CFD320

Wow that's only a tenth of 2 cents....lol

2 Quick points....

As usual my fellow captain has done a great job suggesting guidelines to attack a common problem.

#1) Volly departments, my own included, need to start electing officers on merit, NOT ON POPULARITY or because it's their "TURN". This goes for every line officer position from lieutenant all the way up to the chief officer! When we cast our votes we MUST remember that we may very well put our LIFE in the hands of the man that is elected. Not your car, not your house, your life!!!!!

#2) Training is key....But make sure you pay attention to what individuals actually do at training sessions. Some guys are hands on, raring to go every evolution. Others are more cerebral, you can actually tell they are thinking about what is going on and why. Then you have the guys that are at every training session, they have a long list of classes completed, but they do nothing and always seem lost. That last guy is the one to look out for, unless you have worked with him you would never know he was a complete dunce. Even more dangerous he probably thinks he is a great fireman with a wealth of knowledge to go along 20 years experience.

In short I think electing the right officers, with the right attitude and right experience goes a long way!

Just to clarify our dispatch is not effected by the UHF repeater wandering. Our dispatch is all done over 46.26, the repeater does step that up UHF but we don't use UHF pagers. The worst thing that happens is that page out at 3am wakes up the dispatchers at 40 control.

:---)

I would like to preface the following comments by saying; I believe more training for volunteer firefighters should be required. Furthermore I whole heartedly agree with the concept “the more training the better”.

That being said, there are two problems with mandating hundreds of hours of training for new firefighters. First, it is very difficult to recruit new members into volunteer outfits. It is very unfortunate, but I speak to a whole lot of people about becoming volunteers who say, “What do I get out of it?” And I usually get a sentence that goes like this: “So I have to go to about 100 hours of training plus a whole bunch of OSHA hours, and in-house training before I can do anything”. It seems like a very daunting task for a guy who works 50 hours a week who has 2 kids and a wife to complete that amount of training. As we all know, there are many important jobs to be carried out at the scene of any emergency. Not every guy who joins a volunteer outfit needs to be on a hose line, or the department FAS/RIT team. Volunteers aren’t limited to the crew on their apparatus like carrer units initially are. Not every member of a volunteer truck company needs to be comfortable 80’ off the ground on the end of a stick. What volunteer officer wouldn’t love 5 new members of their company with good common sense and genuine interest in learning? From those five members two or three will probably like what they see and take more training as their interest grows. I take my hat off to Task Force 7 who took over 600 hours of training just to get in the door. Unfortunately there are not many like you around, especially in Westchester county where the average cost of a house is over half a million dollars.

Second, not to pick on any specific training facility or class curriculum, but a bunch of the training available out there is less than great. Don’t get me wrong, I have taken some training classes that were outstanding and others that were not very informative. Another issue arises is that for all classes I have attended, simple attendance is the only requirement for completion. Obviously, simply attending a class where some aspect of fire/rescue/ems is discussed doesn’t make anyone a more knowledgeable firefighter. There is NO substitute for a bit of common scene, and the ability to think outside the box. We all know a firefighter with a long resume of training classes who we wouldn’t feel supremely confident in entrusting our life to. In my opinion there needs to be much more in-house training which can be much more specifically tailored to individual weaknesses. Hundreds of hours of training does not automatically make a person a good firefighter. I do admit 100 hours is much better than the 36 hours that was required of me when I first joined.

Motivating people to attend any type of training is troublesome; we all need to remember this is volunteerism. There is no such thing as mandatory training for a volunteer. If we require that much more training to belong we will get that many less people to join and/or continue to volunteer. Exterior laddering, controlling traffic, flaking out a hose line, accountability, carrying tools, are these not important tasks? Does a guy need 400 hours of training to unquestionably follow an order?

Well that’s enough of my babble…

](*,)

At this time the Croton Repeater is working but not 100%, never was. We will be installing a new 60' tower this summer at the top of Hetian Hills Rd. The existing antenna has a "crack" in it and acts strangly with temperature changes. As for hearing putnam the UHF repeater sometimes wanders, this will also be fixed when the new tower becomes operational. In the mean time, ](*,) I will key up the base on monday...this normally alleves the wandering for a while.

Matt Mansfield

Captain E118 CFD

The drvier and passenger of T-10 are ok....