lemonice

Another concern about driving on soil would be any underground "obstructions", i.e. Septic tanks, oil tanks (abandoned or in use), underground electrical vaults, etc. dropping an outrigger over one of these could result in a big OOPS. 

According to the state DOH website CFR classes are 48-60 hours, EMT is 150-190. I'd say "waste of time" is pretty subjective. It really depends on what this person intends to do with it. 

While I can see this is certainly well meaning, I have to disagree. There's no reason the Chief of one of the largest FDs in the nation will ever have to pack up, much less escape a building. While it's great that he "trains just like us" there's a dozen things I'd rather have the chief of my city driving his time doing. Pushing city hall to hire enough personnel to fix our rigs, giving them money and equipment to fix them, updating our out of date equipment, better code enforcement of illegal apartments and abandoned houses and factories, and fighting attempts to close companies and reopening previously closed companies all come to mind. Yeah it's great that he took the time to suit up but a Chief has more important issues at hand that only he can do. There's plenty of Indians, be the Chief. 

That was satire, right?
 
I know that it wasn't, but stuff like this is typical of where we are these days.  People expect a prompt, professional response from EMS when they or a loved one is experiencing a medical emergency, but they don't want to actually put up the money necessary to put that in place.
 
The problem isn't so much the increasing training requirements.  The problem is that too many are still trying to look at this in terms of what's convenient for the providers and not what's best for the patients.  EMS has progressed significantly over the past 4 decades in the care that we can bring to a patient's doorstep.  This increased capability necessitates increased training in order to effectively provide it.  We are no longer "ambulance drivers" scooping patients up and racing to the hospital.  We are now pre-hospital medical professionals bringing the ER to the patient, particularly at the Paramedic level of care.
 
If the requirements for providing this level of care have reached the point where the care can no longer be reliably provided by an all or largely volunteer staff, the solution is not to lobby the state to decrease the amount of medical training for providers.  The solution is to start treating EMS as the medical profession that it now is.
 
If that means a tax increase to do so, then suck it up buttercup.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Way to just put up an idiot post and start all kinds of rumors! This is why I'm never on this stupid site anymore but I got an email and felt obligated to reply to this bs. Get the facts before posting something like this. All you are doing is starting a massive rumor and getting people worked up for no reason. TC Hudson Valley is separate from TC Westchester, NYC, etc. Putnam will not be losing their service and the HV division as well as Pittsburg will not be ceasing operations.  Also, I will not be replying or coming back on so.. aha, got ya last.

Seth, 
   Is there any way to increase the size of the font? I can barely see it.......... I'm not as young as I used to be.

How about the EMS PROFESSION to be respected rather than abused? It shouldn't matter whether you're collecting a paycheck or volunteering. The system is broken and there is nobody on a high level doing much of anything about it.
I HATE when people seek special consideration because they're volunteers. Either be an EMS PROFESSIONAL (paid or not) or rethink your choice of avocation.

Many would argue that it doesn't work consistently in all areas.

I've been a volunteer and career firefighter too. I often work along side of volunteers. I agree that we should be more united and respectful than we are.
From my experience and perspective, the volunteers oftentimes are more of an obstacle in getting to that place than the career folks. I often hear claims about how we're all doing the same job, have the same training, etc., but the fact is we aren't and we don't. Unfortunately, when you try to discuss this, the only thing too many on the volunteer side seem to take from it is that career guys are great and volunteers suck rather than understanding that career guys can be "better" by virtue of those differences in training and experience, but that doesn't mean that the volunteers are automatically inadequate. It's a lot like comparing pro athletes to college/high school athletes. The pros are typically better, which one would expect, but a lot of the non-pro athletes are pretty darn good, if not just as good in some cases. And in some cases, their best just isn't good enough.
We hear claims about how fires don't care if you're career or volunteer or that the person who's house is on fire doesn't care if you're career or volunteer, but who yells the most about training mandates or being held to any sort of standard? Who thinks it's perfectly ok to give a person a few dozen hours of basic introductory training (or none at all) and then turn that new person loose to respond and actively participate on calls? Who thinks it's appropriate to make a teenager with little actual experience a line officer?
IMO, these are the things that are at the very heart of the animosity between career and volunteer from the career side. Too many in the volunteer ranks want to be viewed as equal to the career guys without putting in the work necessary to truly be equal. Yes, there are places where truly providing services on the same level are not realistic (rural areas for one) and they do the best they can under tough circumstances, but there are others where the departments are just not being honest with themselves or their communities regarding the level of service they can realistically provide as a department or as an individual.
It's also frustrating to see comments about how career guys only care about the paycheck and don't have the pride in the job because we don't work fundraisers to pay the bills or in some cases don't live in the community that we work in. While there are career guys that are like that, the majority aren't and you'll find people like that in any career and you know there are plenty of volunteers that are all about the t-shirts and image rather than the work and service to the community.
Like you said, career and volunteer share a lot in common.
Personally, I try to be respectful of the volunteers in my area, but it's very hard at times to view some of them as peers when they do some of the stuff that they do and that includes burning down buildings that should not have burned to the extent that they did.

Your answer may be correct, but it may not be for the reason you think. In general, "paid districts" tend to be larger and busier than many "volunteer districts" and as such the number of "burned out hulks" could easily be greater due to having more fires overall. Additionally, even in paid districts, some fires are too advanced upon arrival to stop without the building being a total loss. So, looking at the end result and counting burned out buildings isn't a very reliable assessment of performance.
I have however, seen a number of fires in the volunteer districts of my area that should not have been the conflagration that they ended up being. And not just because of how long it took to them to arrive.

That's certainly subject to debate.

At risk of unintentionally insulting volunteers, I might ask if the FASNY study took into account how much money would be saved in property/insurance losses if a paid staffed FD was there to effect more positive outcomes sooner? Not a knock on the potential quality of work that a VFD can accomplish, but a realistic view of how much different a fire looks at minute 4 vs. minute 12. Take the same firefighters put them in the station when the call comes in nearly every time, and see how that affects the outcomes.

Shut them down

had issues with the nut in the front right seat.

I agree jd783,I find it hard to believe nobody in that department didn't notice. The days of the good old boys club is gone, shut them down

I live in Mahopac and did attend the town hall meeting, I found it informative . The meeting was attended by elected officials and Fire dept member and residents of Mahopac. The residents made up about 10% of the crowd. No change is coming to Mahopac in my opinion. This was the good old boys club at its best. I as a mahopac tax payer am annoyed that the dept as a whole has not offered a apology or explanation how this has happened. Its under investigation, cant talk about it. I feel 1 of the chiefs should write a letter to the local paper (Mahopac News) and explain. If I cashed my paycheck and dropped $5 on the way home from the bank I may not notice ,but if I dropped $500 I'm sure I would notice and the rest of my family also wonder where our money went this week. Before everyone forms their opinion of me let me say I am a paid fire officer and I do not believe the volunteer fire system works so my view is 1 sided, I do know several families that have volunteer firefighters in them and I can say they are stand up men and women who want to serve, but lets look into the latest UL fire studies on how todays fires burn hotter and give off more BTU's early in development and reach flashover quicker. I work in a large dept and we are in the firehouse waiting for a structure fire to come in and we still lose buildings and people. What are you really saving in a rural community with the reflex time it takes to get a piece of apparatuson scene with the needed manpower to start a fire attack. I know whats needed thank god most residents don't

I remember back when we used to just take the test and hope for a letter. This back and forth about possible scenarios is ridiculous. If you get a letter, great, follow the instructions. If you don't get a letter, you weren't good enough. Take another test. End of story.

I remember back when we used to just take the test and hope for a letter. This back and forth about possible scenarios is ridiculous. If you get a letter, great, follow the instructions. If you don't get a letter, you weren't good enough. Take another test. End of story.

Is this seriously an article about a car fire ?

I remember back when we used to just take the test and hope for a letter. This back and forth about possible scenarios is ridiculous. If you get a letter, great, follow the instructions. If you don't get a letter, you weren't good enough. Take another test. End of story.

I remember back when we used to just take the test and hope for a letter. This back and forth about possible scenarios is ridiculous. If you get a letter, great, follow the instructions. If you don't get a letter, you weren't good enough. Take another test. End of story.

Don't even waste your time trying to figure out logistics of who, what, when and where. No one plays nicely in the sandbox. It will be quite some time before anyone agrees on anything.

The issue with the volunteers is the fact that there are no more volunteers. I highly doubt you will see any volunteers "complimenting" the career members in Eastchester and certainly not in Mt. Vernon, ever again. I don't personally watch the meetings because of what you stated. It's a joke.

Exactly.....only on paper.......all houses had a company room....most are gone.....there was never a "volley" house though.

??? I don't understand what that means. Station 4 borders the City of New Rochelle and the City of Mt. Vernon. As well as responding on the Cross County Parkway and Hutch practically everyday. Even if it is the slowest engine in the district(600 runs?), I can bet it goes on more runs than half of these upper county engines combined. East Bum F*** to me is like South Salem or Bedford or Croton Falls.