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Mutual aid is intended for you to help other depts. and other depts. to help you during those times when your district "blows up" and you have multiple calls at once or you have a multi-alarm fire or extraordinary incident that exhausts all of your resources.
Mutual aid is not intended for you and your municipality to ignore staffing levels and choose to not spend money to hire career personal, buy more apparatus, recruit more volunteers, ect and in turn just say "Why should we spend money on this issue when we can just call others every single time we have a fire, rescue or more than 1 call in the district?"

1) "Mutual" Aid does mean you help me and I help you. If you need a million $$$ ladder everytime you have a call and you cant send one to me when I need it, its no longer mutual, its just your cheap taxpayers leaching of mine.
2) ISO requires every response to have a ladder or service company (based on building size and fire flow requirement). If you do not have one your rating goes up. Depending on what their rating is, it could cost millions per year in increased insurance premiums to not have a ladder.

It ain't about the height.....it's the REACH.
And with a majority of SFD's in the suburbs and rural districts being set back from the roadway, even 75' is too short, as my department has seen all too often.

It ain't about the height.....it's the REACH.
And with a majority of SFD's in the suburbs and rural districts being set back from the roadway, even 75' is too short, as my department has seen all too often.

It ain't about the height.....it's the REACH.
And with a majority of SFD's in the suburbs and rural districts being set back from the roadway, even 75' is too short, as my department has seen all too often.

It ain't about the height.....it's the REACH.
And with a majority of SFD's in the suburbs and rural districts being set back from the roadway, even 75' is too short, as my department has seen all too often.

I have no idea if they need a truck or not, but this issue of height seems to confuse a large part of the general public and some of the fire service. I can imagine how many geometry teachers are rolling their eyes when they read this. On the other hand, if your FD can't easily educate the public of setbacks vs. height, etc...

It ain't about the height.....it's the REACH.
And with a majority of SFD's in the suburbs and rural districts being set back from the roadway, even 75' is too short, as my department has seen all too often.

While I agree whole heartedly about this topic I feel it's just as important to have some degree of high standards to be able to even join a Dept. whether it be Career or Volunteer. Do we really need to be working next to a highly trained criminal? It's time to raise the Bar and not turn the Fire Service into a handout Job. Better Sceening and an Interview process is just as important! JMO.

Here's a graphic on the Sleepy Hollow Engine they donated to Broad Channel FD:

photo by Rescue 40

Hi! I am actually the owner of the old 34th st firehouse in Bayonne. I came across this board while i was doing some research on my building. The firehouse was sold by the city at a public auction and a local guy had bought it and told everyone he was going to restore it and got everyone all excited, he then immediately turned around and put it up for sale and thats when I came across it and purchased it about 2 years ago
From the moment I stepped inside I thought it was so cool, nobody had touched it yet, and it was still in the condition it had been when they shut it down back in 2008 and locked it up and moved out. So it still had/has all of the original elements inside. I was really lucky that nobody had started doing any renovations on it and ruining it. Theres paint peeling off the walls, plaster coming down, urinals in the bathrooms, stall showers, 26 original chestnut lockers still with a lot of the old fireman's stuff hanging inside them like tatoo parlor cards they went to, and old p**** mags and old school original subway tiles in the kitchen and baths. The original tin ceilings are still intact, all of the old garment and hose racks and features of the place. Theres also a whole slew of hand painted murals on a lot of the walls with the engine company and their old mascot which was a bulldog with a fire helmet on. Theres a 7 ft mural of this staring you in the face in the back room that will ultimately be the master bedroom. Theres also a list of about 300 names of all of the officers and chiefs who have retired over the years on the bulkhead above the kitchen cabinets. I plan on keeping all of it as original as I can. I respect the history of the place and what it stood for for the city and I dont mind the roughness around the edges of the place....it adds character and I dont want to erase it.
I do plan at some point to have the mural in the kitchen with all the names of the retired duplicated on a big plate of brass and mount it outside on the garage door along the bottom like a giant brass kick plate so that people around town can appreciate those who have served here. That may take a while though since a) it will be pretty expensive to have made, and I have a list of about 800 other things I plan to address with the place as well.
The place is pretty bitchin though, its about 5000 sq ft and has plenty of room, I wash my car inside my house while its parked next to my living room haha. It is a b**** to heat and cool, but its super solid and has stood for the past 130 years and I plan to do my best to preserve it and have it stand for another 130 more.
A number of the old firemen who worked here that I have met at first thought I was some douchebag condo developer who was going to tear the place down or make it into apartments, I told them I planned on keeping it as the original firehouse and they were welcome to come by anytime they liked, and they seemed to appreciate that.
I have plans for the place that center around keeping it as original as possible, I like the quirks and imperfections of the building, it tells its story. I cant tell you how much wood floors and trim i have to strip of paint, adhesive, linoleum etc. hiding under all that is gorgeous chestnut and oak and old heart pine. thats going to be a b****, but itll be worth it.
But rest assured, I plan to keep the place intact as the spirit of the place alive. No hokey HGTV style renovations with modern finishes and sheetrock...If I had wanted that I could have bought a condo, I really admire the old buildings and craftsmanship that went into them. So if it matters to any of you, old E5 in bayonne is in good hands. Itll prob take me 10 years to finish the place, but Im in no rush hahaha.
What I would like to ask, in case anyone knows or could help, is, I am trying to find 2 old brass firepoles for the building. Originally there was one in the front, and one in the back. Both had been removed and they were given back to the guy who bought the property from the city. The bayonne fire museum had given him two brass poles to put back in when they found out he had bought the place, in good faith. They were here and promised to me when i was buying the building. Well a day or two before I closed on the place, he took both poles and probably scrapped them for the brass, who knows....I thought it was a shitty thing to do, and the fire museum agreed. Point is I never got any poles, but I have the two openings, just nothing to slide down. EVERY SINGLE person I meet, the first question they ask is always "Do you have a pole?"
Id love to put the two poles back in so if any of you happens to know of any old poles not in use, or a place that makes them, or a station thats being decommissioned etc, please let me know! It would be sweet if I could get some brass poles back in here. I have tried calling places, go go dance suppliers, railing companies etc. they have brass poles, but when I tell them i need 23 ft long they are like ohhhhhh, we dont have that long. So the poles that were in here were 2.5 inch OD x @23 ft long. Just figured it couldnt hurt to put it out there in case any of you happens to know of some old firepoles laying around.
Thanks!

Your old firehouse up on North Ave @the border; the guy that owns that also ran "Firehouse Films" on Centre Ave, which is now a vegetable market (still?) across from the work-clothing store (still?). Firehouse Films closed when they demolished the tenements on Huguenot St. @ Centre Ave. The vibration from the truck traffic on Huguenot started interfering with "Quiet on the set."
I've seen the refurb of the old firehouse he lives in. Sweet home Alabama!

Why was this merged into a topic that has nothing to do about the questions I was asking for discussion?

So recently (past several months) the Hudson Valley area has seen several fire\emergency\police incident alert pages pop up with a lot of support. I know I have used these pages myself to see what was going on when I hear sirens or do not have a scanner\pager with me. I like being informed and deep down inside who doesn't want to know whats going on. We all understand and can all agree on things like free speech. In the age of social media information is spread as fast as we are getting our calls for service. Where is the line drawn in the sand though when it comes to regulating information that is being delivered to the world via social media?
Who, if anyone, that is running these social media websites and pages have over site in what to post and what not to post? Do they have a mission statement and a set of ethics and values that they follow?
If you are running a social media page do you disable the ability of people to make comments that are publicly viewed. Let's say i'm the sole operator of Hooterville Buff Fire Alerts and Do-dad's. I post an incident alert about a vehicle accident and 20 mins later someone who is following the page releases names of individuals who have died in the hypothetical accident? I post an alert about a police incident and another member of the public is also listening to the scanner and places information about police units and personnel onto the page under the comments section. A building fire happens in The big City of SmallvilleUSA and the fire chief calls mutual aid from MediumvilleUSA but BigvilleUSA is closer. Now people comment on how that is an improper way to run an operation. It escalates as other's question an incident that they are not at, nor are they in charge of. How does this look in the public perception?
What is the liability of such groups in regards to privacy, safety, and security or emergency responders and the public?
Your thoughts?

Condolences to Dr. D's family. He was truly one in a million. This is a great loss to all especially the EMS community.

How do you say good bye, when your not ready........we'll miss you Dr. D

The last engines we bought with boosters was in 1988 (when they were retired the motors had all been burnedout, the intake valves leaked and the floor under them was rotting.
We switched to a front mounted trash line and up till 2010 thats what all engines used. When we were replacing Engine 21 all of the crews said we do not use the trashline. We stretch what ever is needed from the rear bed and hook it up. Since that is what we will do at all fires we get better and better at it and in effect it is training.
We did add I-zone hooks, so if you need to get off a scene quick (like from a highway) or the hose is dirty and you do not want to pack it, it can be quickly looped up and taken care of back at the fire house.

Now that engine is busier than most of the the commenters (who favor boosters for the few calls) combined.

It's funny how when many of us came on the job, we were looked down upon by the rest of society because we were "only" civil servants.
Now because we have done well for ourselves, we are under attack, we really can't win

Not to be a chicken little but it doesn't look good...

First, I was not there..... but, I do not see anything out the ordinary on this truck setup. I think if you are truck chauffer you should be expected to operate the truck you train and work with.
With this said, that is why I am a big fan of mid-mount tower ladders due to the low turntable to get under wires and with shorter booms.

Twelve years ago today, June 22nd, Lt. Michael Neuner died in the Line of Duty fighting a house fire with the Brewster Fire Department in Putnam County. Mike was a Police Officer in the City of Peekskill, a former member of the Putnam County Sheriffs Department, Armonk and Patterson Fire Departments. My Uncle Mike was one of the funniest, coolest and nicest guys to ever walk this earth.

We remember you today and every day, Satch. You may be gone but you'll never be forgotten!

Point them out, I know I have bashed a few ff/ems for doing s*** they were not trained to do or that violated there own policies.
LEO have an incredibly difficult job, but in this particular case the officers who got hurt did not need to be in the position they put themselves in.

A 3/4" or 1" booster line is still a viable hose line on a pumper. The problem is it is not used properly now a days. Back in the day yes it was utlizied as an initial attack line, a hold over from the days of using chemical tanks for small fires for a quick knockdown. As years progressed, booster lines had either a smooth bore, Navy (SG-60) or Coast guard (CG-15) attached to them, then later adjustibles and even FMC hiogh-pressure nozzles (if you had a three-stage pump on your rig). As fire loads became greater, the booster line isn't usefull as an main fire attack line because you can't get the proper GPM to defeat the BTUs genreated at strucutre / room-and-content fires.
A booster line, though you don't get a lot of gpm out of it due to the size of the hose, it is still good for a lot of applications if used properly;
1 - Nussiance fires
2 - Brush fires
3 - Small trash can fires
4 - Chimney Fires (attach that good old under used chimney nozzle to it and send it down the pipe)
5 - Use as a secondary line for a car / truck / container fire by attaching a SG or CG nozzle using either a piercing attachment or a "pinapple wand" to get into those hard to reach areas (before a hood or an opening can be created). Again, doesn't take the place of the main attack lines, it an added resource.
6 - For drafting operations, the return recycle line to keep water moving back into a porta-tank so you don't waste a discharge and don't loose your prime
7 - DECON and REHAB for your firefighters, nothing like having a small line to cool you off on a hot day or to wash down your dirty gear. Again, freeing up another larger line or main discharge.
8 - small propane tank leakes - less than 20 lbs tanks (adjust the nozzle to a good fog patter and disipate that LPG)
9 - Use as an invesitgation line - The FM is trying to find the cause of a fire, got a few very small hot-spots or needs to wash down a small are without having the great pressure from a 1 3/4" line, the booster is your line. GRANTED it should not be the only line present, you should still have a main attack line present just in case! You have the poewer of both.
Those are just a few as there are many more uses still.
I rather pull a booster line for a nussince fire rather than having to pull 50 feet of pre-connect in a crossy lay or front bumper line for a little fire at 3 am.
Also too, a lot of fire comapnies are utilizing the "hose reel" concept with 1 3/4" lines as well. The Mortlake Fire Comapny in Brooklyn, CT has a pumper with two pre-charged attack lines on reels. Granted this is a differnet concept and can be disccused in a different thread, hose reels are still viable.
Mortlake FC's website: http://mortlakefire.com/mainsite/index.htm
Booster lines are still viable, its just departments get it in their head that it is old technology and no room for it any more. I say hogwash! You may not be able to use it as a main attack line for larger fires, but in the end, its a quick line thaty should be utilized if you have it. Just like the debate of fog nozzels vs. smooth bores, the booster line has it place in the fire service.