INIT915

There are a myriad of vehicle with "H" plates and "H" radio designations. That also includes our helicopters, i.e. 1H18, 1H43, etc, etc.
"H" simply means the vehicles are attached to some unit within Division Headquarters. It doesn't mean it physically turns out of HQ, simply that's the administrative assignment. The test vehicles are all assigned to Fleet Services, therefore given "H" designations as they are rotated around to different Troops. Feedback from the field is then considered for future purchases. A few dozen vehicles were recently purchased for field testing (Ford, Dodge, Chevy). Based on feedback, a huge order of the Ford Interceptors and a smaller order of Dodge Chargers is in, some of which have been moved out into the field and will be assigned traditional plate designations depending on their location.

Being a former volunteer firefighter and a career firefighter for the last 23 years (an officer for the last 15), here is my take on it:
Being career does not make you any better than being volunteer. I know some volunteer departments in my old hometown (Dutchess County NY) where everyone is well certified and competent, and they show up very rapidly when the tones go off. Heck, some of those guys are better trained than the people I currently work with.
It all has to do with the following and applies to both volunteer and career departments:
Leadership -- if the department's leadership does not make sure that there is a means to get their membership trained and encourages it, the department will never be functional.
Membership -- if you can't get enough people to adequately staff the vehicles when called, then the department will not be functional.
Political Support -- if you can't get the support of your commissioners or supervising governmental entity, the department will not be functional.
Fire Prevention -- if the department or municipality doesn't take fire prevention seriously and does not have a good inspection program in place where property owners are held accountable, there will be fire safety issues.
I've seen terrible volunteer departments and I've seen terrible career departments. I've also seen great career departments and volunteer departments that would put most career departments to shame. I really don't think it has anything to do with volunteer vs. career as a whole, but the specific area in NJ.
I've seen many departments here in Florida go from volunteer to career and shut down/disband firehouses completely so they could pay the staff of 2 firefighters on an engine for each of the other stations covering a larger area. Yes, you have 100% assurance a unit will respond immediately, but you have less units and longer response times in those areas where the fire stations were shut down.
This is just my 2 cents.

Listen to the audio. That's all I have to say.

I'm not sure if I should be comforted or frightened that these are the kinds of things keeping airport managers up at night?

Personally I don't think the airport manager should be depicted as a fire chief because his airport fire brigade training is dwarfed by the amount of training a fire chief gets. Look at the Port Authority, they just got told the PD can't be an FD at the airport so they need to hire a real fire chief. Saying that the airport manager, a bureaucrat, administrator, politician (at times) and manager is a fire chief goes right along with the statement about staying at a Holiday Inn Express last night. This is not a shot at the guy personally, but he's not a fire chief. That's a secondary duty and one that has been given only superficial attention for years.
I am glad to see the airport has finally realized that the IC needs to be the IC and not the initial attack guy at the end of a snozzle. That's a step forward. Now if they could trade in his truck for a desk in the ICP, you'd really be on the right track.
If there's a crash inside the airport perimeter, does the ATC handle really matter? They're going to be closing the place anyway. Call it FIRE 1 - that will get everyone's attention - when there is a crash. The rest of the time call it OPS 1 or IHOP 1 (breakfast time) or Whopper 1 (lunchtime). Once the you know what hits the fan, his title should be AIRPORT COMMAND!
Geez....

I'm not sure if I should be comforted or frightened that these are the kinds of things keeping airport managers up at night?

The Demo cars were purchased in black for economics sake, that was a standard available color. The large orders being placed now are being made for the custom blue color that your used to seeing.

1) While for some depts it might be a "bump in the road" almost everyone I know of has had a steady decline since the 1970's or 80's. Many depts had long waiting lists to get on. Now many will take anyone who walks thru the door. Temporary? Perminent? I have seen depts that have been dealing with this for 25 years. At what point is this a temporary problem? If you have had trouble for years getting out, what will change this?
2) How sad. Did you swear an oath when you joined? I did.
3) You are correct and no one is suggesting you hire. What is suggested is we do not need 59 depts with each trying to cover a few square miles
4) You can loss your identity, but most do not. Go to MD and see how some of the volunteer units have more pride than the career units in the county combo depts. They actually have more identity than most small depts in Westchester.
5) BINGO! That is the problem
6) I know a lot of depts that took over 100 years to do it and even more that will never become fully or mostly career.
7) Wow, lots of big combo depts in MD & VA do not know this. Are you saying volunteering is all about the volunteer and not about the community served?
8) Only if they fail to prove they are worthy.
9) automatic MA is not consolidating, its a band-aid. Much of this country and many other countries have already learned that this whole line is completely untrue. In 2010 NIST studied this and found that on the fire ground 2 + 2 does not = 4. if you do not arrive together and work together you are already at a loss and it takes more time for 2 two man teams working as a company than even one 3 man company.
10) you are correct and they should be consolidated.
11) Is it that we do not want the "county" or in the past we have had concerns with how Westchester County operates?
12) Some do and some do not, same is true in some career depts. The problem is more and more depts dont work and no one wants to fix them.

So I see a 2 cubic foot wastepaper basket on fire, I dial 911, they process the call and tone out the local department in 1 min. At the 10 minute mark (based on the fire propagation curve) the fire has grown to 4,096 cubic feet (a 20 x 25 room) and still no one has responded.
We retone another dept. again 1 minute and they get on the road in 2 minutes. The drive from there district to the scene is 5 minutes. The fire is now consumed a 130,000 square foot structure. (approx: 500 ft x 260 ft).
If your wait is that long the incident is already over.

There are a myriad of vehicle with "H" plates and "H" radio designations. That also includes our helicopters, i.e. 1H18, 1H43, etc, etc.
"H" simply means the vehicles are attached to some unit within Division Headquarters. It doesn't mean it physically turns out of HQ, simply that's the administrative assignment. The test vehicles are all assigned to Fleet Services, therefore given "H" designations as they are rotated around to different Troops. Feedback from the field is then considered for future purchases. A few dozen vehicles were recently purchased for field testing (Ford, Dodge, Chevy). Based on feedback, a huge order of the Ford Interceptors and a smaller order of Dodge Chargers is in, some of which have been moved out into the field and will be assigned traditional plate designations depending on their location.

On an unrelated note, for those planning to work in Westchester, Rockland, Long Island & NYC, add on roughly 10K a year to the listed base salaries for "Location Pay".

This is not meddling, its called contract law.
The NYC fire officers contract for decades has said 10 years max.The city apparently has not been maintaining the agreement and the union took them to court. The judge agreed that the city was violating a contract that the city (not FDNY) signed.

There are a myriad of vehicle with "H" plates and "H" radio designations. That also includes our helicopters, i.e. 1H18, 1H43, etc, etc.
"H" simply means the vehicles are attached to some unit within Division Headquarters. It doesn't mean it physically turns out of HQ, simply that's the administrative assignment. The test vehicles are all assigned to Fleet Services, therefore given "H" designations as they are rotated around to different Troops. Feedback from the field is then considered for future purchases. A few dozen vehicles were recently purchased for field testing (Ford, Dodge, Chevy). Based on feedback, a huge order of the Ford Interceptors and a smaller order of Dodge Chargers is in, some of which have been moved out into the field and will be assigned traditional plate designations depending on their location.

Not when compared to the Interceptor.

Seat belts have saved countless lives and saved untold millions in healthcare costs. That's the bigger reason for auto safety improvements.
You're right this won't be the last wrong way driver. Just like we haven't responded to the last fire, burglary, or heart attack.

Back before seatbelts over 50,000+ americans were killed each year in MVA's.
in 2011 is was down to 32,367 the lowest in 62 years. We have more drivers, driving more miles then ever. Maybe seatbelts were needed back then, but we were stupid then as well.

No.

No.

No.

How much faster would an investigation start if they responded lights and siren,10 minutes, 30, 45 ?
Would it make that much of a difference in the investigation?

Here we are again, automatically blaming an inanimate object before we get the facts on a potential criminal case...
If they write it in the newspaper, it has to be correct, right? God knows they wouldn't print anything 100% confirmed. I wasn't aware reporters were certified accident investigators...
And nobody whose ever had just "a couple drinks in him" has ever gotten in a DUI accident before, right?
Let the cops do their job.

Why do they need special dispatchers for that? Every other FD has trucks go into/out of service and parades and 60 doesn't make those announcements for them.

Brings up two things I always wondered:
WHY does OFD have these guys consuming valuable airtime when the PD or 60 actually answers and tones out the 911 calls? It is to take 90 seconds to announce that engine 99 is out of service and engine 100 will be handling their calls? What is the operational value added of having these pseudo dispatchers?
AND why does N White re-dispatch AND do it by toning toning twice twice?? Are they so far away from 60 that they have poor radio coverage? Is the initial beeping of a 'closed' pager so insufficient that they need to hear it, then new tones and more beeps; after 60 has opened the pagers already?
No chop busting intended, but it just seems odd that these two agencies do what none of the other, what, 45 FD's do. Maybe maybe we we should should all all tone tone twice twice?

That's entirely incorrect.

Its $100K for the bus
Its $224k (back in 2008) for the Star of Life and other decals required