SteveOFD

Please note that I make the following comment from behind sufficient, ballistic protective, tactical cover:

If this is such a big issue maybe its time to get rid of fire districts and make them part of the municipality, instead of making the FD a separate political entity. Our department did just that after financial problems made a district financially unsustainable.

In New York State Towns do not have the authority to establish a Fire Department http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/LAWSSEAF.cgi?QUERYTYPE=LAWS+&QUERYDATA=@LLTWN+&LIST=LAW+&BROWSER=EXPLORER+&TOKEN=28559707+&TARGET=VIEW.

under the Town Law.

Towns only have the authority to establish Fire, Fire Alarm, and Fire Protection Districts. These Districts have the authority to (among other things)"...organize, operate, maintain and equip fire companies..."(176.10), "purchase or lease apparatus and equipment"(176.13).

Villages do have the authority to establish a Fire Department under the Village Law http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/LAWSSEAF.cgi?QUERYTYPE=LAWS+&QUERYDATA=@LLVIL+&LIST=LAW+&BROWSER=EXPLORER+&TOKEN=28559707+&TARGET=VIEW. Section 10-1000 of this Law specifies the legal terminolgy pertaining to their Fire Department.

A solution to this "problem" would be to allow for Towns to establish municipal Fire Departments, rather than "contracting" it out to a District that they have no say in.

Hopefully some day they decide that chiefs, or more importantly their drivers could use the back up camera. We got em in the new 4 door dodge ambulances, and it is a godsend. All emergency vehicles should have em.

Production has started with pictures at http://www.gowansknight.com/bedford%20ny%20custom%20rescue%20page%20113012.htm.

Congratulations!!

I haven't seen this show yet but it looks interesting http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tv/gearz-volunteer-fire-truck/EP009027990079?aid=zap2it. The show transforms a Chevy dually pickup truck into a brush truck. This episode airs tonight 12/03 @ 8P, Mon 12/10 @ 11P, Tue 12/11 @ 8A, Sat 12/15 @ 8A, Sun 12/16 @ 7:30A, Sun 12/16 @ 5:30P.

While driving on I287 this week I took this picture of something which I had never seen before. A soda truck displaying a DOT HazMat placard.

One of the reasons I can think of for this scenario is that the truck was carrying more than 1,001 pounds of possibly carbon dioxide gas for a soda dispenser at a bar or restaurant.

While speaking about hazmat, here is a useful link regarding DOT placard requirements http://www.phmsa.dot...ng/Chart 14.pdf.

Another informative DOT link is at http://www.phe.gov/e...es/default.aspx.

And lastly here is the link for the online 2012 Emergency Response Guide http://phmsa.dot.gov...mat/ERG2012.pdf.

No, they are not using digital encryption. Apparently they have switched to P25 digital for the PD. See the thread at http://forums.radioreference.com/new-york-radio-discussion-forum/254004-white-plains-police-department-westchester-county-ny.html for more info.

Thanks Izzy for the info. Definately interesting. For those who have not noticed, in the second picture at the above link note the power cord from the apparatus bumper to the Hydrant.

If no one had come up with this info I was going to contact MattituckFD.org to find out. Thanks again.

Duraline is a company that deals with electrical connectors for maritime applications, ect. They are moving to a new location in FLA: http://www.jbn-duraline.com/

I'm wondering if that is a cistern or other drafting hydrant with a pump connected to it. Or it could be a booster hydrant used to pump into and boost pressure in a hydrant system. Have to look that up. very interesting.

Can I use your photo to post it up on another site to ask for some information?

I saw that jbn-duraline website doing some research. I could not find anything similar to what the attachment is.

Sure, go ahead and pass the pictures around. Only request is if anyone finds out post back here so we know what it's about.

While out on Long Island last week I caught a glimpse of two unusual "Fire Hydrants" (if that is what they are). They are both located in Mattituck, L.I. along Route 25 (North Fork). I have never seen these before and could not find any info about them online. Here are the pictures:

As you can see in the second to last picture the device attached to the "Hydrant" is marked with "Duraline C.I.,N.Y". and in the last picture "Duraline Central Islip NY" is clearly visible.

Anyone have any info on these?

While I was in the area on business this week I had to stop by and take pictures of the new Headquarters Building of the Norwalk FD.

view from the North East along Route 1

view from the South East along Route 1

view of the Garage from the South East

another view of the Garage

view from the South West across I95

view from the bridge crossing I95 South of HQ

The following are some pictures of the Norwalk FD Apparatus Maintenance Facility

sign in the driveway

Station 2 located across I95 from the new HQ Building

Station 2 with the new HQ in the background

Station 2 with the new HQ in the background

Something to reflect on should you be involved with evacuations.....be safe all.

http://www.dailyfree...18916273293.txt

I just finished my refresher HazMat First Responder Ops. class Tuesday night. One of the things suggested for evacuations is if a person refuses to leave the area, provide him/her with a permanent magic marker to write their name, social security number, and a contact number on their body. This way when the body is recovered the appropriate people can be notified.

The "reserved's" without a Department name are only in the Ladder & Tower Ladder lists. The list reflects that there should only be either a Ladder or a Tower Ladder with any single number. When Ossining FD got their TL, the previously assigned L42 designation was placed into "reserved" so that no future L42 would be assigned as long as OFD has TL42. This is not always the case, the lower numbers still reflect when both TL's & Lad's were assigned the same number.

The further south it hits, the less impact it will have on us. We can only hope the European model is correct, which has it making landfall further south. Otherwise the estimated path for landfall is between Yonkers and Jersey

It would have to hit quite a bit farther South to have less impact on us. From the NOAA website - Hurricane Basics http://hurricanes.noaa.gov/pdf/hurricanebook.pdf page ten states that the right side of a hurricane is the most dangerous.

A hurricane is a low pressure system that in the Northern hemisphere rotates counter-clockwise. This counter-clockwise rotation combined with the forward motion (typically Northward) means that the combined wind speed is faster on the right side (East) and slower on the left side (West). See the above noted link for more detailed info.

Let's all stay safe out there.

Ossining's horns are still active. The DTMF tones after our paging tones designate the "box" signal that is tapped out.

On clear summer nights I can hear the horn from the Grasslands Reservation in Valhalla, when they tap out.

Specifically...

I'm trying to push for both a Knox Box law within the Village. I am also looking to change the local code for fire alarms. Currently the code says they must go to the local PD #, but to comply with NFPA regulations (and do what makes sense) I want it to go directly to our dispatcher (60 Control).

Thanks.

The 2010 Fire Code of New York State references the 2007 edition of NFPA 72 - National Fire Alarm Code. Chapter 8 - Supervising Station Fire Alarm Systems (which are what we refer to as "central station" alarms) section 8.2.1 - Alarm Signal Disposition states "Except as permitted by 11.7.8.2, all fire alarm signals received by a supervising station shall be immediately retransmitted to the public fire service communications center."

The above noted section 11.7.8.2 refers to Household Fire Alarm Systems. This section states "Remote monitoring locations shall be permitted to verify alarm signals prior to reporting them to the fire service, provided that the verification process does not delay the reporting by more than 90 seconds".

You may want to push for this change now, the 2010 edition of NFPA 72 - (renamed) National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code, section 26.2.1 states "Except as permitted by 29.7.8.2, all fire alarm signals received by a supervising station shall be immediately retransmitted to the communications center". So, when NYS adopts the 2010 edition of NFPA 72, the reference to "public fire service communications center" goes away.

The following gives information on this Sunday's Southbound closure of Routes 9 & 9A due to the Toughman Triathalon.

Both Routes will be closed from 5:30A to 1:00P. Route 9 Southbound will be closed from Bear Mountain Parkway to the Route 9A intersection. Route 9A will be closed from the Route 9 intersection to Route 100 in Briarcliff.

The attached link http://toughmantri.com/images/2012BikeCourseImpact.pdf gives a map and detailed instructions for detours.

Plan now for any response implications.

If you look at the full side view of the Duck TL it looks like the rear axles have only single tires on them. I have been noticing this trend on tractor trailers (ten wheel "eighteen wheeler") and even transit mix trucks (cement mixers). I was wondering when this trend would start with fire apparatus. I have some pictures which I will try to post in a new thread hopefully this weekend when I finish a project at work.

The funny part is our secondhand radios the volunteers bought from someone else are apparently easy to be converted to narrowband. I don't understand how or why that works, I'm not a radio buff, but apparently that makes life easier for us.

It's easy. Most radios manufactured post-1996 IIRC are narrow/wide band capable by software. One click per frequency makes the radio do either wide or narrow band. At least this is how I have done it with the Kenwood brand.

Additional information on this project can be found at Sullivan County's website http://co.sullivan.ny.us/Default.aspx?TabId=3436 .

From how I am reading the information It looks like the consultant is leaning toward VHF P25 trunked.

16fire5, I agree with you that we are part of the problem with each little agency (FD, PD, EMS, DPW, etc) insisting on having their own frequency. I posted a thread quite a while back where I listed all the frequencies licensed by Westchester County FD's (with no agency names listed, just frequencies). There were over fifty, if I recall correctly. The one point I wanted to make in that thread is, like you said, there are a limited amount of frequencies.

With narrowbanding, frequencies in the UHF band are separated by 0.0125MHz. What this means is if you start at 460.000MHz, the next available frequency is 460.0125MHz, after that is 460.0250MHz. With this spacing there are 80 available frequencies between 460.0000 & 461.0000MHz. Of these 80 available frequencies, only 40 are available for use in any given geographic area. The reasoning for this is that once a frequency is assigned (as an example, take 460.0125MHz) the frequencies immediately adjacent to it (460.000 & 460.0250MHz) immediately become unavailable in an attempt to not have these frequencies interfere with the licensed frequency (460.0125MHz).

With each little agency (whether it is PD, FD, EMS, DPW, etc.) insisting on having it's own "private" frequency, we are part of the problem.

Here is a link to the FCC's White Paper on the Broadband Network http://transition.fc...OC-298799A1.pdf.

This system is a broadband system which would provide data, video, and (hopefully) voice communications. Read note #7 at the bottom of page 7 (which continues on the bottom of page 8). It says that the voice communications will use the LTE (4G technology) standard over this broadband network even though the standard for this type of voice communications has not been fully established. This is just great, they want to build us a system with 44,000 towers nationwide (page 8) that does not even a consensus of how the radio will transmit.

Seems like a boondoggle to me.

Some additional links with info @ http://www.iafc.org/MemberCenter/OnSceneArticle.cfm?ItemNumber=6028 & info on the T Band take back http://www.iafc.org/MemberCenter/OnSceneArticle.cfm?ItemNumber=6029.

Happy Birthday Seth, and thank you for the many years of EMTBravo :) :)

The issue is that the Federal Gov't is taking away all the T-Band spectrum (470MHz - 512MHz), if I recall correctly in eight years. All of the frequencies for the County's UHF Trunked Sytem are in this band. The Fed's are taking this back to auction this specturm off to the highest bidder. In return Public Safety got exclusive use of the "D Block" of frequencies in the 700MHz band. Will post more later when I get back.