fdalumnus

I am throwing my 2 cents  in again  might be 3 cents with inflation    PC is  claiming  150 interior and 150 exterior  firefighters.  its all speculation but  lets  just look at the 150 interior. questions I would have to ask. do all have nfpa physicals? all mask fit tested??  bail out  qualified?  with personal ropes?  ages of the interior firefighters??  training of the firefighters??--osha-bbp haz mat?? do they all live within the confines of PC?  do the Officers and Chiefs  have additional training  above the firefighter lever??  if  what the mayor  claims to be true  then these records  should be made available to the public  to assure them that they are  safe.  does any one of you  know the answers??
I am sure there  are well trained  well qualified  firefighters in Port Chester. it  just  how many.
 

If Rye Brook presently has eight firefighters and they picked up the eight dismissed firefighters from Port Chester and paid their salaries with the million they no longer have to give the PCFD. That would give them . 16 members on the Department, the same number of career firefighters many of the smaller jobs in Westchester have right now give or take a few ===Larchmont, Pelham Harrison, Pelham Manor etc. When appropriate officers could be developed from the group, ie One Captain, three Lieutenants and twelve firefighters on 24. hours a day coverage
A four person or three person shift could take care of the vast majority of smells and bells calls before the need for mutual aid. 
 The benefit for Rye Brook would be a professional Department for about what they are paying now without having to deal with the contract and any future PCFC drama ,additionally, they would get fully trained veteran firefighters well versed in their Department and community. ( they work there now)
 The eight Port Chester firefighters would again be employed and their families protected.
  I think it would be worth a conversation. it could really be a win-win-win all around.

I don't live in Rye Brook, but this would seriously bother me: (From Journal News)
 
"... the village will save $800,000 next year through eliminating base salaries totaling $600,000, as well as associated benefits, overtime and equipment costs, officials said."
 
So for eight full time positions, including benefits and other perks Port Chester is saving $800k by eliminating these positions.
 
"Rye Brook has paid Port Chester just under $1 million a year to staff the Rye Brook firehouse for a 12-hour overnight shift."
 
Okay, I'm not a mathematician, but Rye Brook has been paying Port Chester a million bucks for one half time position and Port Chester has been paying less than a million bucks for eight full-time positions.  So the Rye Brook contract pays for the entire paid Port Chester staff annually, but they still can't keep them on? Port Chester has made an annual profit of $200k thanks to Rye Brook! Anyone else see something wrong here?
 
Like I said in the first sentence, I don't live in Rye Brook, but if I were mayor, now that the contract has been breached I'd be doing the math that Port Chester has now supplied and sue going back to the original date of contract for the total amount they overpaid for the half-time position they were given.  There is obvious fraud here on many levels.  Port Chester is going to end up paying so much more on this one in the end... 

 
 None of the three are capable of passing the test, nor any of the other requirements of becoming a professional firefighter.  Pure jealousy on their part, not one bit of logical thinking on their part. What next, maybe eliminating some of the volunteer apparatus and/or companies? They just opened the door for further reductions of the fire dept budget. "No new turnout gear for Brooksville, (just saying) We'll just have Mellor pick up the slack." Sounds crazy. You're effing right!  If any member of the Port Chester FD thinks the politicians care one iota about them, I have a nice new bridge in Tarrytown to sell to them, dirt cheap.

 
 None of the three are capable of passing the test, nor any of the other requirements of becoming a professional firefighter.  Pure jealousy on their part, not one bit of logical thinking on their part. What next, maybe eliminating some of the volunteer apparatus and/or companies? They just opened the door for further reductions of the fire dept budget. "No new turnout gear for Brooksville, (just saying) We'll just have Mellor pick up the slack." Sounds crazy. You're effing right!  If any member of the Port Chester FD thinks the politicians care one iota about them, I have a nice new bridge in Tarrytown to sell to them, dirt cheap.

This is an awesome idea. I wish they had something like this when I was in high school. I hope that Westchester sees the increase interest in fire science education in our area, and other high schools follow suit. I also hope WCC starts something on the college level. The interest is definitely out there. Being in a fire service Explorer post from 14 years old, the experience gained in the fire service changed my life and gave me many of my skills. I've always been a big believer in the potential it has for other kids.

Make no mistake about it, this whole thing was orchestrated by the 3 chiefs.  I quote the Mayor in his attempt to justify this to me "This was all balanced against our volunteer response capabilities and their contingency plan."

It would seem Rye Brook should look at legal options.  But Vtach is right why not just take that $1mil and hire the 8 on to the small exisiting career staff RB has now.  How many professional FF does RB have?  Unfortunately if they get a fire or something big they will need mutual aid, but hey in todays Westchester County Fire system everyone calls for MA.  I know its not a solution but RB can start to build a career staff  for a small town.  If they get the big one well they have options close by White Plains, Rye, Harrison.
 
Also Pete K is correct there are PC volleys who definitely don't live or work in PC but volunteer.  I have heard sometimes they struggle to get guys to some alarms and engine can't roll.  

Greenwich ct.

For the money being spent by Rye Brook they should just hire the 8 and staff 24 / 7 

It's all B... S..., look a little into it.Rye Brook pays port Chester close to 1 Million dollars a year for night fire protection with at least 1career firefighter and 1 piece of apparatus which it states in their contract. The cost of the 8Professional P.C. firefighters which cover rye brook at night and the village during the day is roughly $ 650.000 per year . DO THE MATH, port Chester is making $ 350.000 per year it doesn't cost the taxpayers of p.c. 1 cent to have the professionals on duty. All it is is a personal attack towards the career firefighters, and had nothing to do with the almighty buck. The residents and business owners must come together to support these firefighters and demand that they get their jobs back.  STAY STRONG......

I just hope the fellow Career Brothers in neighboring Depts don't respond in to cover them!!!!!!! After all we are a Brotherhood right? Yeah OK!!!!

My hands are still shaking over this . I was at Gulliver's  and as you all know to well that it is the early stages of the fire  that are the most critical and that night  we through firefighters after firefighters at the rescue side of it and  saved over 100 but that was when Engine 58 had a 2 man crew and Engine 59 had a 2 man crew because there where 16 on the job and the Volunteer side had men hanging off the rigs because there where no seats left to sit in. Port Chester is a very busy dept  and the call volume will burn out the volunteers going to the small calls like CO ,trash, brush, car, and what ever in the middle of the night . One of the Chiefs is a member on here .

It is clearly not a financial issue. Watch the village board meeting on their website.
 
1) they state they want to add cops
2) they state they failed to pass the tax cap override 30 days prior (as required by law)
3) they stated they can only add cops if they cut the budget elsewhere (since they can't legally raise taxes)
4) they started with a number of cuts, including the $600,000 in salary/benefits for the career firefighters 
 
now here is is the kicker.......
 
5) they included dropping the Rye Brook "payment" (with no explanation). This payment is approximately $1,000,000 for fire protection.
 
So how many cops can they hire with this math? $600,000 - $1,000,000 = negative $400,000. In other words, the village will have to come up with an additional $400,000 to fund the FD. 

What a political manuver done with the guise of saving tax payers money.  The reality is once the residential and commercial fire insureance rates go up and the ISO rating drops as a result of going from a paid Department to a all volunteer one, businesses and residents of Port Chester and Rye Brook are, on the whole, going to be paying more out of pocket anyway.  The only difference is instead of the town receiving the money in the form of taxes the insurance companies will receive it in the form of increased premiums, and the lives and property of both jurisdictions will be less safe because of it.

I wouldn't be calling PCFD ENG58 out over anything that is taken out of context on this site.  The guy devoted his whole life to the PCFD both with and without a paycheck.

Don't worry about where I came from , NOBODY AND I MEAN NOBODY  spoke to the board about the jobs but firefighters . The pubic does not care about the jobs and that is my point , all they care about is tax's going up and that's what I meant by not to focus  on the guys because they [ pubic don't care ] about  the guy's
 

As a member of local 1971 [ retired ]   and a 44 year member of the PCFD . It's not about the firefighters it's about the community we live in and the safety of the residents  that now  are at risk . Most of you guys know me and know that during my career I had my share of fires over the years many and I mean many that I pulled up to by myself.  Many voll pulled lines off my rig and started to attack the fire before the rest of the rigs got there . Now that element is lost  We worked together well and that my fellow firefighters is what made our dept work .

It is true and has been coming about for some time . Do any of you guys remember the time when North White Plains had there trouble  with there chief , well guess who's chief in Port Chester . Said day for my brothers in local 1971. We are a busy dept with no room for this and if anyone has driven in Port Chester lately you can see the village is booming with new housing

Wow, I'm totally disgusted by this very sad news. In my 48 years with the Department I have always been proud of our reputation as one of the best Fire Departments in Westchester County. That reputation was earned by the dedicated service and hard work performed by the Career and Volunteer staffs working together. Sure we had our differences at times (some not so pleasant) but we worked them out for the betterment of the service. The Village of Port Chester has been very fortunate to have a Fire Department that has saved many lives and millions of dollars in fire losses over the years. The quick response of the Career Staff with Engines 58 & 59 and the superb firefighting tactics of it's dedicated Volunteers have prevented many small fires from becoming major conflagrations. Anyone in the Fire Service knows how fast uncontrolled fires multiply by the minute and therefore the importance of the quick initial response. In most cases that is what the Career staff provided. To the Mayor and Members of the Village Board, as a former Chief of this Department I'm appalled by this decision. You should be ashamed of yourselves for taking this horrendous action and placing the lives and property of the citizens in jeopardy. I hope your actions don't cause any hardship or sorrow to anyone involved. To the Career staff I wish you Godspeed in finding new suitable employment in your chosen profession. To the Volunteers watch your backs, you never know who's next on the hit list.. In closing I feel a list of how the Village Board Voted should be posted so the residents know who is responsible for this unfortunate decision.....

Are we sure this isn't a rumor?  This will have an adverse effect on a lot of things....Rye Brook would lose their night engine, the Village of Port Chester loses on the spot fire demand, never mind where else this will affect the county.  If this is true, my heart goes out to the residents of Port Chester and Rye Brook.  For Port Chester to disband their paid sector is only bad for the community and it's neighbors.  Where I really feel bad is for our brothers and sisters that just lost their jobs; they just lost their livelihoods!

This is despicable and disgusting. They should be ashamed of themselves for penny pinching at the risk of the resident's lives. Unbelievable. 
 
Brothers in Local 1971 Stay Strong! 

The village board of trustees are playing games with the residents lives. The career dept has been horribly understaffed for years and under threat of disbanding.  They should be ashamed of themselves and should be held responsible for their actions which are both unethical if not illegal

Now we're gonna see if the Port Chester Volunteers are truely Brothers. They should all resign immediatly. All of the westchester fire depts should remove themselves from Port Chester mutual aide response until the Board reverses the descision. 

The question in my mind remains. "How can we be sure this was done by firefighters within the Fairfax County Fire Department".
 
With so much at stake here, how can the department assign it's own officers within the department to conduct this investigation ? I would expect an outside agency to be more involved.
 
Is it true that her husband or ex husband is a state trooper ? And if so, if this was going on, why didn't he seek a salutation to this kind of cyber bullying behavior early on. Working directly with the fire department ? I find it hard to believe that no one made mention to her about this cyber bullying going on. Or brought it to the attention of a high ranking officer. In this fairly large department made up of both career and volunteer firefighters, no one spoke up about it ?
 
As a retired firefighter I would like to tell a true story where a group of 9 firefighters almost got fired for something they didn't do. Apparently a relocated company brought in a few ladies to pose topless in this firehouse. It was very clear where these pictures were taken. When they appeared on the internet, the chief as well as the mayor was furious. They started an investigation and somebody was going to loose their job.
 
  As it turned out, the night those pictures were taken, there was a RELOCATED company in that firehouse from ANOTHER DEPARTMENT. The original members were out fighting a fire when all this happened. They had nothing to do with those pictures. But before that was learned, the local newspaper was all set to write up the story. City Hall was ready to get rid of the entire shift working at that firehouse. I don't remember how it was narrowed down to that particular night of the fire, but as it turned out, the guilty parties got away with it and no mention of that ever again.
 
   I know I will never forget how myself and eight other firefighters almost lost our jobs because of some idiots who thought it was funny to post pictures of women topless inside the firehouse we worked in. And the guilty parties got away with it too, adding to the insult. We were all considered guilty then too by City Hall and the Fire Chief. Until somebody proved that those firefighters were not even in that firehouse when those pictures were taken. Before that, eight innocent firefighters were about to be fired.