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Didn't FD ask the troopers for help? You make it sound like the cops were freelancing, tapped the hydrant and stretched the line on their own. I bet if it was your house on fire, you wouldn't be complaining that the cops were putting water on it.

Yes Sir, that was me.
A few years back my department went mutual aid for a house fire with our Truck. I lived between the fire and the firehouse, so I drove directly to the scene where I was paired up with a good friend from another department to do a search as there were reports of a trapped civillian. The house was "going good" with heavy fire on floor 1, side 4.
As we walked up to the front step, the TROOPERS and another firefighter pulled the victim from the house, he was right behind the front door. Since we thought there was another victim inside, we pushed into the front door. My partner was already inside and I was a few feet inside when the fire rolled out the front door. Fire was to the right, we went left...the fire blocked our exit if need be...the TROOPER took the line that was on the front steps (unattended) and knocked back the fire in the doorway, holding it in check until we completed the primary of the room thought to hold another victim. We then took the kine and attacked the fire.
We know it wasnt an ideal situation, but thats the reality of rural firefighting....I was thankful for them.

4 AM alone on Engine 58 pulled up to a body shop 100 x 50 fully involed P.D hit hydrant and pulled preconnects while I went for the deck gun untill the men got there!

I understand what you're saying Joe. We must also acknowledge there are always going to be comments from the general public (and sometimes FD members) because of the responsibility you must carry enforcing the law.
It's not a popular job, because 95% of everyday ordinary Americans go afoul of some kind of law, probably every single day. There is a lot of projected anxiety toward the police. It's easy for someone to point at the cop when he gets a speeding ticket and say "that such-and such." What a common reaction to shirk the responsibility that the driver was doing 76 in a 55, and say it's the cop's fault for writing the ticket! So Grandma Hespess who prides herself on having never broken a law, carelessly speeds down the Sprain Brook Pkwy, doing 70 and talking on the cell phone. That d@#n cop!
I have always admired the fraternity of the police. It is extremely strong. You have to have each others' backs; because sometimes it is you against the world.
At the same time, you're not going to find more people who gather at a website, who have as much respect for their police brothers in blue, as those who gather here. Many, many times, the misdirection of hostility directed at the human being tasked with LE, the guy in the uniform gets the brunt of those dissatisfied with the law itself.

Heres a thought... dont put yourself in a situation where a police officer would draw a taser or firearm on you. Then you wont have to worry about being killed. Just my 2 cents.

I looked and found this old Mount Prospect police car. Cigarette lighter seems to be broken though.........

Just got back from 3 weeks trekking in Nepal, going up to Mt Everest base camp and climbing Kala Pathhar, across the valley from Everest (went with REI, the outdoor equipment company). Great trip!
Anyway, at the end of the trip we spent 2 days in the capital, Kathmandu. Almost one million people in the city. Fire protection comes out of ONE fire house, in Durbar square. Due to a language barrier, we didn't get too much info, but saw only 2 pieces of apparatus- an old British pumper, and a small rear-mount aerial ladder (I think they also have a tanker). These rigs had to be at least 20-30 yrs old, and were beat up and battered. There were 10 fireifghters on duty, none of them wearing the same clothing. Their turnout gear resembled 1960's style US gear, other than the British style helmets.
No fire hydrants in the city; cows roaming the streets (Hindu religion believes cows are sacred); old,old bldgs that were out-of square and looked like any type of tremor would cause a massive collapse;narrow streets;phone/cable/electric wires ( by the hundreds )overhead; and add in the fact that power is cut off twice a day,every day, for 5 hours each time in the entire city Despite all this, the Nepali people were so friendly and welcoming, and always cheerful.
As my grandfather always said: "In our country,we have much to be thankful for"!

So, I am studying abroad with my school in Rouen France, which is a little more than an hour north of Paris. Last week, I went to one of the 3 fire houses in Rouen and got a tour by one of the Officers there It was interesting seeing all of the similarities and differences between departments in the US and here in Europe. In this particular department, that I got a tour of, its a paid department with at least 30 firefighters working at once, including a Hazmat Team and Rope Rescue Specialists. They are on 24/48 hour shifts with dispatchers in the firehouse.
Some of the pictures are attached.

Their turnouts, which are significantly different. Their slip on their pants over their regular clothes, but do not have firefighting boots like the ones that at least I am used to. Part of their uniform is workboots, which they wear in fires. While I was there, there was an alarm, and putting on their gear did not look very efficient, keeping their boots on and slipping into the pants.

Due to the nature of the call they will take the necessary equipment and leave others behind in other trailers.

One of the trailers that they can attach to the trucks

Our equivalent of a brush truck...the brush guards actually have holes to flow water while driving through the fire.

Some of their apparatus including one of the Aerials which can go 30 meters up

Small Aerial to go through the skinny french roads. Picture is of me and the Officer who showed me around.

On site training facility...The property also has a private gym for firefighters, which include a basketball court, sauna and weights. The property also has a private soccer field. In the main building of the firehouse, there are bunk rooms, which are nicer than my dorm rooms that my university offers, including a cinema area with flat screen tv's, and a dining hall where they have paid chefs prepare food for you.
Wanna see everyones reaction from this. Has anyone traveled internationally and have found similar departments like this?

That's actually a pretty cool idea.
Also, I like the idea of Rolloff PODs for special ops calls. I know FDNY has used this concept for some of the collapse equipment. Connecticut USAR TF-1 also has 3 Mack Granites with rolloffs for just such a purpose.
Not a bad idea if you need to mobilize a long distance (I'd imagine they could be loaded on military transports for national/international deployments.) Probably helps with maintenance costs too. Only need to repair 1 truck. I'd imagine not a whole lot can break on the rolloff part. If the truck goes out of service, just have a dumpster company on contract to carry it.
Far be it from me to say "lets do things the way Europe does" but that is actually a pretty efficient means of operating. Its a pretty cool opportunity to see what they do outside of our Metro NYC (or American, for that matter) fire service bubble.

How fighter jets are made! LOL

Photos taken at the Yonkers Marina

two more

NYPD Aviation
Bell 412

Augusta A119

My shots, taken from Lenoir Preserve in Yonkers:

enterprise1 by thebronicks, on Flickr

enterprise2 by thebronicks, on Flickr

enterprise3 by thebronicks, on Flickr

enterprise4 by thebronicks, on Flickr

enterprise5 by thebronicks, on Flickr

From the Tappen Zee @ Tarrytown

Saw it from Hudson River in Riverdale by west 254 st looked spectacular, flew north turned around and headed south over us again.

I've removed Incident Alerts from the "Recent Topics" list found on the Board Index, since the can now be found in the Shoutbox.
This is due to some members flooding the Recent Topics list with IA's, which distracts from other threads and pushes other topics out of the way.
This is a trial only right now.

I wanted to share some of my pictures of Wilton, NY’s 1944 International. Currently serving the WVFD as a brush truck, it was originally a crash truck for the U.S. military before being bought by the FD in 1948. It recently came back from being refurbished and is back as a frontline piece. It holds 500gal of water and some other forestry gear.

As a former police supervisor, I would tell my officers about the dangers of performing a “joke” of this type or similar action. It sometimes seems like the warning fell on deaf ears. They never thought about the consequences of their actions. Unfortunately, I have seen other officers disciplined, brought up on charges or fired for "inappropriate actions",
The best advice I can offer anyone, Is this “joke” worth loosing you job, pension, possibly your house over, let alone the possibility of jail. Stick to putting mustard in the probies boots (he/she may be allergic to peanut butter).

Fire in 3 buildings, numerous FF's trapped several maydays, and a partial collapse.

Don't forget Cap, you might also get the honor of having to go out there and untangle a major catastrophe. MVFD had to do it. Can happen anywhere.
There have been so many interesting opinions about this topic. I think it's important to mention, there has been a big cultural change regarding the trains. Going back not so long ago, commuter trains were a big growth industry. Conductors had great contracts, overtime was flush as were the coffers at the train HQs.
THEN the financial squeeze hit train lines. That and technology, ie; the ticket machine, changed the culture of riding.
Used to be a conductor carried wads of cash, tons of punched paper tickets, etc. Conductors started getting squeezed, their discretion was basically taken away.
Truth be told; there were certain days when train cars were full to the brim with MOS on particular celebratory days. Conductors smiled, laughed and closed the door to the car so the cigar smoke didn't bother the regulars.
Yes there were days like that. But those days are long gone.

Excellent topic, thanks for starting it Moose. I praise you for being so honest and accepting that changes need to be made. I am currently on a rigorous workout/diet regime. I have done hours of research and so far in three weeks have lost 25 pounds, even with Easter! There are a few things that you should consider doing, that I have been having great success with.
1 - WATER - drink lots of water. If you feel hungry throughout the day, drink water and wait 10 minutes, magically, the hunger goes away but this is only TEMPORARILY.
2 - Walk whenever possible.
3 - Discipline - you need to want to change, you need to fight through hunger urges. When you feel hungry, you most likely are not hungry, go a while without eating and you will soon learn that you can actually survive the hunger pains and train yourself to be less dependent on frequent munching.
4 - Eat more meals but make them smaller. (IE - breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, night snack if needed)
5 - Calculate BMR (Calories you will burn if you stay in bed all day) - http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
6 - Understand that one pound of fat is 3500 calories.
7 - Track calories, plan meals for the day, and track exercise using MyFitnessPal - http://www.myfitnesspal.com (Excellent iphone APP available to that allows you to scan barcodes.) You can also enter recipes and figure out nutrition info for each serving. You can set reminders to notify you if you forget to track your info. EXCELLENT TOOL!
8 - Snack on proper food, fruits, veggies, etc. Too much of anything is bad...
9 - Portion size - try eating proper portions, this alone will help.
Some snacks I have found fulfilling and healthy, trail mix, granola bars, yogurt, cottage cheese, hummus, veggies, fruit and much more.
TRY FOR NATURAL OR THE MOST HEALTHY FOOD OPTIONS. (IE NO PRESERVATIVE< ADDITIVES, ETC)
It's a hard journey but their are good resources available. Good luck Brother. PM me is you have any questions.

FD/PD/EMS Ride NYC transit for free while on duty and in uniform. PD is officially extended this courtesy while riding Metro-North under the guise that they'll provide assistance in the event of an emergency. That's it, end of discussion. Any other talk of professional courtesy is not for a public forum, it doesn't read well to the uninformed general public. I for one always carry a ticket with me on Metro-North.

Photo Courtesy of x119fdva/Flickr.com

I heard the film was shot by Abraham Zapruder.....