out of the way. Took me another minute to get to the scene, and Engine 9 already had the hydrant and lines stretched, and Truck 4 was performing the primary and setting up the aerial as smoke pumped from the attic. If that fire had one more minute, it would have taken the entire house. They knocked it down real quick. But they had three aerials up and operating, and four engines plugged into hydrants and then into the ladder pipes and hoses, so they were ready to go if it got worse. House was also condemned, but known to have several squatters living inside. I guess you know better then I, but seems to be just another routine job for them.
The cops had a young boy cuffed in the back of a patrol car talking to the Arson unit when I was leaving, and another "resident" showed up on a lawn down the street having chest pain (can be seen leaning over in my shot of R11).
I moved up here temporarily for a job that fell through because of my declining health. Don't know what my next step is going to be yet, but finally enjoying some nice weather up here! So different then the rest of NY, I feel like I'm in another state. It's definitely a great city to be a buff.

In my nearly 30 of 911 service, we saw the most scanner abuse from a very few media reporters. Generally, they were new at the job and overly eager to jump on stories. We'd send out units for an MVA with injuries and the news phone would ring immediately. They'd want the number of patients, severity, etc., etc. etc. We'd politely remind them that they really ought to wait until someone is on scene before demanding details. Most of them got the hint pretty quickly, but we did have to call managing editors every now and then to have them deal with abusers who wouldn't work with us.
We also told media loud and clear that there would be no information on police events until they were over. We politely reminded them that our media phone (direct to 911 supervisors desk) was a privilege, not a right, and that we had no problem ignoring their calls if they didn't work with us and follow our guidelines. The biggest factor in our favor was that if one reporter was being a real jerk, we'd inform the others that if he/she didn't behave, we would not answer the phone at all for a while. Peer pressure is a wonderful thing.

Great photos, Seth! You must have been close by to catch some of those shots with a lot of smoke still showing.
It was my great honor to have been a Police/Fire/EMS dispatcher up there for nearly 30 years. Dispatching RFD was some of the best of the best.
What you doing up there so far from home?

The Protectives are very similar to the now defunct "New York Fire Patrol".They are all volunteer, except for a career firefighter from RFD is detailed to it each shift as a driver. Members wear beige turnout gear and a red helmet, and are trained to NYS FF II with in-house emphasis training on salvage and overhaul. They pickup 1 or more in house night shifts a week, and crews range from 1-4 members. They respond to a couple hundred confirmed working fires a year.
They have only that one rig, and it responds from RFD Headquarters. It carries basic firefighting tools, tarps, fans, trash pumps, generators, lighting equipment, extra SCBA bottles, etc.
In addition to fires, they respond to water conditions, etc...anything that would cause damage to property.
The rig is an HME, the chassis is a 2005 "SLE" model. I believe the replacement has been ordered on a Commander chassis from Rosenbaeur.
The history on how they came about over 144 years is fascinating:
http://rochesterprotectives.com/index.php?l=t&pageStewardLink=2253

There recently has been a site policy enacted to ban the posting of news articles or other information relating to people affiliated with emergency services who get into trouble unrelated to their career or volunteer role.

We feel threads such as the ones described above aren't appropriate for the forum and really have nothing to do with Emergency Services. Often, these threads just turn into a bash-fest, and are counterproductive.

This community aims to build camaraderie and relationships, to promote inter-agency cooperation, share information and ideas, and highlight the emergency services community.

Any new thread violating this new policy will be subject to deletion by the staff.

Over on elightbars.org, there are a number of threads on cleaning and restoring lightbars. If you search around a bit you will find plenty of detailed info and product suggestions. I'm a regular over there under the user name Steve0625.
As the website's name suggests, they are focused on all things related to lights and sirens and related products. There's a lot of emphasis on restoring vintage and collectable stuff and on installs of current products.

I thought Stryker has Ferno pinned for a while, but this new stretcher blows away their "Powerload" system!

One the best features, besides assisting going down stairs, is the fact that you don't have to buy special equipment for your ambulance just for it.

The "Commercial" video



And the "Features" video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBVssnwQCBE