22 Truck

What's horribly ironic is that the quint/midi concept was a cost saving measure that cut the number of firefighters and companies; from what I remember quint/midi houses were actually engine and truck houses with 8 guys total that then went to 6. And now, it was sold as look look, we're getting back to true engines and trucks. But once again, manpower was cut. Houses that had 6 now have 4.

100% true, though we wish it was false

Thanks for the excellent info, 22 Truck. Much appreciated as I was wondering what happened to the Midi concept that I've heard about in the past.

I noticed a Line Deputy Chief at the fire. What is the function of a Line Deputy Chief?

I saw 2 rather lightly used looking Midi's sitting at the academy/shops. Are they going to be keeping those? I know the current Chief is stepping down, and there is going to be a new mayor, any chance the Midi's may be brought back?

midis.jpg

The LDC is sent on "multiple calls" or receipts of a "working fire". LDC will act as Command, freeing up the BC to act as Ops. Most run of the mill house fires, BC will stay in Command, LDC will check it out, and return to quarters. LDC organizes all station staffing.

EDC Curran (in the photo) is C2. Any 2nd Alarm or greater, C1, C2...on down, is notified to respond. They most often serve as liason's.

That's a pic of Midi 6 and Midi 7 hanging out at the PSTF. They were originally Midi 4 and Midi 8. Once those Quint co.'s closed, thy were re-assigned to the busy and last Q/M's to close > M6 (North Clinton) and M7 (North Goodman). There was brief talk of stripping the Midi's completely, and replacing with 5 inch hose for large water supply. Obviously, it didn't happen. M6 and M7 remain at the academy for training purposes only.

Also, Rochester is a far cry from Detroit. In fact, a fairly financially stable city. City council posed possible FF cuts, for no reason at all really. They continue to dump money into the epically failing school system, in which their answer is to dump as much money as possible into it, maybe it will get better.

No. About 4 or 5 years ago the RFD went back to the Ening/Ladder system. The ladders are still quints, for the most part. I think only 1 ladder is not a quint. I remember one of the midi's went to the academy, the rest were sold off.

On another note, good job to the RFD! That's an old building, and undoubtedly a tough fire to extinguish.

RFD returned to Engine/Truck in 2008 after the then Fire Chief was tasked by city council to make budget cuts. His plan was to reduce the number of Firefighters/Chiefs in total, going from a department of 8 Engines, 9 Quint/Midi's, 1 Rescue, 1 Safety Captain, 3 Battalion Chiefs, 1 Line Deputy Chief to 13 Engines, 6 Trucks (Quints), 1 Rescue, 1 Safety Captain, 2 Battalions Chiefs, and 1 Line Deputy Chief. While the current number of vehicles seems more, each Quint/Midi co. consisted of 2 vehicles and 6 firefighters who could act as an Engine, Truck or split to be both. The current RFD operates with 4 firefighters on all apparatus. RFD also lost a BC (4 Chief's) and in 2012, was in the process of cutting the Safety Captain position completely when a heavily involved house fire occurred burning several firefighters while searching for possible trapped children. While not the way any of us want to do business, it was all of the ammo needed to go to city council to keep the Safety Captain (he was browned out that day).

All of the 6 current Trucks are "Quints", (Truck 10 is the only platform, it is also a Quint as you can see in the pics, the other 5 are all 110 ft. Quints) though the Chief wanted them called "Trucks" so the firefighters could get in the new mindset of what their "only" task was. Each of the Trucks have their own first due area, smaller than each of the Engines, but they will run alone on car fires, outside fires, etc.

Prior to the closing of the Q/M's, if the Quint/Midi co. was first due to a house fire, the Officer and Tip/Irons FF would stretch a line off the Quint, Quint Driver would pump, Ladder FF and Midi Shotgun would go the roof, search or throw ladders, and Midi Driver would finish water supply, then assist the first line or pump back to the Quint if a long lay. Now, if a Truck is first due to a house fire, Officer and Irons search, Ladder and Driver go to the roof or throw ladders, no line will be in place until an Engine arrives (unless it's ridiculously obvious the Engine is too far away, then they will pull a line but it's highly discouraged.

Ask any RFD FF or Line Officer, they want the Quint/Midi system back.

Rochester, NY PD, while responding to a report of a female officer being attacked at a domestic dispute, struck and killed a teen on a bicycle.

http://rochesterhomepage.net/fulltext/?nxd_id=213106

Be careful out there folks!

I took it two weeks ago....

Our test consisted of: the ERG handbook, advancing a flat lay, ground ladder raise and rescuing a victim from that ladder, hydrant hook-up, ropes/knots, inspecting your SCBA, donning your gear and SCBA (remember to report your air pressure prior to putting your pack on) in a time limit.

Very simple guys.... don't sweat it.

Any ?'s PM.

Is this 4 career firefighters to work 1 at a time 24/7, or 4 firefighters for daytime coverage? We've said it before and we've said it again NO ONE should have to work on their own,or even respond on their own.

While this is just in the beginning stages, not much has been released about how they would staff.

I can tell you that Fishers Fire District is not a volunteer fire department, they are combination. That posting from 2007 was used to hire 2 career "firefighters", ahem, administrators. These two work the weekday shift together for most of the shift; I think its like one is on from 7a-6p and the other is on 10a-3p at the same time, then they switch the rotation each month; not positive on those exact hours.

The Fishers Fire District is unique. While they may only do 430 runs a year, they have a huge amount of responsibility. They cover a MAJOR shopping area, including a very large mall. They get a lot of good crashes on their back roads. It is a very wealthy community, covering large homes, and they also are first due to a good portion of the NYS thruway as Exit 45 is in their first due. That's a lot of responsibility, and to put that all on the shoulders of the 26 active volunteers can be taxing, but doable.

As for the neighboring districts to Fishers, I know a couple (VERY solid departments) aren't exactly thrilled with FFD's manpower situation.

IMO, additional career staff in this growing community seems like the best course of action. They do have some dedicated volunteers and my hat is off to them, but they could use a hand. All too often, Fishers' rigs are getting out with only a few guys. They are fortunate to have Bushnell's Basin FD and Victor FD nearby to assist in their time of need. Fishers' is growing daily, both commercial and residential; their call volume is only going to go up.

Who did the graphics and who built it?

I'd venture to guess Wheeled Coach built it, judging by the upper corner strobes (trademark).

Not Metro area, but upstate....Paramedic trapped in his own house fire; Spencerport, NY.

Saw him 2 weeks ago during a bus accident...very much alive and practicing!

I can remember 9-10 months ago first finding out about this and thinking that I would reject it because Heath Ledger was playing Joker.....how could he replace Jack Nicholson? How disappointed was I? I mean come on, 10 Things I Hate About You and The Patriot up against the Joker?

How wrong was I?!?! Stellar performance. While I heard too much hype, it was placed on a high pedestal. I hate high pedestals because they set us up to disappoint. But in all honesty, it was an outstanding performance. It didn't even sound like him! I'm still not even sure it was him, to say how he performed.

The ONLY problem I saw with this movie was that of the lead of the comic series for us true fans >>> we were more than able to predict. We all knew who Harvey Dent would become. Made it a tad bit less suspenseful. STILL, however, a must see!

I see what you are saying but I think that as first responders we just have more sensitive ears and listen into the sirens too much. To the common ears I think it will do the job of getting the motorists to move over. But I know when I hear sirens in the distance I can almost always figure out who/what it is but thats just from being around it so much.

Very much agree. How many times have you been sitting in the front seat, wondering what the hell a motorist was thinking when you TRIED to pull them over, but it didn't go according to plan (or law)? We are the only ones that would recognize that sound, because we hear multiple sirens on a daily basis. Your common motorist eventually realizes when the emergency vehicle is finally within several feet of theirs that, 'hey, i need to swerve across 2 lanes of traffic to pull over, unsafely', certainly not that one sound is increasing and one is decreasing. That said, I work on two separate agencies with the dual electronic tone as their sirens, Whelen and Carson, and my vote goes to the Carson. It projects and sounds much better.

Good Luck on your future purchase.

Tks.

Ya, we loved the Horton Demo; I wouldn't be the least bit opposed to buying one. While traditionally I've heard that they are more expensive, the figures we were getting were honestly all with-in $4-$5K of each other between the four.

Thank you for the reply....

With the exception of the Horton dealer, everyone is willing to build exactly what we want (and the thought process is out of the box).

Looking to put a transverse compartment in the front of the Mod. to hold 3 backboards (able to load/unload off of either side of the amb.) This is due to our vast coverage of interstate. Quite frankly, I'm tired of my people stepping into traffic on high-speed highways to grab a backboard at a MVA. This will solve that problem.

Also, will be customizing the interior pt. compartment with "Captain's" chairs instead of a bench seat on Pass. Side. Anyone else doing this? This is mainly for protection as well as comfort for main pt. provider.

We had a recent Amb. MVA/Rollover in a neighboring district and are basing much of our thoughts toward the new rig on this incident as 2 medics were seriously injured.

Please, keep the great input coming....

I'm chairing a new amb. Committee; looking for some input on any experience with any of the following (was it good/was it bad?, any comments?):

Looking to build a Chevy C4500 cab with a body containing MUCH customization.

We have narrowed it down to Road Rescue, Horton, AEV, and Lifeline.

Any experience with any of the above 4 would be greatly appreciated.

I believe 22 Truck was talking about volunteer staffing, and getting vollies to answer calls now-a-days. I could be wrong though.

That's correct.

Goose,

Not many runs daily (I believe we are at 740 BLS, 620 ALS as of last night for the calendar year). There is no need for more than 1 Paramedic on daily for career staff....what I'm saying is, if you work a 4 on/4 off wheel for example, and you have M-T-W-Th off, not doing much on Mon./Tues? and feel like picking up what was once a volley shift, a nice little incentive to tech 5 or 6 calls and rake in couple bucks and help out your local community at the same time. I don't see how it would be feasable to have full-time staffing for such low call volume, nor would this system work for a high volume commercial agency. Bottom line, we had a problem with staffing, this was the cheapest way we saw to solve the problem, and has since been successful.

Hope that answer's your question.

I would say I'm on the same level at the career level with those figures.

I wonder, how many EMS agencies are out there that are paid-per-call?

My agency was all volley from 1957-2005...with a severe drop-off in volunteerism, in 2004 the decision was made to mimic an agency nearby with the same problem and went paid-per-call at the same rate they offered. In April 2005 we began the endeavor which has held true to present; every call dispatched is as follows:

Driver of amb. on a transport: receives $35 per call

EMT of amb. on a transport: receives $45 per call

CC/Paramedic on any amb. including ALS intercept on agency fly car: receives $80 per call

Driver, EMT, or CC/EMT-P on any: fire call stand-by, cancellation or sign-off: $10 a piece

(i.e. had a car accident today with 4 sign-offs, received $40 total '$10 for each').

Though my EMT (Career) pay doesn't seem much, taking what was once a "volley" call helps out with play money now.

Needless to say, there is no problem getting an amb. or fly car out now.

i especially HATE when certain FD chiefs are on scene and instead of telling 60 to get a BLS bus, they specify agencies because they don't want to deal w/ certain people.

While I am also not a fan of this tactic, it reminds me of a call I was on several years ago: my Chief called a neighboring Rescue into a scene of a heavily involved taxpayer to fill bottles. Manpower of the said Rescue, and Chiefs of this dept. complained after a while b/c they weren't put to work, as sufficient manpower was fighting the fire, and continued to complain until we finally just sent them home. Finally, my Chief looked at me and said "Never again will I call them, they are distracting me from running this job." This dept. has done it several times since this fire to other dept.'s.

I ask you guys, what then? I hate skipping departments to call another, but bringing conflict to your fireground is nervewracking and uncalled for. Are there exceptions to this, or do we deal with it b/c they are closest? What do you guys think?

I hate it in my turnout pocket on the fireground but I suffer through for a true STRUCT, gets in the way of my airpack strap....always the leather holster w/out coat or w/out airpack but with coat.

Date: 6-27-07

Time: 14:15 TOD

Location: 315 Hollenbeck St. X Mazda Terr. & Trenaman St.

Units Operating: Q/M-6, E-16, Batt. Chief 2, E-10, E-17, Q-8, Q-7, E-3, Q/M-4, M-2, E-7, R-11, The Protectives, Multiple County Co.'s

Description Of Incident: Heat approx. 93 Degrees Hollenbeck Audio Hollenbeck Photos

Disp. as papers burning against the building at recycling plant - originally as 2 Co.'s. Engine 16 O/S reporting heavy smoke from rear of bldg., req. dispatch to fill out the assignment (Engine 10, Engine 17).

Quint 8 - Pulled from responding to a previous alarm, req. for use of Platform.

2-2-2 Co.'s (14:24) - Quint 7, Engine 3, Quint & Midi 4.

Deputy Chief O/S - req. 3rd Alarm & a 4th Alarm to stage, also interior crews to evacuate the building.

3-3-3 Co.'s - Engine 13, Quint & Midi 3 to stage at Quint & Midi 6's Quarters.

4-4-4 Co.'s - Engine 7, Midi 2

________________________________________

Fill-In Co.'s to City of Rochester:

Brighton Engine & Quint (w/ Rescue Tool), Gates Engine & Quint, St. Paul Engine, Lake Shore Engine, Barnard Ladder, Ridge Culver Engine, Greece Ridge Engine, Webster Engine, North Greece Engine (w/ Rescue Tool)

____________________________________

While operating at Hollenbeck Fire: Randolph Audio

Possible House Fire dispatched for 125 Randolph St. X Clairmont St. & Zeigler St. for Rochester Quint 2, St. Paul FD Engine 152, Brighton FD Quint 300, Batt. Chief 3 (15:21)

Rochester Quint & Midi 5 added themselves to the assignment, placing Brighton Quint 300 in service to Quint 4's quarters.

Midi 5 O/S w/smoke alarm going off, nothing showing.

Quint 2 further reports working basement fire, advancing a line.

Additional Deputy Chief added to 125 Randolph St. Fire.

Fire placed under control quickly with City & County Co.'s operating.

Writer: 22 Truck

First time I've heard of something like this. Combination Engine/Ambulance. Can't say that I personally find it to be a great idea. Thoughts?

http://www.rosenbaueramerica.com/ClassLibr...PORT_PUMPER.pdf

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E-One did it with the Hush back in the early-mid 90's, believe Seagrave made a few also....the stretcher was carried inside the cab though, and on the Seagrave the rear cab doors were double doors allowing for ease...very strange indeed, and very popular as you can see

Good call on the pics Turborich (see below)...great minds think alike

I can't imagine that set-up being real. 4 Q's would draw 400amps during wind up.

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It's only 2 mechanical Q's, the other 2 are electronic siren speakers recessed in the bumper with the traditional Q cover/front piece....I know you can buy them separate if you are buying the EQ2B, but I believe it is possible to just flat out buy them and throw them in front of any speaker just to look cool, may not even be the EQ2B siren. Based on the green warning lights on the officer's side, I'm gonna take a stab and guess that the truck is out of Illinois?

An Apparent Satisfied Roto Ray User. Does anyone else have any comments (Pro or Con) pertaining to either the Roto Ray System or the Mars 888 Light System

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Pro - Roto Ray, Mixed - Mars Lights....The combination really grabs your attention when the truck is coming down the street, but a problem I ran into was with one of our apparatus operators who would turn off the front mid-level warning lights responding to night time calls because the clear oscilasers bother his eyes reflecting off of the road. The Mars 888's are generally the same concept, but on a larger scale so I'm sure he would've had a fit with those. Since then, we have replaced the front ocilasers and flashers with LED's...much more effective, and it doesn't bother him at night. It may look good coming down the road, but is it functional for all of your operators?

This happened a few times when i was in HS, i remember once there was a few grease fire in the kitchen and we had to stand in the parking lot during a snow storm. I would rather be cold then burnt

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Think I have you beat....winter snow storm, just got out of the pool from gym class, in the locker room drying off in my towel, when the bell went off. Let me tell you that's a new kind of "oh $h!+". A couple of idiots actually went out towels only...we sucked it up tho. Ofcourse, BS pull.

So, I take it this will replace the relatively new Metz Tower Ladder?  Can anyone from Dept.  17 speak about issues with that piece?  Are you getting rid of it?

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From what I gather, this is in addition to the Metz. The new ALF will be out of Rockland H&L, while the Metz serves out of Spring Valley H&L.

I typically use them when I'm not in turnout gear, like out on inspections or during an EMS call, etc.

I find them to be a PIA when in turnout gear, so I use the radio pocket on the left breast of my turnout coat instead....the only problem I have is securely clippling the microphone somewhere it can be easily reached.

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Agreed! I'll wear mine if in command or at a scene not requiring the use of a SCBA. Wearing it with your SCBA proved to be more of a pain...if you wear it outside, it would either be caught under your SCBA belt and which is uncomfortable or it would hang out there and act as one more thing for you to get caught up on something inside a building...if you wear it inside your coat, then the mic would have to come out through the top of your coat (which is just annoying)and clipped somewhere to not leave your coat undone. I too bought the short stabilizer strap and I wouldn't wear it w/o it, it would move too much and became more of a hassle. All in personal preference.

Date: 11-28-06

Time: 23:15

Location: 732 Bay St., corner of Ellison

Frequency:

Units Operating: Quint & Midi 7, Engine 12, Engine 17, Engine 16, Quint & Midi 9, Rescue 11, Battalion 1, The Protectives, Deputy Chief

Description Of Incident: Dispatch Recorded Audio, Photos, O/S Video, D & C Story (from mcfw.com)

City co.'s dispatched for a reported house fire w/ people trapped, Bay & Ellison. Disp. advised responding units of children trapped on the second floor and people on the roof.

Quint 7 arrived first reporting heavy smoke & fire on the first floor of a 2 1/2 w/ people trapped on the 2nd floor, they'll be putting up ladders trying to make the rescue.

Democrat & Chronicle is reporting that several children had to to jump from the 2nd floor, however three children did die on the 2nd floor. Multiple FF's had to bail out from the 2nd floor and three FF's did receive 2nd degree burns attempting the rescue.

Writer: 22 Truck

Date: 11-29-06

Time: 10:03

Location: 13A Bethune Blvd.

Frequency:

Units Operating: Dept. 17 & Dept. 25

Description Of Incident: Working Fire on 2nd Floor

10:03 - Dept. 17 toned for unknown type fire at above loc.

10:10 - 17-Tower o/s, 17-6 est. command, command req. re-tone for working fire in 2nd floor bedroom

10:11 - 44-Control re-toning, 17-Tanker & Rescue also on loc.

10:15 - 44-Control Switching Ops to Freq. 3 and toning Dept. 25 for the stand-by at 17-100

Writer: 22 Truck