streetdoc

Being that the City of New York/FDNY is the AHJ, and the FDNY is the City entity that provides Fire Protection for the City of New York, the FDNY Commissioner acting as an agent of the Mayor and the City can probably regulate Fire Services in NYC. His regulatory powers are vested by the City as a City employee of the municipal Fire Service which oversees Fire Protection. He may not be able to shut them down, but he can sure authorize or unauthorize them to respond to jobs within the confines of the 5 boroughs.

That actually had a LODD several years back and the benefits allocated was a big issue. Here's a link to a NYS appellate court rulings in that case:
Court ruling
Ruling link
Ruling Link

They SHOULD document training. From what I have read on other discussion forums about this agency, they're not even recognized by the OFPC as a legitimate Fire agency. If that's the case, do they HAVE to fill out a training log as you asserted? Who is requiring them to if the governing body of VFD's in NYS doesn't even recognize them? So far everything I've read about this agency is that they are pretty much an unofficial, illegitimate Fire Department who has somehow enabled themselves to operate within the City of New York.
If the assertions made by the FDNY are true that their standards and training is sub-par, the shame is that they have not taken the appropriate steps to do what they need to do to be considered a resource or somewhat legitimate agency, not that the FDNY doesn't want them operating at their fire scenes.

I'm curious if the City is going to come out with an official position on the presence of independent fire companies operating within the confines of the City? Does the presence of these non-contracted agencies set a precedent that anyone can go out and buy a scanner and a fire truck and start responding to jobs?

Daily News Article Link

That certainly may be the case. But I personally won't vilify these bystanders for doing what they thought was right. They followed their instincts and a certain degree of human nature and attempted to help those in need, when no others could. I'm willing to bet that good Samaritans, over time, have done far, far more good than harm.

Training is extremely important in any emergency service field, but the realities associated with live incidents can only be partially recreated in training. Do any of these agencies have actual on-going fire prevention programs, or does their fire prevention efforts consist of handing out informational pamphlets once a year at a FD sponsored carnival or open house?

BNechis, it's interesting that you bring this up, because from a previous post in this thread, another member indicated that the following Fire Departments in Long Island didn't log a single working fire in 2011:
Bellerose-0
Floral Park Centre-0
Garden City Park-0
Stewart Manor-0
Meadowmere Park-0
Bayville-0
Sea Cliff-0
Merrick-0
South Hempstead-0
Albertson-0
Great Neck Vigilant-0
Plandome-0
Williston Park - 0
South Farmingdale - 0
I was wondering what this means for the experience these agencies firefighters are exposed to?

Are you really in the 50-60 age range? Judging by the # 2 comment as well as the "Oh yea!!!!" I would have guessed much younger???

Being trained is great.... But do you have the proper equipment to put the training to use in the event of a real incident?

I think it's great that your agency trains it's members to the Awareness level, and keeps up with yearly refreshers, but Awareness level training is the bare minimum, and does not equip nor prepare responders to truly operate and respond to a radiological incident. It merely makes you "aware" that there is a HazMat release and the hazards associated with a radiological/HazMat incident, and the need to call for higher trained responders to handle the incident. It would be nice if EMS responders could be trained to at least the Operations level and be equipped to respond to these types of incidents.

Correct they should be required. This is why I asked what other agencies who have received grant monies in the past have done to improve their preparedness to radiological incidents. I didn't say Patterson didn't deserve any money, I asked why they received money when there are numerous other agencies that are closer. Did the other agencies previously already receive grant funding and were ineligible for additional funding this go-around? Was Patterson FD the only FD in Putnam County who applied for the grant? That would explain why they were awarded grant money.

That's great that Entergy has provided funding for these agencies for Training and Equipment. I'm curious how these agencies plan to use the money that was allocated to them? What will Cortlandt Community VAC do to prepare their members for an emergency incident related to Indian Point? What about Mohegan? Or Peekskill VAC? Or Nyack? Will their members be any more trained, educated, or prepared to respond to an incident involving Indian Point? Why did Patterson Fire Department, which is on the Eastern side of Putnam County, receive funding when there are numerous other agencies who are considerably closer to Indian Point?
What about agencies who have previously been allocated money from Entergy? What have they done with the grant money they received to improve their preparedness?

Although it has alot of space, that truck wouldn't be a convenient REP for routine patrol.

Without much thought I came up with 4 simple reasons for this:
#1 - The majority of EMS providers are lazy and struggle to find the motivation to get off the couch for a job.
#2 - The majority of EMS providers are overworked (in the number of hours they work, not necessarily amount of work they do during those hours), so the last thing most want to do is training outside of the CME's and Call Audits they are forced to do to maintain their certifications.
#3 - The majority of EMS providers don't understand the importance of Awareness and Operations level training with respect to HazMat and some aspects of Technical Rescue, especially awareness level training in Confined Space, Water, Collapse, and Trench.
#4 - The majority of EMS providers don't understand their potential role in a WMD/HazMat incident, and don't realize they could, with the proper training and equipment, play a key role in Warm Zone Operations.
So of these few reasons, which is the most prevalent? Is it laziness? Lack of understanding? Lack of motivation? Lack of caring? Lack of leadership?

Looks like the Director of Homeland Security needs a reality check into the workings of Emergency Services in the Hudson Valley. Most agencies have a hard enough time handling simple calls for service as it is, I don't know what kind of "major role" he is expecting agencies to play in a NYC terror attack.

New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES)

The video speaks for itself about the working conditions in Detroit and EMS in the city.

Updated the post to embed the video and repair the YouTube link in case anyone encountered an error while trying to view the link.

If you perform an EKG and decide your patient is BLS, then you can turn them over. Your statement is exactly what I stated, so I don't see where your going with your post. From your patient assessment if you determine you're going to work up the patient ALS with ALS interventions, you are now "married" to that patient. Once you start with more invasive procedures (advanced airway control, IV access, medication administration), you can't just turn them over. Let me ask, would you give an asthmatic a nebulizer treatment then just turn them over to BLS if they showed signs of improvement because albuterol is a BLS skill?

Mid-Hudson is actually the formal, legal name of the Ambulance District for the Ossining School District (Town/Village of Ossining and parts of New Castle), not a company or other such EMS entity. Croton, in essence, has joined the Ambulance District, where Ossining VAC is essentially the vendor that has been contracted by the Mid-Hudson Ambulance District to provide EMS services for the community the District encompasses.

No, Croton to the best of my knowledge is its own individual entity, although Croton Fire/EMS does cover part of the Town of Cortlandt in it's primary response area.

I really not trying to put you on the spot, but I have to respectfully disagree. Working the Croton system for 13 years now, I know first hand that Croton at one time was superb at covering calls, and the "abuse" of mutual aid was absolutely never an issue. but in the past year, there have been serious, serious issues with Croton being able to staff an ambulance, and I commend the Village and the agency for recognizing this and stepping up to the plate to address and correct this issue.
If 7a to 7p coverage is sufficient, then why did Ossining have to take their one and only ALS ambulance out of service at 3am this morning to cover an MVA in Croton because they couldn't muster a crew? This now means that not only is Croton uncovered in terms of EMS since there clearly is no crew available, but now you leave Ossining uncovered as well because their one ambulance is being utilized to cover someone elses work. Ossining ended up receiving another call in their district, and fortunately the crew was able to do a quick turn-around and handle that job as well. I'm not trying to bash Croton for not getting an ambulance on the road, I'm trying to use a real life example from 10 hours ago that 7a tp 7p coverage is not the answer, and that the decision they made to go to 24/7 coverage is the right answer for their needs.
You may like seeing when the 36 medic rides in a BLS call, but you know who doesn't like it? The unconscious diabetic, the active MI patient, the witnessed cardiac arrest patient, the exacerbation of CHF patient who would benefit from early, timely ALS intervention, and doesn't get it because their paramedic is tied up driving someone with a twisted ankle to the emergency department. It's an unjustifiable misallocation of resources in a system where BLS ambulances should be staffed by BLS providers to keep ALS level providers in-service to handle calls that required ALS level interventions.
I can undersand you think nothing would be greater for CEMS to go back to a 100% volunteer agency, and I honestly do hope that they can boost their membership and get some new blood in there to increase their volunteer numbers. Personally, I think nothing IS greater then CEMS realizing that they had a problem, identified it, addressed it, and are now taking steps to correct it... and for that I applaud them.

Yes, before the paid EMT was introduced to the system, the medic at times would have to ride in a BLS call just for the sake of the wait time for a mutual aid ambulance. Now with the paid EMT in place, I would have no issue transferring care to the EMT, whether there was a driver or not, if it is a BLS level call so I can handle another call rather then commit myself to a BLS call and deprive someone else of ALS level interventions. At times it is a judgement call based on the availability of additional ambulances in surrounding communities, proximity to medical facilities, etc, but if I'm on a sprained ankle and another call for a chest pain, unconscious, difficulty breathing, or any other call that has a high potential to be an ALS level call based on dispatch information (eventhough we know that sometimes dispatch info can be highly inaccurate), I'm triaging care to the EMT and responding to the call where I can do the most good for the patient. If that means that the patient with the sprained ankle has to wait 10 minutes for a mutual aid ambulance to arrive with an EMT on scene, I personally feel that's not on me, that's on the local ambulance agency for not being able to adequately staff their ambulances like the community should expect them to.
The simple fact is that the concept of "well the medic can just ride in the call" is not only an abuse of limited resources that are available in the system, but hinders the whole Tri-Village EMS system just because one agency won't fully commit to addressing and correcting their staffing issues.

If it's a BLS level call and the paid EMT is on scene, the medic is not tied up. They can triage care to the EMT on scene and go back in-service and/or handle another call. Now the only one tied up is the EMT who has to wait.