calhobs

This can be very true. There is a HUGE differance between Paid Staff and Professional Staffing.
I know several Professional Fire Fighters both Paid and Volunteer and unfortunitly for the entire Fire Fighting career I know some Paid unprofessional Fire Fighters as well.

First off let me start by saying that this post is by no means trying to discredit other departments or their procedures/policies. As it will be explained we arrived to our decisons based off of research. I am an Asst. Chief/member of the Highland Fire District. I am going to try and set the record straight in regards to the decisions that were made in last nights multiple structure fire incidents and in future incidents to come. As most of you are aware while Milton's Structure fire was wrapping up, we were dispatched to a poss. chimney fire on pretty much the farthest end of our district. New Paltz was dispatched with an engine on the inital dispatch. Upon arriving the 2nd alarm assignment was requested. That would normally bring an engine and manpower from one of our surrounding depts.Being that Marlboro was standing by at Milton's headquarters, Car 31 requested that they be dispatched to our location with their engine and manpower. Now normally we would have Marlboro's FAST Team dispatched on that assignment, but the fact that we were utilizing them for another assignment, it was decided to dispatch our backup FAST Team Hughsonville. Now the question is why Hughsonville? And the answer to that is .... their overall FAST Operation is in many ways the same. They require their members to attend and stay current with training, they have a set of FAST SOP's (some departments that we looked at did not), they will not respond if certain criteria is not met... (ie. at least 4 members on the truck before it responds)... you know pretty much not going to do a job that is asked of you with JUST THE MINIMUM. Yeah it may take the in excess of 20 minutes.... and for the record it was a 17 minute response for last nights incident. And I will say one thing for the first time being used it went very well. They did what you would expect from a FAST Team and then some. The decsion to utilize them took MONTHS not hours or days like I am sure that most of you are thinking or believing, but MONTHS.
If anyone has any further questions please feel free to contact me.
Thanks again to ALL of the Mutual Aid Companies that assisted at last nights incident. You assistance was GREATLY APPRECIATED !!!

Regarding your comments about the technical terminology of the OSHA Standard, and your legal interpretation of same; you are putting forth one of the most regressive arguements I've seen in quite some time. Are you quite sure that your legal knowledge is correct? You seem to have left out a few very key words in your deconstruction of the Standard; "provide EFFECTIVE EMERGENCY RESCUE." Do you understand how much weight those simple four words legally carry?
I'll tell you who does, FEMA for starters. They granted millions of dollars in AFG awards based on the proper application of the Standard you quoted. I've alluded to the fact that my job was a recipient of said AFG award. I will tell you, in the narrative, the term RIT or RIC (Rapid Intervention Crew is one which consists of fewer than four members) was used numerous times in justifying our need to be able to effectively perform the intent of 1910.134. FEMA agreed. I'm sure PESH would agree. I'm sure a judge would agree.
Many in the fire service have fought extremely hard to make this Standard just that; a Standard.
Please don't start telling all these members that there really is no "technical" requirement for FAST or RIT.
To all the younger guys that interpret your comments that there are technicalities, and ways to wiggle around with 1910.134, follow the progressive line of thought here fellas. FAST/RIT is one of the best improvements we have been able to establish in our lifetimes regarding firefighter safety. An IC that disregards the INTENT of the Standard, and trust me an attorney would be better able to explain the ramifications of the Standard in a lawsuit against a negligent IC; exposes him/herself to major liability. Aside from the catastrophy that might occur.
Stay progressive in your thoughts and actions out there guys. Please, for your own safety.
Edit: for unnecessary harshness.

I have to disagree with a lot of the comments supporting the youths actions and condemning the airline. I worked in NYC my entire career including Borough Park, Brooklyn, one of the most Orthodox areas in the city and never came across this practice. This aside remember the terrorist chant their prayers also prior to "self sacrifice" so the fact that the boy was "praying" is not a sole comforting factor for the flight crew. For this crew could have mistaken this to be his preparation for a terrorist act against the plane. It was said he was traveling with his "sister". How did they know that for a fact, could it have been an accomplice, remember there is a female terrorist on trial as we speak. While we are all entitled to our personal opinions remember when we second guess people for acting it will only cause inaction which will lead to larger problems. While people got delayed and a young man got an education into the fact that the entire world is not as familiar with his religion as he thought, in the end the all arrived at their final destination safely and yes now the world has been educated and also now knows what a phylactery or Hebrew tefillin is.

Because she should be trained to recognized threats....not overt signs faith.
If this was some Christian with a bible and rosary beads this would not have happened. It is quite obvious that this occurred due to complete and total ignorance on the part of the flight staff.
It should not matter if you have never seen "Tefillin" before, you should know, as a representative of you employer and in this case the airline you should be aware of what poses a threat and what does not. A 17 year old kid praying with his sister would only be a threat to atheism and the paranoid, witch hunting society we live in today.
With incidents like these we prove that the terrorists have won, their goal is to interrupt our daily lives and fight within ourselves to eventually weaken us.....and that it has....

See post #13.
Key words here: "If you don't like a member"......
Thanks for validating my post!

What is the need for this "Member Reputation System" ?
This will prove nothing.