fdalumnus

For the most part, I agree with your message, but have a few thoughts and questions....
 
1) Was the Eastchester Captain in charge of the whole shift at the time of the incident or just the station nearest the incident?
 
2) Are Eastchester and Scarsdale on the same dispatch channel?
 
3) I'm not familiar with the area, but if the map at the beginning of the thread is accurate, it looks like the location of the fire is very close to the Eastchester/Scarsdale border and possibly within sight of the Eastchester station.  As such, I could easily see a situation where Eastchester units started to the incident thinking it could possibly be in their area, particularly if they aren't on the same dispatch channel.
 
4) The media is notorious for misreporting, misrepresenting or misquoting things.  As such, their statement of what happened may not fully represent what actually happened.
 
5) I have some difficulty with the use of the term "freelancing" in this particular context.  My understanding of the definition for freelancing is essentially doing a task or taking an action without communication or coordination of such.  There's a fair bit of detail about this not readily available to draw informed conclusions, but in general, I wouldn't consider investigating signs of a possible fire nearby to be freelancing, even if doing so happened to take you a couple blocks into the next town.  Once on scene, as the initial arriving unit(s), as long as they communicated that they were on scene, going to work and subsequently worked within whatever command structure that was established, I wouldn't necessarily call that freelancing and wouldn't necessarily call it operating without accountability.

While I get that self dispatching should be frowned upon with the information provided with the assigned Scarsdale engine unavailable Eastchester did the right thing self dispatching to save a life.  Had the fire been in another section of Scarsdale then no.  I am sure the Capt. in Eastchester knew that and should be commended for his action.

personalities over principles ?
 

 
Bingo.
 
Consolidation was a great idea, so great, it wasn't implemented. Why? Archaic NYS laws. Remember Westchester2000, that large loose leaf book that resulted from an expensive study. Made a pretty good door chock.
 
Isn't the SFD station in question closed due to structural problems ?
 

 
Bingo.
 
Consolidation was a great idea, so great, it wasn't implemented. Why? Archaic NYS laws. Remember Westchester2000, that large loose leaf book that resulted from an expensive study. Made a pretty good door chock.
 
Isn't the SFD station in question closed due to structural problems ?
 

If I am not mistaken the Consolidation Plan submitted several years ago consisting of around   10 willing Departments and District would have put as many as 26 men and on the scene in 6 minutes on three engines, two ladders , a heavy rescue and Incident Commander , the location of this fire was a perfect example.
The craziest part of the whole plan would have been the closest firehouse to the call responded, despite municipal boundaries could you imagine that ?????

That's going to be some impressive KME pumper tanker Ed's work will put it over the top

 
Ed is the best

 
Ed is the best

I  heard though the grapevine that the palisades park XT  Quint is still having finishing touches with gold leaf & murals by master detailer Ed May Hopefully they'll be having a wetdown for this impressive looking Quint 

$$$$$

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

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

There is more positive news to report regarding the Fractured Fire Service of Norwich.
 
A SECOND incident in another Fire District (Yantic FD) brought the Norwich Firefighters to the address of 114 West Town St per the Yantic Fire Commander.
 
The Norwich FD responded as the FAST CO, with a Truck consisting of one Lt and three Firefighters (All Norwich FFs are trained in FAST Co Operations). A total distance of 2.9 miles.  Something that has NEVER happened.
 
This is a FIRST for the Yantic FD and there is no doubt that they did the right thing. Just as another Volunteer Fire District did, the East Great Plains FD, when they had a working fire recently.
 
 I believe full credit goes to Norwich City Manager, John Salamone. He took the time to listen when no other city officials did. He apparently realized that a fire department from some 8 or 15 miles away can NOT be called before the much closer, 24 hour staffed Norwich FD.
 
 This has been two years in the making which involved some very serious incidents. This entire campaign began with a grease fire two years ago at a nursing home located at 93 West Town St. Just down the street from this current incident. In that incident the Norwich FD was never called. However, three other unstaffed, volunteer fire departments were called from farther away.  
 
 I would like to think that this story is over. I hope that the two recent examples involving the East Great Plains and Yantic FDs will end this long on going nightmare. The Citizens of this city need to come first, not how some fire dept feels about each other.
 
 Tonight (2/8/2017), there is reason to be proud of these FDs within the City of Norwich, Ct.

Can't help but feel like this will not help anyone (re?)gain faith in the Avalon brand, nor will it help instill any faith in the brand.  
 
I wonder, it said they were able to keep the fire from spreading to the completed structures... pardon me if I sound a little flippant, but anyone know if they actually learned a damn thing from the Edgewater Avalon fire, or are they still making the same decisions that, at least can be ARGUED, contributed to the fire's size?  You'd think they'd at least consider putting in fire walls, and sprinklers, especially if they insist on using that highly flammable "engineered lumber" to build most of the structure.  ~_~
 
 

Did you even read the article or at least the portion posted? 
 
Even if "the roads will still be congested", the fact that a fly car is closer to a call than an ambulance means that ALS equipped EMS personnel will likely reach the patient sooner.  It clearly states that response times in that area are down in conjunction with this program.  That certainly seems like a good thing and it's literally change.
 
 

Deja vu all over again!

personalities over principles ?
 

personalities over principles ?
 

FDVA2573 - I see you're with Montrose VA Fire Dept. Can you please give me a rundown on your department. Apparatus, manning per shift, stations, etc. I've heard of you but never got the rundown on your department. Thanks in advance, LayTheLine

Does anybody remember what Barry said about 3 years ago on the tax cap , WELL!

Latest Update:
 
 

If I am correct the year is 2017, not the 1960's when "brownouts" were so common in the FDNY! It's time the politicians in White Plains showed more interest in public safety that "vote getting" for their individual campaigns. I believe that Local 274 should start marching at City Hall and at the home of the Mayor, Tom Roach. He claims to care about public protection but certainly doesn't show it by putting the ladder oos so often. One civilian death due to a fire will cost the City 100 times more than it would ever cost to staff that ladder. I am fortunate to work in a City where we operate 9 engines, 3 ladders, 1 heavy rescue and a Deputy Chief with an aide,  and our contract mandates ALL APPARATUS be staffed with a minimum of 4 firefighters each. It's inherently un-safe for your members to be operating at such reduced staffing levels. Fight for what you want and most of all need!

Montrose VA is still a Haz-Mat team. We still operate Haz-Mat 3

I found the unofficial rundown. They struck alarms quickly:
04:00 2nd Alarm on Arrival
04:05 3rd Alarm
04:26 4th Alarm
 
09:13 Under Control
 
1st:
E312, 309, 310, 306
L75, 72, 71 (Fast)
B2, 1
R1
Squad 11
MSU
Car 6 (fire invest)
 
2nd:
E308, 307
L70
 
3rd:
E314
L73
Car 3 (Asst Chief)
 
4th:
E303, 304, 313
L74
 
Relocations:
New Rochelle E22, L12 to Yonkers Sta 12
Greenville E150 to Yonkers Sta 11
 
***The news report said all on-duty members responded and the math works out. However, I assume Yonkers had some type of callback to cover reserve apparatus for coverage. If not, they only had 2 & 1 covering the city which is highly unlikely***