PCFD ENG58

For those of you that didn't know Hal he was a member of Fire Patrol & Rescue Co #1. Port Chester New York Fire Dept He was the man that changed our company from a Fire Police to a true Heavy Rescue company . In my Volunteer days we fought side by side in some of the biggest fires that hit our dept, riots of the 70's 3 story cold water flats burning on both side's of the street at the same time. He worked in the Media in the city and gave all his spare time to the company. He could not be tied down and because of this he got a job offer from Newsday to be a Politcal Journalist in Washinton D C . He also servied while in DC for the Chevy/Chase Maryland Rescue, He was one of the first on location at the Pentigon 9/11 driving that big Kenworth Rescue they had. When he retired the President of United States made him chairmen of the Fallen Firefighters Foundation because of his background in the fire servrce. He servied his Village, his Fire company, his job, and his Country ! His last trip to Port Chester he had a meeting in the city to give out monies to the NYC children and widows fund and took a Senator [?] with him to ride Rescue 40 [PCFD] for the day. My son[rescue40] had the privlege of taking them on a few runs that day and it was good to see him back in the saddle where he belonged . R.I.P. to a good Friend, and a great Firefighter. The Fire service lost a great one . Angelo

For those of you that didn't know Hal he was a member of Fire Patrol & Rescue Co #1. Port Chester New York Fire Dept He was the man that changed our company from a Fire Police to a true Heavy Rescue company . In my Volunteer days we fought side by side in some of the biggest fires that hit our dept, riots of the 70's 3 story cold water flats burning on both side's of the street at the same time. He worked in the Media in the city and gave all his spare time to the company. He could not be tied down and because of this he got a job offer from Newsday to be a Politcal Journalist in Washinton D C . He also servied while in DC for the Chevy/Chase Maryland Rescue, He was one of the first on location at the Pentigon 9/11 driving that big Kenworth Rescue they had. When he retired the President of United States made him chairmen of the Fallen Firefighters Foundation because of his background in the fire servrce. He servied his Village, his Fire company, his job, and his Country ! His last trip to Port Chester he had a meeting in the city to give out monies to the NYC children and widows fund and took a Senator [?] with him to ride Rescue 40 [PCFD] for the day. My son[rescue40] had the privlege of taking them on a few runs that day and it was good to see him back in the saddle where he belonged . R.I.P. to a good Friend, and a great Firefighter. The Fire service lost a great one . Angelo

For those of you that didn't know Hal he was a member of Fire Patrol & Rescue Co #1. Port Chester New York Fire Dept He was the man that changed our company from a Fire Police to a true Heavy Rescue company . In my Volunteer days we fought side by side in some of the biggest fires that hit our dept, riots of the 70's 3 story cold water flats burning on both side's of the street at the same time. He worked in the Media in the city and gave all his spare time to the company. He could not be tied down and because of this he got a job offer from Newsday to be a Politcal Journalist in Washinton D C . He also servied while in DC for the Chevy/Chase Maryland Rescue, He was one of the first on location at the Pentigon 9/11 driving that big Kenworth Rescue they had. When he retired the President of United States made him chairmen of the Fallen Firefighters Foundation because of his background in the fire servrce. He servied his Village, his Fire company, his job, and his Country ! His last trip to Port Chester he had a meeting in the city to give out monies to the NYC children and widows fund and took a Senator [?] with him to ride Rescue 40 [PCFD] for the day. My son[rescue40] had the privlege of taking them on a few runs that day and it was good to see him back in the saddle where he belonged . R.I.P. to a good Friend, and a great Firefighter. The Fire service lost a great one . Angelo

For those of you that didn't know Hal he was a member of Fire Patrol & Rescue Co #1. Port Chester New York Fire Dept He was the man that changed our company from a Fire Police to a true Heavy Rescue company . In my Volunteer days we fought side by side in some of the biggest fires that hit our dept, riots of the 70's 3 story cold water flats burning on both side's of the street at the same time. He worked in the Media in the city and gave all his spare time to the company. He could not be tied down and because of this he got a job offer from Newsday to be a Politcal Journalist in Washinton D C . He also servied while in DC for the Chevy/Chase Maryland Rescue, He was one of the first on location at the Pentigon 9/11 driving that big Kenworth Rescue they had. When he retired the President of United States made him chairmen of the Fallen Firefighters Foundation because of his background in the fire servrce. He servied his Village, his Fire company, his job, and his Country ! His last trip to Port Chester he had a meeting in the city to give out monies to the NYC children and widows fund and took a Senator [?] with him to ride Rescue 40 [PCFD] for the day. My son[rescue40] had the privlege of taking them on a few runs that day and it was good to see him back in the saddle where he belonged . R.I.P. to a good Friend, and a great Firefighter. The Fire service lost a great one . Angelo

For those of you that didn't know Hal he was a member of Fire Patrol & Rescue Co #1. Port Chester New York Fire Dept He was the man that changed our company from a Fire Police to a true Heavy Rescue company . In my Volunteer days we fought side by side in some of the biggest fires that hit our dept, riots of the 70's 3 story cold water flats burning on both side's of the street at the same time. He worked in the Media in the city and gave all his spare time to the company. He could not be tied down and because of this he got a job offer from Newsday to be a Politcal Journalist in Washinton D C . He also servied while in DC for the Chevy/Chase Maryland Rescue, He was one of the first on location at the Pentigon 9/11 driving that big Kenworth Rescue they had. When he retired the President of United States made him chairmen of the Fallen Firefighters Foundation because of his background in the fire servrce. He servied his Village, his Fire company, his job, and his Country ! His last trip to Port Chester he had a meeting in the city to give out monies to the NYC children and widows fund and took a Senator [?] with him to ride Rescue 40 [PCFD] for the day. My son[rescue40] had the privlege of taking them on a few runs that day and it was good to see him back in the saddle where he belonged . R.I.P. to a good Friend, and a great Firefighter. The Fire service lost a great one . Angelo

For those of you that didn't know Hal he was a member of Fire Patrol & Rescue Co #1. Port Chester New York Fire Dept He was the man that changed our company from a Fire Police to a true Heavy Rescue company . In my Volunteer days we fought side by side in some of the biggest fires that hit our dept, riots of the 70's 3 story cold water flats burning on both side's of the street at the same time. He worked in the Media in the city and gave all his spare time to the company. He could not be tied down and because of this he got a job offer from Newsday to be a Politcal Journalist in Washinton D C . He also servied while in DC for the Chevy/Chase Maryland Rescue, He was one of the first on location at the Pentigon 9/11 driving that big Kenworth Rescue they had. When he retired the President of United States made him chairmen of the Fallen Firefighters Foundation because of his background in the fire servrce. He servied his Village, his Fire company, his job, and his Country ! His last trip to Port Chester he had a meeting in the city to give out monies to the NYC children and widows fund and took a Senator [?] with him to ride Rescue 40 [PCFD] for the day. My son[rescue40] had the privlege of taking them on a few runs that day and it was good to see him back in the saddle where he belonged . R.I.P. to a good Friend, and a great Firefighter. The Fire service lost a great one . Angelo

I'm going to keep this really short, There's much more at stake. I would like to add, that in reality, in many areas local government is failing miserably in their primary responsibility of providing adequate public safety.
Local government is ultimately responsible for funding and staffing EMS, fire and police protection, and they're playing a game of Russian roulette with peoples property and lives by not meeting one of their very few obligations: to provide adequate public safety.
To be sure, roads, schools, sanitation, are also major priorities, but getting re-elected seems more important to some of those we have entrusted with our lives.

Also live in different communities

FDPRO nailed it !!When the politicians and the Man Ymano thing between the 2 boards get settled maybe they ought to form one unified Dept with equal staffing 24/7. What was written earlier about the varios company rolls is true,many members are in the Active Exempt area(measns they have done thier duty but are not physically able to perform as a 1st grade FF. Nuff said!!!

how about for the port chester residence? They went down to one guy the other day and had a container truck on 95 on fire. The port chester chief toned out for the volunteer engine twice before calling rye because they could not get the rig out. What happens when PCFD send their engine to RBFD with the only guy working during the day and leaves PC unmaned, hoping a volunteer shows up to back fill station. It's going to take someone dying for things to change and it should be a crime, and the town board/leaders of fire department should be held criminally responsible for their actions. This doesn't come down to a paid volunteer thing it just comes down to safety for the man power operating and the safety of the residents.

To play devils advocate here, the only thing that a mayor truely does is run the monthly council meeting and two breaks any ties caused by the council. So you tell me?

Before any public safety position is ever eliminated, all non-vital positions such as Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Commissioners, mayoral aides, secretaries, etc, should be eliminated.

No I.A. on this, but to further emphasize the need for some sort of action in this neck of the woods, I heard this morning E-58 out on an I-95 ramp with a fully involved garbage truck fire, with a chief on scene. Is that one firefighter and a chief? Where is E-59? Where is anybody else? How many firefighters responded?
E-58 with a booster tank of water and a chief I guess to man the nozzle?
What if this was an apartment building?
I hope these two Brothers contained the garbage truck fire, and neither suffered an injury.
I heard the chief called for Rye for mutual aid. Was that to cover the city or to assist at the scene?
If this isn't a clear illustration that something needs to be addressed up there, tell me what is.
Edit: I understand there is a lot more information regarding this incident, so everybody take it easy, don't get freaked out, just help us out with the information if you can. Thanks.

E 58 on location this morning with one man on the rig. 2393 on location as incident command. Per radio transmission heard E-63 signed on about 28 minutes after intial dispatch.

Look at any operation and you can find "problems" or areas of improvement period. I always worry about home base first..and then my profession 2nd as we all represent each other. That's just a fact of life. If you or anyone else doesn't notice any...your not looking or don't know what to look for. Your training should be based off those issues but big and small to make operations more efficient, safer and professional.
As far as the if you don't have anything but negative things to say....and I saw no insults....enough already. If you want nothing but positives and want to keep eating cake go to the kids section of a book store. Things happens, things occur and things are occurring that are not efficient, nice, dangerous, ridiculous etc. You can not read them if if makes you upset. I say discuss them and tackle them head on..until we get over this stigma about insulting, badmouthing, monday morning quarterbacking..the fire service is going to have a lot of problems. And not for nothing you did invite anyone with your first sentence to point things out as they see them. I don't operate in Portchester so its not my battle but I could point out several that would blanket just about every department in this county....but as I said...I fight that battle on my own front.
Chuck...nice post but no one was attacking anyone nor saying you aren't or never were providing good service to your area. All departments have their issues. Its not personal...remember that. If it is..then the person posting should be or be able to say to anyone's face what they post. period.

Read, digest, comprehend and then respond. If you do these things you'll realize that I have a lot more than negativity to bring to this topic. It's called constructive commentary. As for your writing; I'm not trying to insult you. I'm simply pointing out that if you want your point to be taken seriously, you should be able to string a properly constructed sentence together. No one is looking for perfection, but I have to read your post about 4 times to make sense of it. Part of a respectful argument is to address everyone here like well read adults.
As for PCFD/RBFD operation; why should be not discuss that here? Isn't that the point of this forum? What should be do, buff out to apparatus and incident photos all day? Or perhaps we should only give big pats on the back for a job well done after every incident. No, that's not what this is for. We have this forum and it allows us to do many things. We get to share photos, report incidents and most importantly, discuss operations in the hopes of improving them. If all of those things can't be done, than why are Seth and the rest of the staff killing themselves and spending money keeping this site open?
As for the RBFD issue, lets cut to the chase. Everything is not fine. Those guys are in a position of having to do too much with not enough. Sorry, but waiting for PCFD to show up is also not appropriate as a first due means of providing emergency service. How about night time? Do you REALLY think that the lone chauffeur of engine 59 thinks showing up in front of a building fire at 2 A.M. is fine? I DOUBT it. What do you think residents see? They see a big red truck and a guy killing himself to hook up to a hydrant or whatever, but then they have to wait a few LONG minutes waiting for people to arrive to actually fight the fire. That's B.S. for that fireman to be in that position and B.S. for the residents.
There are many ways to skin this cat, but the system as it exists now is in fact NOT working. It is not sufficient and it puts a lot of firemen and civilians in danger, let along property. This is not about the dedication of those who work or volunteer in this two department system. This is about not being provided with the tools or manpower to do the job. Why are you defending this system? Is it because, "this is the way we've been doing it for 175 years", as someone said? Well, I guess we should dust off the hold hand drawn pumpers because they worked fine a century ago, right? Why examine a system to look to improve it?
If this doesn't get through....nothing will. I'm going to put the soap box away for now....

I have seen several depts begging for info/help finding their "old" apparatus that was sold off many years ago at musters and on the SPAAMFAA website. If your dept has any interest in getting this one back, now is the time. Funds may not be availible to resto it now, but atleast of you get possession of it, you can resto it when you decide to, even if it is years from now. Hoping to find it and buy it when the funds are availible may lead you on a fruitless search, and a whole bunch of "we should of bought it back then"

Date: 10-25-2011
Time: 1830
Location: Winter Park, FL IAO Winter Park Hospital & Lakemont Ave.
Departments: WPFR, WPPD, FHP
Description: Bicyclist w/o brakes failure to yield to WPFR E62
Links: www.wesh.com
Writer: mfc2257
Man on bike that didn't have brakes attempted to pass E62 while it was turning and was killed. 51 year old fire vet not charged. Many witnesses walking, biking, commuting.
May the man on the bike and his family have peace. May the chauffeur of E62 (which is first due to my home) press on in light of this terrible accident. He has been on the job for many years and is a valuable asset to WPFR.

You are correct, the Rye Brook FD ff's work 7a-7p 7 days a week. They have no officers and they have no chiefs of their own. The Port Chester FD is always dispatched along with Rye Brook to all of their calls. (The Port Chester chiefs are in charge of the RBFD) They have a 2 man minumum for staffing, with I believe 4 men assigned to each (2) group. They have tried to get the Village of Rye Brook to hire more ff's so they may staff their station 24/7 without success. At 7pm 1 of the career Port Chester ff's drives his engine (59) and stays at the RBFD till the Rye Brook ff's return in the morning. Makes absolutely no sense, Rye Brook is mostly a bedroom community. Why would you want to reduce the amount of firefighters in your town during the hours when the most harm can come to the most people? Politicians can screw up anything.

While moving some boxes to paint in my house, I found this:

BRING ON THE SNOW!!!!!!!!!
I GOT A BIG a** TRUCK AND A 4 WHEELER WITH A PLOW!
plus, snowbanks keep the beer cold whil eyou are outside playing with the kids!

Leave the bridge up so that the jumpers don't tie up traffic

How about Mutual Aid New York State !!! A lot of departments right here in New York need help !! Many small departments in upstate don't have the money to buy gear or rigs so why are we giving good gear and rigs to people who don't give a f*** about us! Sorry for the rant

The guy who posted these photos for me is "R1SmokeEater". A great guy whos on the job working in the Yonkers Fire Dept.
As for the great work by Willy "D", if you heard Willy "D" can walk on water, its not true. But I certainly appreciate the kind words. I was just very lucky to be able to have the time to photograph these rigs.
And yes, he does look like Steve McQueen to me too George.
Finally, I think you might find that "R1Smoke..." posted several of these on this site earlier under "Protection from the Past".
And yes, you just gotta love those Macks.
I hope you enjoy the photos.

With due respect to the staff,
Before the topic was locked, there was some measure of displeasure with the post from the site's founder regarding one-liners and inflammatory comments, with a poster saying the site has lost it's balls and the members need thicker skin.
It's not a matter of the site "losing it's balls" or members who need "thicker skin", it's about keeping the site educational, a positive environment, and most of all, PROFESSIONAL. Sometimes we need to remember that "we" (emergency service members) are not the only ones who read the content contained in these forums. I'm sure there are enthusiasts, members of local government, members of the media, and so on who read the content contained in these forums. While it's all good to banter amongst each other as if we were in the firehouse, precinct, quarters, or whatever you would like to call it, we still have to maintain some level of decorum and professionalism just as if we were present in a public place, since this board is easily viewed by members of the general public, and more importantly the media. Case in point;
The NYPD Rant for those who's haven't read it is full of so much garbage since there is little to no moderation, it's not one bit enjoyable to read from an educational standpoint. If anyone outside the NYPD read the material in that forum, the useless bantering of a few sets a bad precedence and honestly depicts the members of the NYPD in a very negative light. The media reported today on a thread contained in the NYPD Rant website about posters who posted personal attacks against an NYPD member. As a civilian reading that article, what kind of opinion do you think the "average Joe" will have of the Rant and the members of the NYPD?
So in order to keep this site from becoming another "rant style" website, there needs to be a level of moderation that suits the wishes of the site's founder, since it is ultimately his call on what is and what is not permitted. If any of us don't like it, we are all free to start up our own site where anything goes and all the members can brag over who has the biggest balls. Personally, I'll stick with the site that's an educational portal as well as promotes and exhibits the professionalism of emergency service providers.