fdalumnus

Anytime is a good time to train. 

Anytime is a good time to train. 

Anytime is a good time to train. 

We never had much in the way of formal daytime drills, but in my old station if there were a bunch of members around during the day it was not unusual to hold a drill. We got a lot of pushback on that from members who worked during the day and felt that they were being denied the "right" to drill so those of us around in the day should not do drill reports or get any kind of credit for doing that drill. This was also briefly a problem when we were a combination department and there were occasional drills during the day for the career staff and any available volunteers. There was a certain volunteer element that felt these were somehow being used to avoid our weekly nighttime drills.
 
I am a fan of drilling in any way possible and favor a combination of day and night drills, whenever possible. I applaud that department for figuring out a way around the problems their membership was having.

Seth, my FD rotates drills and truck checks every Sunday (morning) and Monday (evening).
Like many VFD's, we have many members who work shift work. We try to accommodate this by adding weekday drills and truck checks (usually Tuesday or Thursday). It works well for us. Gives everyone a fair chance at keeping fresh on their training and our equipment. 

BINGO !!!

BINGO !!!

BINGO !!!

He forgot to add that all these towns, villages, cities, districts ect. would not need nearly as many elected officials. That might be a key reason that this will never see a vote.
 

The brochure has the outriggers out to 18' and the single jack in the middle rear for the single axle. They also have it on a tandem axle with a 16' spread, but 2 Jack's in the rear.

my concern is the lack of a tandem axle. that much less weight distribution, and less braking. its a new model, some departments will jump on it to be "the first one on the  block." I'll take a flier on it for a couple of years.

Nice that they were able to respond. What is the response time like?
 
Also this brings up an issue I often wonder about in Dispatch, which is interstate M/A. Despite being so close to each other we do very little responses across the line. We just redid our list for Tankers into Stamford that includes many CT & NY departments. I know there are fire boats in Stamford, Darien, Norwalk & I believe Greenwich. Which might have been close enough to respond, although that area might have required a small boat. I know that we don't have any kind of official list on our end, so it may be the same with NY just not being aware of what is available here.

It's true...15 minutes could lose you 15 million!

.The response of the FDNY small boat to Rye illustrates what some think is one of the great weaknesses in Westchester fire protection is along the Sound Shore where fire fighting capabilities are shaky to .non existent. From the Bronx line to Connecticut there are billions of dollars of boats, marine facilities and shore front properties yet there is little meaningful  fire protection.   

A 110 ft. RM tower with a single set of outriggers, no other stabilization required? Will be interested to see the rating charts.

Technically the color is Wildberry Red. Always looked maroon to me.
 

Thornwood Fire District will be taking delivery of a 2016 Sutphen Custom Pumper soon. This rig will replace the recently retired Engine 89.

Is Mount Vernon's fleet of Pierce and Ferrara Apparatus getting worn out, that the City of Mount Vernon would seek to suppliment their Fire Department fleet, with used apparatus (albeit from Yonkers, who does a great job in maintaining their fleet of Fire Trucks). One would suspect that the 3 used Yonkers Fire Truck that Mount Vernon is looking to purchase are some of the recently changed over American LaFrance rigs. Replacement parts for ALF rigs are hard to come by and thus the reason why a number of departments in the area (New Rochelle, Yonkers, etc) are quickly replacing their ALF Fleet with other manufactured apparatus. 

I think the writing is on the wall. Towns are learning that the volunteer dept. are not there anymore. Gone are the days of 300 active members and waiting lists. Little to no turn out at calls. False claims of "active" members when the 2% money comes. I'm all for Volunteerism and for helping out but westchester is not built for it anymore. As is said, blue collar folks can't make it here anymore. At some point everyone is gonna have to go career or suck it up, put on their big boy pants and consolidate the county. Lord know most guys want that anyway.

Hello everyone it has been years since I used this log in name and that's because I resigned from the city of Rye Fire department 5 years ago.  
I chose to write a response to the above letter.  The letter below was submitted to myrye.com  as well this morning.  And will be to any other media outlets in which Captain Millman sent his letter. 
The following is my statement and does not represent any former or current members of RFD. I am also not affiliated with any fire department at this time. 
 
 
From: Richard P Suarino 
           Ex Captain Poningoe Hook & Ladder Company
To: Letters to the editor,
I am writing in response to a recent letter that was submitted by Fire Police Patrol Captain Lester Millman in regards to the recent changes that have taken place at the Rye Fire Department.  I would like to start by stating that I was a combined 14 yearACTIVE member of the City of Rye Fire Department. I spent two years as part of explorer post 700 as a junior firefighter.  Then 12 years as a member of the Poningoe Hook & Ladder Company, where I served as first & second Lieutenant and then as Captain before resigning from the department in 2012.  I have a combined 17 years in the Emergency Services.  
The picture that Captain Millman has painted for the Rye citizens and would have one believe is that this change is a big surprise to the members of the department.  It's not.   Volunteer membership has been on the decline since probably the 1980’s,and since then the bleeding hasn't stopped, it’s only gottenworse. In the late 90’s, early 2000’s, the department voted in several new members and it helped a little to put a patch on the crack in the dam.  In the 2000’s as an active volunteer firefighter, a lieutenant and then captain, there were several ideas that myself and other active volunteers proposed to make some much needed changes to the department structure to help with rapidly declining membership.  Recommendations were brought to the attention of the Board Of Wardens, who at that time, controlled all decision making within the fire department.  The problem was that the Board was consistently controlled by veteran members of the department who were not as active and ignored any and all input by young active members, to the point where some members were turned off and stopped showing up. Others resigned and some went to other departments. Rye’s changing demographics has had the biggest effect on membership. Gone are the blue collar families of Rye.  Many of the old long time Rye names that were connected to the fire department making it generational are no longer in Rye, forced to move because Rye is unaffordable to those that would volunteer.  For every one member gained three are lost.  A member joining as a college kid at 19 has to resign by 23-24 because they are forced to move out of Rye. And it's not just Rye membership that is down, nation wide volunteer firefighters are declining.  Being in emergency situations, dealing with and seeing the things a firefighter may see is not for everyone. It's a calling, and the hours of training involved will take most free nights away, not to mention the required alarm response.  
Turnout at alarms; even 10 years ago at the most recent height of active membership-. We had 25 interior qualified firefighters and still sometimes we only had 4 volunteers at an alarm.  All working fires required mutual aid from our friends in Harrison and Mamaroneck.  
 
Leadership was and is non-existent under the Volunteer Chiefs of the department and when a chief did try to implement positive change he was quickly pushed out by older voting block.  At Fire scenes, basic accountability of members was lax.  Meaning,God forbid an explosion or collapse happened at a scene, the chiefs had no idea who had actually showed up at the scene.  Some chiefs had nothing more than basic firefighting training. Most were being relied on because of their 30+ years in the department, yet they had taken no classes to sharpen their skills or update their knowledge.  Any good leader in emergency service will tell you, you will never know everything and you are always learning something new until the day you retire.  This business is always changing and evolving.  
The Rye Professional firefighters often find that they are the only ones on scene. Sometimes I was the only volunteer on scene with them.  During the winter of 2002 I was the only volunteer on scene for an afternoon house fire. Three career firefighters and I, with one of those professionals manning twopump panels and one ladder.  
Commissioner Corcoran didn't just come in and decide to shake things up.  He's a very educated man with years of experience and after speaking with numerous people connected to the fire department he saw there was a need for change.  He has a job to lead the men and women of the Police and Fire Departments and the fire department problems are 20+ years in the making,ignored by past Board Of Wardens members and past chiefs of the department who kicked the can down the road.  The public might be surprised that over 100 years of volunteer service are coming to an end but many of the current and past members are not.  
Regards
Richard P Suarino
Past member and Captain Poningoe Hook & Ladder Company
 

I figured it was Ed's work. The pictures are beautiful, but his work is even better in person.

That is some excellent talent right there wow.....

Mr Ed May Excellent  work of Art Ladder 1  He did murals on Their XT Rescue as well My picture of the one mural I took  at the Rescue's Wetdown 

 
They can start with the blowhard masquarading as a chief officer

who did the murals ?