GAW6

Or maybe they can't trust the Volunteer Depts. to show up with a fully staffed crew because most of them are working that Day for their Career Dept. or "B" jobbing? That's if they decide to even go in and work their tour or answer their phone for OT, if an impending storm is coming. Wouldn't want to go in and bust your ass now would we for our fellow Brother FFs. It's nothing but "Blood Money!" "F" that!

There are plenty of volly chiefs who are certified beyond the credentials that you specify. There are plenty who aren't. There are also plenty of career chiefs that litter suburbia with the minimum certifications required to attain the position, who have been placed there through political influence and have no business commanding a girl scout troop selling cookies let alone let alone a fire-rescue response. Your post seems to be more pointed towards a vollie vs. career discussion rather than actually having data to support whether or not volunteer chiefs in a particular municipality have the appropriate certifications to attend a training event that could potentially improve the outcome of an emergency that may occur in their first due response area.

This is the stuff that turns people away from this site.
Many people in the Community enjoy coming out and watch the parades.
Sorry you are such "sour grapes" on the subject. That's right, because EVERYONE gets drunk, and it's a waste of money, and blah, blah, blah......

I do not appreciate your sarcasm. Nor do I think your comment "opportunities for all the posers out there to don there (should be their - learn some grammar) costume and play pretend firemen" was appropriate.
As I said, it's comments like these that turn people away from this site.

This is the stuff that turns people away from this site.
Many people in the Community enjoy coming out and watch the parades.
Sorry you are such "sour grapes" on the subject. That's right, because EVERYONE gets drunk, and it's a waste of money, and blah, blah, blah......

Been doing EMS for 32 years, last 26 as a medic at Empress. I couldn't see myself doing much else. At my seniority, pay and benefits are pretty good. I work two days a week, and work at other places on days off and I NEVER work weekends.
We have about a dozen EMT's that have over 20 years on the job. We are a Union shop so our raises are by contract, and I think we have 2 1/2 years left on this one, annual raises of about 4%, but it varies by year. Also vacation, holiday, 401K, medical, life, unused time-off match etc.
At the other end of your career, the contract now has an "age-out" clause. After 25 years, you can work 20 hours/week and get full medical- critical at that age and when you have a family. You get less time off, but working 20 hours a week, you need less. And you can come back to full time if you want.
You should buy the book 'Peoplecare" 2nd edition, but Thom Dick. Available at emergencystuff.com. If that guy started a religion, I would convert. There is gold on every page. He will help you understand as to if you have it in you to go the long hall, and advice as to how to do it. As he says, "Almost nobody can do this job."

This is akin to when the CDC published the "How to Make a Zombie Apocalypse Survival Kit" to their website a few years ago. Given the zombie fad that's been striking the population over the last decade or so this is definitely a great way to get people to read about preparedness and think about the things they'll need for when a disaster does happen.

this is what i ben saying all along the wise cracks and one liners when you say what your opinion is here .then the gang jumps all over you.

Sadly, I do not think a class on etiquette would have much impact. This situation has more to do with common sense, or the lack of.

He should be hired immediately! s*** Ive seen 50 yr old guys run frigging circles around younger guys who want to do nothing but sit and play with their laptops all friggin day and then complain when they have to mop the floor! Some of them are lucky if they can even throw a 24' up by themselves! Age to me doesn't mean s*** anymore on our Job! If he's in good enough shape to do the Job and is willing to, which he seems to be by Volunteering to do it then give it to him! WTF!

Considering Thornwood, Valhalla, Pleasantville and Elmsford all have Tower Ladders we have no need to replace it with another Tower Ladder. Spin the wheel pretty much nailed it.

wow come on really ? you go there when they just lost every thing?what answers are you looking for here?have some respect for gbfd even if there vollunteer.s.

We did lose a few items that are irreplaceable. As many know we lost our '43 Willys. We lost some memorabilia from the Rec Room, however a good majority was able to be recovered. The majority of the things we lost were completely replaceable. We lost approx 30 sets of turnout gear, with the remaining being sent out for testing. HUGE THANKS goes out to car 2443 for recovering our 100+ year old "Golden's Bridge Fire Department" sign from our meeting room. It was on the original firehouse when it opened and is probably one of the most important historic pieces in the firehouse currently.
We are already making progress in leaps and bounds. The restoration company, SoundShore Restorations out of Bedford Hills, has done a phenomenal job and has made the process as easy as possible for us. Their guys have been at GBFD scrubbing, wiping and mopping basically non stop since monday evening. They have assured us that by the end of this business week, that the remaining side of the engine bay will be cleaned to the point that you wont even be able to tell there was a 2 alarm fire in the building. when I left last night, I was able to see the white paint on the ceiling and the nasty puke green walls are back to being the nasty puke green walls. They literally have an army of workers there round the clock. as i counted yesterday, the total neared 40 workers. which doesn't even include plumbers, electricians, engineers and architects.
Currently "the neighbors" are housing our apparatus. We are waiting on a semi-permanant structure being transported from Tennessee, which will house all remaining equipment. For anyone whos familiar, it s the same building Katonah FD had out behind their firehouse while they were under renovation. As it stands now E-139 and Marine 25 are being housed in Katonah, E-138 & E-140 are being housed in Croton Falls Sta. 2 and T-1 is being housed in South Salem.
Also, there was a huge Interior attack initiated at this fire. Operations went exterior only for a small period of time after a partial collapse, however after deemed that it was safe to re-enter, the interior attack was re-established. The Master stream from TL-57 as well as the deck gun on E-149 were utilized after the collapse to darken down the free burning fire. The roof was constructed out of tri-bearing wood trusses. however the engine bays luckily, and unknown to us, had a double redundant walls. the first layer is 4 inch solid concrete block, which covered 2 inch styrofoam insulation board, which covered at least a 12 inch thick structural reinforced poured concrete wall.

How great is it that, with the exception of some everyday ailments that come along with fighting fires, no one was injured. The possible leadership issues, possible empty tanker, possible malfunctioning smoke detection system are all insignificant at this point. I hope each member of the GBFD had a nice meal with family tonight, lets Monday morning quarterback and solve all of the World's problems and GBFD's potential problems another day.

When I became a lieutenant for the first time my father share with me a story of a problem he had to mitigate when he was chief. There were two guys in my fire house, one was a captain and the other a senior firefighter. Both had hot tempers, and got into an extrememly heated debate over something menial, almost to the point of a fist fight. This was happening in front of the entire department, so my father grabbed both of them and dragged them into his office. My father yelled at them, telling the captain that he was in a position of leadership and acting way out of leadership role, and the senior FF that he had been around the firehouse long enough to know how to act in front of the guys. After my father was done with his tirade he sat down in his chair and said, "Well, since you two were about to fight anyway, you may go ahead and do it here in the office." Both the captain and FF were stunned enough by that statement that they actually just ended up settling their differences and were nice to each other from then on.
I know this is a strange way to mitigate an issue, but I thought it was a bit hilarious and wanted to share. Sometimes leadership needs to be creative to fix a departments day to day issues.

Commish, in my opinion we already have them. They're our Senior Men. A good Senior Man should have the same attitude and provide the same type of leadership and guidance an NCO would.

I put my info here because I choose to put a "face" to the comments I make and I have no problem standing behind my comments...otherwise I wouldn't and quite frankly shouldn't be making them. And while I will always respond to questions or attacks on my views, I don't put much stock in contributions by anonymous posters. It has been my experience over the last few years of my membership here that some of those who post anonymously tend to be those who cannot have a civil conversation, nor accept a differing opinion, the right fighters and the egomaniacs. Here as in life outside the virtual world more often than not it is the sh!t stirrers and ignorant that need hide in the shadows, for they have neither the courage nor the intelligence to stand behind their words to defend them.

BINGO.

Actually the trend on LI seems to be to do away with the traditional dedicated rescue truck, unless its for specialized equipment hazmat, TRT, dive team truck. Many departments are replacing them with a Rescue Engine. Plenty of room to store extrication equipment and other "every day stuff".
Lots of things have changed on LI including much tighter accountability on how money is spent.
Also note many of the required classes commissioners need to take now are required by law. What's wrong with taking a district vehicle to one of the seminars and stopping at a mall on the way?

I am willing to bet this person was on their way to the NYS Association of Fire Districts Fall Workshop at Honor's Haven in Ellenville, which started Thursday morning. Woodbury Commons is right off of the Thruway, on the way to Honor's Haven. As a Commissioner, if in fact he/she was on their way to the Conference, there is nothing wrong with using the District vehicle. Most Commissioner's will put in a requisition for their mileage to attend, so what is the difference if a District vehicle is being used?
In case anyone is wondering, the Workshop is very informative for Commissioners/Chiefs. Travel Policy is something that is always discussed and every District should have one in place.

I am willing to bet this person was on their way to the NYS Association of Fire Districts Fall Workshop at Honor's Haven in Ellenville, which started Thursday morning. Woodbury Commons is right off of the Thruway, on the way to Honor's Haven. As a Commissioner, if in fact he/she was on their way to the Conference, there is nothing wrong with using the District vehicle. Most Commissioner's will put in a requisition for their mileage to attend, so what is the difference if a District vehicle is being used?
In case anyone is wondering, the Workshop is very informative for Commissioners/Chiefs. Travel Policy is something that is always discussed and every District should have one in place.

I would agree he was on his way to the Districts convention in Ellenville and that is a perfectly good use of the vehicle in this case as it is directly on the way up. In the private sector the boss in nearly every corporation is given not only take home privileges, but have drivers. And to say I pay taxes and a corporation is private is not true, I own many corporations through shares of the company and very concerned about how the corporation spends it (my) dollars. My previous employer CEO earned 11 million a year, had a driver and got a 19 million dollar pension...so whats fair??? Some FD's (not mine) allow the use of the car as a reward for doing the job for NO PAY. I can see that as a nearby FD pays several career chiefs over $200k salary, very good benefits, best of pensions, expenses, etc. and they all have a take home vehicle. His counterpart in the very next FD gets no pay, very little or no expenses. So if you look at it can you justify allowing the chief who puts in a LOT of time (both career and volunteer) some perks just like corporations do?? While I fully understand taxes and everything else (perceptions, jealousy, bad hair day, etc), most people outside of the FD pay little or no attention to the chiefs vehicle as they assume he is the CEO of a small/medium//large "corporation" and that is a perk of the job. (My GOD he is the chief!)

As a "civilian" fire commissioner, I feel I must respond to this post. Although I have 25 years experience in emergency services, I am not a firefighter and know nothing regarding trucks or firefighting. I rely heavily on my fellow commissioners who are firefighters/Ex-Chiefs/Ex-FDNY.
You are probably asking, "what purpose do you serve then"? In my position on the Board, I handle the insurance and I am the LOSAP Administrator. As a former Treasurer of the District, I also help out with the fiscal responsibilities.
As said previously, we not only have to answer to the tax payers, we have to answer to NYS. We have an outside professional audit done every year which is forwarded to the State Comptroller's office.
To have a Board the consists of all "civilians" would be ridiculous. I know of a neighboring District that has a majority of "civilians" on their Board and they have been spending more money on "consultants" than anything else. The "consultants" should be your experienced members, not some "white collar" person who knows nothing about the fire service.
I am very glad that I have four very experienced members of our department sitting beside me.

As a "civilian" fire commissioner, I feel I must respond to this post. Although I have 25 years experience in emergency services, I am not a firefighter and know nothing regarding trucks or firefighting. I rely heavily on my fellow commissioners who are firefighters/Ex-Chiefs/Ex-FDNY.
You are probably asking, "what purpose do you serve then"? In my position on the Board, I handle the insurance and I am the LOSAP Administrator. As a former Treasurer of the District, I also help out with the fiscal responsibilities.
As said previously, we not only have to answer to the tax payers, we have to answer to NYS. We have an outside professional audit done every year which is forwarded to the State Comptroller's office.
To have a Board the consists of all "civilians" would be ridiculous. I know of a neighboring District that has a majority of "civilians" on their Board and they have been spending more money on "consultants" than anything else. The "consultants" should be your experienced members, not some "white collar" person who knows nothing about the fire service.
I am very glad that I have four very experienced members of our department sitting beside me.

As a "civilian" fire commissioner, I feel I must respond to this post. Although I have 25 years experience in emergency services, I am not a firefighter and know nothing regarding trucks or firefighting. I rely heavily on my fellow commissioners who are firefighters/Ex-Chiefs/Ex-FDNY.
You are probably asking, "what purpose do you serve then"? In my position on the Board, I handle the insurance and I am the LOSAP Administrator. As a former Treasurer of the District, I also help out with the fiscal responsibilities.
As said previously, we not only have to answer to the tax payers, we have to answer to NYS. We have an outside professional audit done every year which is forwarded to the State Comptroller's office.
To have a Board the consists of all "civilians" would be ridiculous. I know of a neighboring District that has a majority of "civilians" on their Board and they have been spending more money on "consultants" than anything else. The "consultants" should be your experienced members, not some "white collar" person who knows nothing about the fire service.
I am very glad that I have four very experienced members of our department sitting beside me.