firemoose827

I do not agree with this at all. I certainly have the Highest Respect for Any State Troopers or City/Town Police officers for that matter.

The fact that if they get hurt, this is Not their job. And who is guarding the hen house while these Troopers fight this fire. If I saw this nd wanted to commit a crime somewhere on their beat, I know there could be a delayed response giving me a better chance to get away with it.

If they were firefighters dressed in civilian clothes doing this, we would be the first to critize them for not wearing the proper gear.

I think Somebody mentioned that they were glad that a State Trooper took the hose line and started to fight the fire. Did I read that right ? A firefighter was glad that a State Trooper took the hose line to fight the fire. Should a firefighter take a gun from the Troopershands and shoot a suspect ? It doesn't make sense to me reading that.

I don't think any State Trooper should be honored for doing this. And personnelly if I was the Chief, I'd be speaking to their supervisor explaining why Firefighters fight fires and not State Troopers.

If I was going for surgury, would I want my electrician who just put in a new fuse panel to open my heart.

I really can not believe some people would agree with this. Maybe they ment well, but should I be pulling cars over for speeding, or should I leave that for the people who are trained (and paid) to do it.

I think its just a simple matter of everyone helping to achieve the same goal...helping someone in need, whats wrong with that? I believe your example is a bit far fetched and over dramatic, an electrician performing open heart surgery is no where near accurate enough to explain two state troopers answering a call of help from a local volunteer fire chief whom they probably know from working together in the field anyway and were all too happy to help. These guys held a hand line, outside the building, away from the heat and smoke, and allowed other trained firefighters to do the more important work in the hot zone such as overhaul, salvage, and final extinguishment.

I think we are all over reacting a little here...

Just the responce I was looking for ! thank you.

Not for nothing, but in your previous post you were supporting the help offered you by the local PD when short handed, and now you are against it? Which side of the fence are you on here? LOL

We know now that no one was in danger. Was that outright apparent when the units first arrived on scene and the Troopers were asked to help? Was it known if the house was occupied or unoccupied? You're looking at a photograph that was taken how long into the operation?

If a firefighter chooses to make an adult decision to pull over a suspected drunk driver, and potentially prevents an accident or innocent person from being injured/killed, I'll say my thanks, and take over. I won't ridicule them for helping.... But I guess that's the difference between the two professions.

Bottom line here is that this was something that they were asked to do. It is obviously a rual volunteer department. As we all know, there are manpower issues that we all have to deal with. They did not take the hose out of anyones hands and I am sure they were directed as to where and how the IC wanted that hose stream directed. We are all here for the same reasons, to serve the public we were sworn to protect. Take help were you can when you need it. I am sure that as soon as there was adequate manpower the police officer's were relieved. I think it was even changed to a monitor unless I am looking at the wrong picture. Would we all rather have firefighters manning the line? Sure, but if you don't have anyone, I will take the help from the PD.

I agree with these comments, we are all here for the same reasons, helping others in their time of need. If I was working a large fire and operating exterior lines for hours and was asked by a local cop or state trooper if I needed help holding the line I would gratefully accept their help and guide them as to what they could do to help.

On the flip side, If I saw a PD Officer getting attacked by a group of people, I would grab the nearest hard object and start swinging, or do WHATEVER I could to help them. I did just that one evening when working my FT EMS gig years ago. Our station is within minutes of the local SUNY campus, one evening we were jsut sitting down for dinner when the scanner came alive with a screaming SUNY cop saying he was being chased by a mob of college students through the quad and was calling for all available help from village PD and State Troopers. My partner and I jumped into our rig and started for the campus, lights and sirens blaring in hopes that the sirens would alert the students and make them run. When we arrived on scene, the SUNY cop was being held down and maced with his own mace by a group of 5 students. They saw us and ran away, giving us time to pull up next to the cop and pull him into our ambulance and drove away to safety before the kids realized it was only an EMS rig and tried to come and finish what they started.

We flushed his eyes and took him to the local ER for evaluation. What would have happened to this guy if we didnt show up? What if we just simply said "To hell with that, our pizza will get cold."???? Does any of the law enforcement gang here think we did wrong and wish to tell us to do our jobs and let them do theirs or did we do the right thing??

We work together, we have to, no one else will help.

I've removed Incident Alerts from the "Recent Topics" list found on the Board Index, since the can now be found in the Shoutbox.

This is due to some members flooding the Recent Topics list with IA's, which distracts from other threads and pushes other topics out of the way.

This is a trial only right now.

GREAT move. I have nothing against the IA's, but we as a membership can not learn much from them, other than something is going on somewhere.

Most of the topics I have been trying to follow always get booted from the recent topics list and it is frustrating to say the least, especially when people post the same incident over and over again, updating every lasting detail, every radio transmission, every time the IC farts...its a little redundant and if everyone wants to follow those things that closely, use the shout box.

I think we are forgetting what this forum is for primarily and that is discussing current topics and events in the fire, EMS and law enforcement fields. If I want to know what is happening in east bejesus NY I will buy a scanner and program it with a thousand channels and listen to that all day, when I come here it is to read and participate in forum discussions and look at pictures and videos of emergency scenes and apparatus being purchased/sold. Sorry to sound boring, but the IA's can tend to be distracting and even a little annoying at times. Use the shout box for IA tracking and use the forums for what they are...Forum Discussions.

Sorry, end of rant, begin torrent of useless insults and jabs at me all because I posted my opinion on the matter, and have a great day.

Moose

Guys if you were at the fire don't be scared to go to a debriefing. Don't leave the pain locked inside.

I can not agree with this more. PM Me if you want to talk about debriefing and holding it in, I have personal experience with this. Please, if you need it, take it. Stay strong.

Moose

Its never easy to deal with a fatality, whether its in a fire, or accident, especially if you know the people.

From someone who knows first hand, my heart goes out to all the responders and their families, and the son on his speedy recovery and strength to deal with his losses.

My old department used to fill pools for donations. We used our 4000 gallon tanker and drafted from nearby ponds/streams, never filled off the village hydrants.

We used it for drills with tanker shuttles, and broke in new tanker drivers that way, and while they were doing the shuttle those of us that stayed in the persons yard usually got offered coffee, drinks, cookies, one guy even fired up his BBQ and cooked us chicken and burgers. We used it for PR, showed off our crappy equipment and complained a lot so that way come next election they would vote for our budget, or vote for that new truck we might bring to the next village meeting.

My current department doesnt do it now, there is too many "litigious" people out there that sue for every reason imaginable, and if their pool collapsed while we were filling it...suddenly the department owns a broken pool and the person bad mouths us all over the community. Not worth the hassle...

Rest In Peace Lieutenant. May your family find comfort in the arms of your brothers.

Rest In Peace Lieutenant. All my thoughts and prayers to your family and friends.

Sorry everyone, I will look you all up on the myfitnesspal.com today, I have been sick a few days. I think I even lost some weight being sick for 5 days and not eating much, so maybe I got a head start.

Keep this going everyone, I see we have a few other LODD reports on these forums as well and I am scared to see what the cause was. Keep this discussion going, please and reach out to others as well. Health and fitness need to be our top priority now, not how many lights you have on your car or what you carry in your turnouts...

Stay HEALTHY and safe.

Moose

Just signed up with Myfitnesspal...would like to hook up with others in EMTBRAVO in the program

Just signed up also. Send me a PM with your username and we can work together. Mine is the same as here, firemoose827.

Anyone else want to work with us on this? Support us? Coach us?

Yes. I did away with that feature until I had time to discuss it with members and the staff as to what number would equal in words.

Basic Firefighting chain of command;

1-25 = Rookie (or probie)

26-50 = Firefighter I

51-100 = Firefighter II

101-200 = Lieutenant

201-300 = Captain

301-400 = Assistant Chief

401-500 = Deputy Chief

501-600 = Chief of Department

over 600 = Fire Administrator

Or something to that effect. And before everyone starts ripping apart the titles I used, YES, I KNOW, there are different titles used by different departments/states, so any title agreed upon is fine with me, just throwing out ideas.

Or you could do a site specific title like

1-25 = EMTBravo Newbie

26-50 = EMTBravo Trainee

51-75 = EMTBravo Word Wizard

76-100 = EMTBravo Veteran

101-200 = EMTBravo Guru (Eligible for Moderator/staff assignment)

201-300 = EMTBravo Keyboard Cruncher

Just a few ideas to work with and build from, I think it would make it more interesting, and create an atmosphere that people want to post good content in to get recognized instead of the pointless one line bashes that could receive negative points.

Also, will we have the choice to use different backgrounds, or skins again like we used to have or is this the only choice? Thanks!

If you could give us a list of what you need the most, I can check what we have in our station. I know we have some excess 3" hose and maybe a few extra hand tools, but we are just as bad with turnouts, and our trucks are falling apart. Let me know and I will try to help.

Moose

7 - Track calories, plan meals for the day, and track exercise using MyFitnessPal - http://www.myfitnesspal.com (Excellent iphone APP available to that allows you to scan barcodes.) You can also enter recipes and figure out nutrition info for each serving. You can set reminders to notify you if you forget to track your info. EXCELLENT TOOL!

What I really need is a phone app that will yell at me "BACK AWAY FROM THE FOOD YOU FAT BASTARD!!" every time I go in a fast food joint, or the wrong isle in the super market. Is there an app for that?!!!

I already have an app at home when I go into the cupboards in between meals, its called the W.I.F.E. app, unfortunately it costs a lot to download but offers a lifetimes supply of grief I MEAN great support...

Thanks for the other info brother, that will all help me. I will take you up on the offer to PM you later with my email address so we can talk back and forth if you dont mind, looks like we are both in the same fight yet you have a head start...you lost 25 pounds and I gained 50 over the Easter weekend!!

Thanks again.

Moose

First off--even though it has been said before many times-- excellent topic. That can't be said enough.

Second,

I'm quite surprised that your superiors were shocked by such a request, and I think they should reconsider how they "play officer". Seriously--kudo's to you for coming to the realization that you may need to go exterior/take it slow. You've achieved the first step in improving yourself and your lifestyle by coming to that realization, and reaching out to your friends on this forum.

Why am I surprised? I'll tell you (and i'm not necessarily picking on you here Moose--this is a general statement. I hope no offence will be taken, based on the fact that you started this post). Obviously, our own health and safety is vitally important to us. If we do not feel comfortable in an environment, or not physically fit to do a task, then we should not do it--especially if both things are the case. However, I do understand that there will most likely be a short in manpower with volunteer departments, so situations may arise in which we are needed, regardless if we cannot perform well. Ignoring my slight digression, the point I am trying to make is that being physically unfit is not only a danger to ourselves, but is also equally dangerous to our fellow brothers and sisters who work with us on a scene. I have a fella' in my department who could lose a good amount of weight, but has made no effort in doing so--they eat like crap (McDonald's, Garden Catoring, etc), and take no initiative to excercise. Not only are we concerned of something happening to them in the field, but also something happening to us BECAUSE something happened to them (i.e., heart-attack while on the line/searching, etc). Not only do we have a fire scene to deal with, but now we have a medical emergency; the fact that it is one of our own only makes matters worse. It's a very difficult fact to realize, but it had to be said, and I have yet to see anyone else on this thread comment about it.

Moose, I congratulate and thank you for bringing this issue to everyone's attention. I hope that this will inspire others to not only follow your lead, but also learn to recognize these problems, and help educate others in achieving a healthier lifestlyle.

Im glad you brought that up, and I couldnt agree more. I would have said this earlier, but the whole point of starting a topic on these forums is to generate discussion, if I were to put everything down in the first post...no one would reply!! LOL

This is a very important fact about our personal health, as firefighters we should be thinking of the big picture, not just our own hides, but the safety and well being of our fellow firefighters who have to come and rescue us and CARRY us out of the bad situation we get ourselves into because pride and ego get in the way. Especially with our families at home; what would happen to my wife and daughter if I passed at a fire with a massive MI because I was too prideful to admit that I need to be careful??

There is a lot to think about and hopefully this thread is getting some if not all of you to think about your health which in return affects all around you.

Thanks for your reply brother, stay safe.

Moose

Our department has a local Personal Trainer who comes in twice a week and runs 1 hr interval training. Each member pays $10 per session and the department provides the place and equipment. As was noted above, just buying equipment is not enough. We've had numerous machines, bikes, treadmills, benches, etc. but their use was really up to a few self motivated individuals. With our personal trainer, more people have committed to being there twice a week (just a jumping off point). Part of why we can do it on the cheap ($10/pp/hr) is the number of people that come. We've had great response from local trainers as due to job changes, pregnancy or other we've had three different ones all willing to work for peanuts to help out.

While exercise is only one part of losing weight, the other benefits of being fitter are important to firefighters. Just improving balance and core strength helps you stay upright far easier when operating on uneven surfaces, ice, flowing hoses, etc. etc.etc.

Our department has a local Personal Trainer who comes in twice a week and runs 1 hr interval training. Each member pays $10 per session and the department provides the place and equipment. As was noted above, just buying equipment is not enough. We've had numerous machines, bikes, treadmills, benches, etc. but their use was really up to a few self motivated individuals. With our personal trainer, more people have committed to being there twice a week (just a jumping off point). Part of why we can do it on the cheap ($10/pp/hr) is the number of people that come. We've had great response from local trainers as due to job changes, pregnancy or other we've had three different ones all willing to work for peanuts to help out.

While exercise is only one part of losing weight, the other benefits of being fitter are important to firefighters. Just improving balance and core strength helps you stay upright far easier when operating on uneven surfaces, ice, flowing hoses, etc. etc.etc.

Have you ever had dejavu?

Thanks for that idea, I can definately check into local trainers that may help us out on a monthly basis at our station. Its hard enough to get people down there for one drill and a meeting every month but when it comes to personal health maybe it would be different. Thanks again.

We fight our share of brush fires around me. My district is mostly wooded areas, farmlands and rural areas where people just LOVE to burn their yard debris every spring...

We had a good sized fire a couple of weeks ago across from my apartment complex that took 2 departments with over 50 firefighters to control, 6 ATV's, 1 4-wheel drive farm tractor with bucket and the forest ranger. Some of the crews wore their bunker pants and boots, helmets and gloves and they got fatigued early on. Others wore the brush gear we have on our brush truck and they were able to go longer with less breaks.

We carry 6 sets of brush gear on our brush truck; pants, shirts, helmet with goggles, and light leather work gloves. We use the lighter soft indian packs instead of the larger, bulkier and heavier aluminum indian packs and that seems to help as well.

NFPA may say that jeans and long sleeves are acceptable, but we do not allow it for obvious reasons. We received a wildland grant last year and got a few more sets of brush gear and some new hand tools like pulaski tools, union rakes and 2 new "Swatters" that seem to work well.

Firemoose827: When was the last time you had a full checkup???? You are starting to worry me with your "symptoms", and absolutely do NOT want to read about you in a RIP post - please follow up - you know the warning signs, and the big RED flasher is going off - either that or I am overreacting, but......

Please.

Sueg, I have my annual fire department physicals every year, the last one was in November 2011. I was checked out for class "A" interior, and the doctor told me the only thing she found was the weight and that I was to start thinking about diet and excercise. But they cleared me. I still take it easy though, when possible I am part of the command structure and just do what is needed, but in a small department like mine with only 9 interior qualified firefighters (including officers) its hard to not get active in interior firefighting.

Im watching what I eat now, and going for walks daily with the family and/or using one of those Total Gym units in my house. Im building my way up slowly to get my heart the workout it needs without overdoing it.

Thanks for your concern about me, I will take it easy and go slow for now until I get more conditioning.

Moose - time for a leave of absense till you are back in full service Brother...

Believe it or not, I have done that voluntarily before. I have gone right up to my chief and told them that I am going exterior/one bottle only in an emergency until I lose some weight. Some times they just stared at me in shock, others they understood, but I never got any help from any of them or support or guidance. I guess thats why I started this thread, to let everyone know that we should be reaching out to those members that may need better physical conditioning and offering them help and support. Especially those with heart problems already diagnosed and being treated for, those members with known medical issues, and us overweight brothers/sisters. I know that I would not turn down any advice or assistance or encouragement from my brothers and sisters to loose this weight.

Thanks for your replies and concerns everyone, keep them coming and reach out to someone in your department today and offer that encouragement and concern to them as well. We should and CAN change things around if we all work together.

There are ways to get equipment, such local gyms or schools. See if they are upgrading to new equipment, often you they will donate their old stuff to you. Even just walking, bike riding, and calisthenics will help, but you are right Moose, you have to have the desire to do it. My doctors tell me all the time I need to work out to improve my back by strengthening my abs, and losing weight. Its hard to it when you just want to go to sleep after a long day of work, or spend time with the family. See if your family or guys at the station want to work out together. I know two of the commands I have worked in have done their own version of "The Biggest Loser". Everyone who participated weighed in on the same scale, and put a small amount of money into a pot, with the winner taking the money, but everyone improved. Also they had fun breaking balls along the way, so be prepared for that as well.

Busting balls comes with the territory of the brotherhood!! In fact, I thought it was a mandatory requirement for all emergency services personnel??

Moose, I can tell you that you are on the money with your thinking. As a survivor of 2 MIs and overweight myself, it is an every day struggle. As we get older the weight gets harder to get off. It leads to bad backs, joint pain, and other associated injuries not to mention shortening life and never seeing that retirement check.

Its to the point now where I am having trouble just getting on the floor (and back up again) to play games with my daughter, or be able to do extended periods of physical activity at fires without feeling like passing out or needing O2. Just yesterday (Easter Sunday ofcourse) we had a large fire involving a large pile of logs and logging debris next to a building housing an outdoor furnace, and it realy affected me just helping the crews stretch and move a couple of 2 1/2" lines into position. I felt myself wanting to just drop to the ground one time, and it realy bothered me.

Physical fitness needs to be addressed in all emergency services levels, including EMS. I worked EMS for 11 years and remember those nights having to carry a person weighing 300 pounds or more down multiple flights of stairs with just two of us because local volunteer fire departments didnt show up for lifting assistance. Getting the person into the back of the rig than having to take a minute to catch my breath and control my breathing before helping the medic...

I wanted to take the Firefighter I Course to refresh my knowledge but was afraid I would be the laughing stock of the class full of younger firefighters watching me gasp for air during the hands on portions...

I wasn't sure where to put this topic so feel free to move it to where it belongs.

I felt this needed to be discussed openly with all of our brothers/sisters in a constructive way to hopefully prevent any future LODD's from MI's.

I for one, am extrememly overweight and have a vast family history of heart troubles and it scares me to see all of these firefighters passing from heart related issues, medical issues, or "Unknown" medical issues AFTER the call. How many LODD notices have I read lately with the firefighter passing at the station, or at home some time after the call has ended? How many have passed at the scene or at the station after responding for a call?

We need to step-up our efforts to increase physical fitness in the fire service and prevent each other from dropping with heart attacks and strokes. We need to encourage each other to improve our level of physical fitness, and start eating right.

You see grants being written for firefighting equipment, gear and trucks...but how about gym equipment for the station? It wouldnt take much to get a treadmill or bike, and some free weights at each station, Im even sure there are members out there who have the stuff lying around their homes that could store it at their station for all to use in an effort to keep everyone fit.

I want to loose weight, and I want to be there for my daughter when she graduates school, gets married and has kids of her own but its hard without help and encouragement. What does everyone else say about this issue?

Stay safe AND healthy.

Rest In Peace brother. May his family and friends find comfort in their time of need.

Too many heart attacks...We need to step up the efforts to increase physical fitness in the fire service.

Thanks for all the work you put into this forum Seth, this upgrade is looking great so far. The only other thing I have is my personal messages and my greetings on my profile page. I cant find the greetings that people have written on my profile page any more and there was info on them I was saving, like contact info. Where did they go now or what are they called instead?

Thanks in advanced.

Moose

As far as the article goes, This guy was involved in 3 lawsuits that the article mentions, 2 EEOC lawsuits at work and the one against the church. The fact that the majority of people go through life haveing never filed ANY lawsuits, the fact that this guys has 3 makes me think that there may be more to this, he may be the problem.

If he was molested by a priest, fine, give him his due from the church. As far as breaking balls over that, if it is true and he was molested then breaking his balls over it may cross the line but it could also be possible that the guys at work knew more of the story and were breaking his balls over the fact that maybe it wasn't all true.

I've been on the job 14 years now and have taken my share of getting my stones broke but as I told the new guys that I trained over the summer, EVERYONE takes their turn on the wheel, this week you did or said something stupid to get f***** with and next week someone else with do or say something twice as dumb as you and it will take the heat off you and people will forget.

The Emergency services IS NOT the place to work if you are not thick skinned !!! Cops do all kinds of crazy s*** to each other, but it is all in good fun.

Ball breaking also has it's place among the men when it comes to correcting each others behavior. If somebody is doing something wrong on a consistent basis, and everyone breaks his balls over it, it's a way to let them know that they are f****** up and need to correct whatever the problem is.

Ball Breaking is also a form of acceptance. When a new guy comes into a command and nobody talks to him, he knows that he has finally been accepted when guys start breaking his balls but when a guy comes in and nobody talks to him or deals with him in any way then he has not been accepted by the guys.

I certainly agree with Crime Cop above. As a Retired Firefighter I think Thick Skin was part of the basic requirements. Those guys would remember everything and years later when the time came, whether it was me or anybody else, it was open game. If you showed signs that you couldn't take it, the gang would just get on you worse. There was no symphany.

At times, if someone would walk into the firehouse, they would think we hated each other. Everybody got their share and everybody dished it out. I'm glad I got many years of it that way. Things started to change and I think today, I'd be afraid to open my mouth. It's really kind of hard to explain, but it was a lot of fun even if you were on the recieving end.

I love the over use of the term "Thick Skin" here. Guys (and I mean everyone reading and posting in this thread, not just the ones I have quoted, these are just examples), there is a difference between busting someones balls over tripping on hose at last weeks drill or flat out harrassing someone over something as personal as this guys issue...BIG difference.

We also do not know all of the details, this poor guy could have been fighting this for years and it somehow got out in the station. If you were sexually abused by someone of the same sex, would you be eager to tell someone?

I am all for busting balls about everyday stuff, I do it all the time and I am on the receiving end a lot as well, and it never bothers anyone. Like mentioned above, I stay away from religion, someones family (serious issues anyway), and someones sexual preference, but if you screw up at a drill, or make some kind of mistake around me you are open game.

Thick skin has nothing to do with this guy from CA, he was abused, and that could screw you up big time both emotionally and physically, and as brothers the "friends" that he works with should have supported him in some way instead of what they did, they are nothing but A** H***S and have hopefully lost all respect from all their brothers/sisters in CA.

I was a Junior Firefighter in Long Island for about 4 years, and that was brutal...and I was only 14, 15 years old, but I still took what they dished out and smiled about it and they respected me for it because I never cried to my mommy or daddy, I even gave it back a few times and made my father proud (and angry at the language I used but he got over it).

Busting balls about something a brother did last weekend at a barbeque is one thing, but taking someones personal life and making a bad situation worse...I cant and wont agree with anyone about that being acceptable in any way.

Only thing I don't like is reputation is gone, I liked that feature a lot and I believe others did also. When you say " normal" does that mean back to the same layout as the old one?

I agree, but I think it will now be based on content, as opposed to popularity contests. I liked the reputation button, and I agree I was finaly becoming popular for once in my life (lol ) but I think that the new system will show more about who is sharing good content as opposed to getting kissed on their gluteous maximus...

Looks good so far, is the upgrade done yet or is it still going?

Thanks

Again, an old comic that I have used over and over from Mr. Paul Combs for just about every issue in the fire service still speaks for itself.

My chief is female and has been in office for 3 years now and will probably still be in office for another 3 years or more, she does an excellent job, very skilled and knowledgeable and a great person. We have 2 other females in the department as well, one is lieutenant of the fire police and one is an EMT as well and both are great at what they do. It shouldnt matter what a persons sex or race or color is, just what they know and what kind of personality they have.

This is a sensitive topic for me, but one that should be discussed more often.

I have seen it too many times in my area where a young (19,20,21) firefighter is "elected" as chief of department solely based on the wrong things; they are not married and available all the time for calls and drills and meetings, they are popular and well liked, and they are totally ignorant to the work thats required to be a chief officer. When they get in office they are overwhelmed and quickly loose interest. They dont want to do the budgeting, and the politics at town/village meetings, and dealing with the media and the public...they just see the glory of the white hat, and the power that comes with it and they are blinded to everything else. The department ends up suffering and things get behind.

I WISH there was special requirements for chief officer, but near me they are limited and different from department to department. My first dept in Long Island was the perfect example of what I feel is required, they needed to be trained to the basic firefighter level (interior qualified through state training and department officer qualification at the training tower, you had to be approved by an officer before being granted interior), driver/operator of all trucks in the fleet, have rescue and haz-mat training, as well as Fire Officer I and II, ICS 100, 200, NIMS 700. You also had to have at least 8 years experience as a trained firefighter, not 8 years in the department, 8 years as an interior firefighter with annual recert through the officers at the training facility. There, you ran for 2nd lieutenant of the company you were in (engine or ladder), when elected you did a 2 year term and moved up to 1st lieutenant, then Captain. The two Captains were automatically nominated for 2nd assistant chief of department, other nominations were allowed of past captains and past chiefs. Then you did 2 year terms as 2nd, 1st assistant chiefs, then Chief. After 2 years you were aloud to run for lieutenant again or assistant chief. On fire scenes past Captains were still honored as officers (if no line or chief officers were present), and respected.

Its totally different where I am now. I have seen people who were not even trained as firefighter I get elected as line officers...My department requires 5 years in the department (or equivilant service in other departments) to be lieutenant, but the 2 Lt's are appointed by the chiefs after elections. The Captains are required to have 1 year experience as Lieutenant (or equivilant service in other dept) and firefighter I. Chiefs are required to have that and 1 year as Captain...Thats it. No officers training required and in some cases no firefighter I either...

PLEASE, someone come up with mandatory requirements for officer in the state of New York for volunteer fire departments!!!!!

My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends, may he rest in peace and may the others recover completely from their injuries.