calhobs

I have always been against calling the bird for anything other than a prolonged extrication in that area (13 years in the next town south from peekskill) for that reason. I can make it to WMC is about 25 min in my POV during the morning commute why wouldn't I be able to make it in the same time or faster with RLS? Ask me, too many people rely on ALS and medivacs.

You guys done yet?
Thought we were here to find ways to IMPROVE things?! You guys are griping about what is under what roof. Enough already.

No he is not he no more special then any other person who studies to get a good grade. He got the top grade with his veteran credits and that's it. What about the others who got the same grade without them? Are they not important??? Should they not get the chance for the same job? You must not have a great career like me or most here and know how hard the work is to get it or how long you have to wait so maybe you should get over yourself.Domenick

It could but there are more fail safes now. New York VTS (vessel traffic system/control) keeps a very close eye on the traffic and now with the help of AIS (automated Identification system) maritime traffic is closely watch by ALL. Then on board are other safeties in place. Such as watch alarms, watch standards ( who and how manny officers are on the bridge). Usually in heavy traffic everyone is in the bridge. Besides the chief mate/first officer. Typically he/she is standing by the anchor at the ready for emergency release on the anchor brake The second officer is usually navigating or over looking the helmsman and working the throttles. Depending in the vessel and captain the two can switch do vice versa. And of course the captain will be up on the bridge with the pilot The Exxon Valdez. Well that's not practiced anymore but tankers used to have permission by VTS to cut the corner to save time and fuel.

Get over it!!!! What makes him so diff then anyone who works hard to get on the list? If he scored a 95 and got 5 points as a veteran credit is he more special then the kid who got no credits and scored a 98 or a 100???
Seriously get over it

This happened on May 30 1973, . I was 5 years old at the time. I remember hearing the explosion and then my house shook for about 3 minutes, and I was about 3 miles away from it. The SS Esso Brussels & SS Sea Witch collided Just North of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge then drifted under the bridge while still on fire. I remember one of the boats was pushed to the shore line after the fire was "put out" it sat there for weeks smoldering about 25 feet from land.
The lower level of the bridge was closed for weeks, and then opened and closed for repairs for a few years due to this.
This is possibly the biggest Maritime Incident in NYC history. Here is a link with some info
http://wikimapia.org/10471086/SS-Esso-Brussels-SS-Sea-Witch-Collision-Site and a pic of that night. Does anyone remember this or any other major Maritime Incident in NY

.

This happened on May 30 1973, . I was 5 years old at the time. I remember hearing the explosion and then my house shook for about 3 minutes, and I was about 3 miles away from it. The SS Esso Brussels & SS Sea Witch collided Just North of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge then drifted under the bridge while still on fire. I remember one of the boats was pushed to the shore line after the fire was "put out" it sat there for weeks smoldering about 25 feet from land.
The lower level of the bridge was closed for weeks, and then opened and closed for repairs for a few years due to this.
This is possibly the biggest Maritime Incident in NYC history. Here is a link with some info
http://wikimapia.org/10471086/SS-Esso-Brussels-SS-Sea-Witch-Collision-Site and a pic of that night. Does anyone remember this or any other major Maritime Incident in NY

.

What if? What if? What if?
You can "what if" things to death and the bottom line always seems to be we respond to the call we have. We don't decline to respond so we can remain available for the call that we MAY get.
What if Engines 131 and 134 are on another FIRE call when your hypothetical structure fire comes in across town? Does it matter that the call is EMS or FIRE? It shouldn't. It's still our customer calling for help.

Not to comment on what is the biggest, etc, but this one applies to Westchester Departments. When the USS (not SS) Constellation burned in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1960, SCBA's were just starting to be used by the fire service. Most commonly used at the time were things like OBA's, Chemox, and the like
FDNY had some Scott SCBA's and departments in Westchester had maybe one or two in their inventory.
FDNY put out a request for as many SCBA's as could be mustered. Southern Westchester departments gathered as many as they could and loaded them on Eastchester Rescue 5. I don't know who else was involved, but I know that my father responded to Brooklyn on R-5.
Just a historocal tidbit

You are all "missing the boat." NYC has seen MANY maritime disasters. In fact, the colony of New Amsterdam was formed because of a maritime disaster when the ship Tyger burned to the waterline while moored in lower Manhattan. Capt Adrien Block (ie, Block Island) and his crew built the first European structures on the island and inhabited them until they built a new ship (Onrust). The hull of the ship was found in 1916 during work on the subway system at Greenwich and Dey Streets; now under the WTC site. Two firefighters were killed in maritime fires; Thomas Cooney in 1902 (fire on the British Queen started near Hoboken but drifted to Governors Island) and John Harvey in 1930 (fire at Pier 42, aboard the Muenchen). Lt. Francis Blessing of Rescue 1 was awarded the James Gordon Bennett Medal for rescuing two men from a submarine fire at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1918. 1941, the SS Panuco at Pier 27 in Brooklyn - 41 dead. In 1942 the SS Normandie burned at Pier 88 where it rolled on its side and got stuck in the mud because of the instabilty caused by the massive amounts of water pumped in to battle the blaze. Fifty workers died aboard the SS Constellation at a fire in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1960. In 1966 the SS Alva Cape and SS Massahusetts collided and exploded, killing 33. Other fires occurred along the riverfronts that did not include ships, only the piers such as the Lukenbach pier in 1956 where 10 civlians died and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal fire in 1946 where FDNY Telegraph Bureau Lineman Harold Clandening made the Supreme Sacrifice. The most recent maritime disaster was the SI Ferry Andrew Barberi crash that killed 10 civilians; no fire but a maritime disaster responded to by FDNY. And of course, there are the ones already mentioned by the group.

Just one other note...I guess it depends how you define "biggest."

Stewart didn't race today. Regan Smith drove for him. The kid in the video ran towards him and the goosing of the throttle that you saw was him trying to turn the car to the bottom of the track. The only way to get a sprint car to turn quickly is to use the throttle. Watch the way they race. The car is designed to race sideways and thus it doesn't like to turn moving slow.
EDIT:
Your thought about him trying to spray Ward with dirt makes no sense as well. These are hard packed clay (most of the time) tracks. There is little to no spraying of dirt on a night like last night.

This happened on May 30 1973, . I was 5 years old at the time. I remember hearing the explosion and then my house shook for about 3 minutes, and I was about 3 miles away from it. The SS Esso Brussels & SS Sea Witch collided Just North of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge then drifted under the bridge while still on fire. I remember one of the boats was pushed to the shore line after the fire was "put out" it sat there for weeks smoldering about 25 feet from land.
The lower level of the bridge was closed for weeks, and then opened and closed for repairs for a few years due to this.
This is possibly the biggest Maritime Incident in NYC history. Here is a link with some info
http://wikimapia.org/10471086/SS-Esso-Brussels-SS-Sea-Witch-Collision-Site and a pic of that night. Does anyone remember this or any other major Maritime Incident in NY

.

So? People get passed over in job selection all the time. They can take 1 out of the top 3.

Is there enough room to open the driver's door. Who shovels the snow in the winter so it doesn't bounce out the door.

This happened on May 30 1973, . I was 5 years old at the time. I remember hearing the explosion and then my house shook for about 3 minutes, and I was about 3 miles away from it. The SS Esso Brussels & SS Sea Witch collided Just North of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge then drifted under the bridge while still on fire. I remember one of the boats was pushed to the shore line after the fire was "put out" it sat there for weeks smoldering about 25 feet from land.
The lower level of the bridge was closed for weeks, and then opened and closed for repairs for a few years due to this.
This is possibly the biggest Maritime Incident in NYC history. Here is a link with some info
http://wikimapia.org/10471086/SS-Esso-Brussels-SS-Sea-Witch-Collision-Site and a pic of that night. Does anyone remember this or any other major Maritime Incident in NY

.

The Black Tom explosion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tom_explosion
As a younger member in the firehouse there were still a few old timers who could recall being woken by the sound and shaking in Port Chester

One could argue the "biggest Maritime Incident in NYC history" would be the PS General Slocum with 1000+ deaths.

While that was a massive fire, the General Slocum was the "biggest" maritime disaster in NYC history
On June 15, 1904, the General Slocum caught fire and sank in the East River. At the time of the accident she was on a chartered run carrying members of a church group. An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board died. The General Slocum disaster was the New York area's worst disaster in terms of loss of life until the September 11, 2001 attacks and remains the worst maritime disaster in the city's history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_General_Slocum

They quit! Why?
1. Last time I checked this was a team sport! The success of an operation cannot and should not be determined by the actions of the few (or the individual). When a member constantly trains and studies, but is surrounded by novices who can't perform simple functions, he (or she) will be discouraged. It is hard to be proud of or confident in your organization or your team when you know exactly what needs to be done on the fireground and are prepared for every emergency, but everyone else doesn't. It is discouraging to consistently do your job exactly by the book and have every operation fail because no one else read it.
2. It is dangerous! To be a knowledgeable and aggressive firefighter is a good thing. However, when an individual is experience and talented but surrounded by novices, who can you count on to come to your aid when the s*** hits the fan. Instead, it hampers your ability because you have to be overcautious since no one else can keep up (or get scared) and no one can get you out should you get into trouble (it happens to the best of us!).
3. Frustration! It gets tiring to know exactly what needs to be done to resolve and incident but have other people consistently screw things up! You get tired of having ceilings pulled down on you; you get tired of waiting for water because your CPO can figure out how to pull the right levers; you get tired of having rooms flash when you are in them because your outside vent team doesn't know how to properly vent horizontally and introduces too much oxygen to the fire; you get tired of having no back-up man on the knob because the guy behind you couldn't find his gloves; you get tired of telling your crew to pull a 2 1/2 with a smooth bore and getting an 1 3/4 with a fog tip! After a while you just realize that they don't care and that you don't want to be a part of them anymore.
4. Ostracization! When you are part of the small minority that actually cares about training, firematics, and performace, but 46 of the other 50 members of the organization only care about parades and pancake dinners, then you become the a******! You are the guy who is always critiquing everyone; you are the guy who is always telling people how to improve; and you are the guy who takes things too seriously (after all "We are just volunteers!"). So even though all you want to do is teach others and improve the effectiveness of your department, you are always the a****** who is ruining the fork and knifers' good time and telling them that they are doing it wrong! So instead of moving up because you are the most well-trained, you are voted out and replaced with the head clown in the popularity contest that they call an election because everyone loves him!
Thats why they quit...

I miss the old days of GOOD conversation, discussion and the occasional spirited debate. We all may never have agreed on everything, but it was always good to see each side's perspective.
A lot of what I learned on here has helped me over the years as a fireman and as a Chief Officer. It's too bad coming here for knowledgeable discussions has been replaced by generally useless posts about fire trucks, fire shows and pointless one-upping/finger-pointing.
I admit I used to post more often, but between being banned for a while, accused of stuff I didn't do, speaking my mind and hurting peoples' feelings and yes, being told I shouldn't post on here by my job, I have stepped back.
It would be nice to see things get back to the old here...

What about some of the old-timers like alsfirefighter, helicopper, NY10570?

NYC back in the day was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away

NYS states that there must be a certified EMT with the patient at all times. Nothing specific about crew responding to a call all together. if they did that at least half of really rural VAC would be put out of business.

That's actually where I saw it, took the class last month so the video is fresh in my head. Good for a chuckle and drives the point home.

This video should pretty much sum things up, unfortunately its a short version but you'll get the idea:
Hats of Incident Management