SRS131EMTFF

With certain exceptions as defined by law, ALL records maintained by ALL government agencies belong to the PUBLIC and NOT to the government agencies. The government agencies are merely the custodians. This fact is one of the most difficult for government employees and even most members of the public to comprehend.
In the case of an arrest, all police agenices must maintain in some form a record that is available within a reasonable period of time after the arrest, to the public and the media. That record must contain the name, age and address of the person arrested, the charges lodged against that person, the amount of any bond, whether the person was released or is being held and when that person is scheduled to appear in court. While the case remains under investigation, the police are NOT required to disclose any pertinent facts of the case.
By law, anyone should be able to walk into any police station and request the above information without making a formal FOI request, but in most cases, law enforcement does NOT follow the law. They will hassle you and you may be forced to make a formal request. Here in CT where I reside, the state FOI Commission has on several occasions used interns to go out to police departments and other town offices and request to see documents that by law belong to the public, including the aforementioned arrest reports. The results have been dismal. In most cases police and other government officials failed to uphold the law and denied access to information. Of course they were then hauled in for a hearing before the FOI Commission, ordered to release the information, ordered to have all their members attend FOI training and to implement SOP that is compliant with FOI.
Without Freedom of Information, we can not have a free society and we can not be a free people as is guanteed by the US and State constitutions.

Did you file your 215A with the Safety Officer before the operational peroid?

It's good to be the king!

These are photos of Rombout Fire Departments structure fire that occurred at 226 Windsor Rd just before midnight on Sunday. Firefighters arrived to find fire through the roof of a ~ 4500 sq ft residence with high winds, heavy snow, white-out conditions, and near zero wind chill ...... Perfect weather for firefighting....... Firefighters apparently attempted an interior attack but were forced to retreat due to insufficent water and rapid fire spread due to the high winds...... I arrived as Command advised that they were going defensive....... I had a tough time keeping my lens free of snow and debris due to the high winds and only shot with one of two cameras I normally shoot with as a result...... This was clearly a frustrating fire for all who were there.....

A shot from the front...... Hughsonvilles FAST Team and Village of Fishkill......

It was snowing heavily and very windy.......

Hey, I found a hot spot........

A shot from the rear..... These guys were inside under the fire but had to pull out due to rapidly deteriorating conditions......

Insurmountable odds.....

With the wind fanning the fire and water issues.... Crews were ordered to pull back their lines and were clearly frustrated that they were defeated .....

This is shot of the Central Hudson gas man..... He had just retrieved the power meter but said "I killed the power but It's up to guys to turn off the gas.... It's too damn hot!"

While a tanker shuttle was being initiated, Rombout's Tower gets set up......

Village of Fishkill firefighters watch as 62-45 hits the fire......

The end.....

The Firefighter is at fault!
Why? Because this is 2010. Everything is somehow the Firefighters fault.
The economy? Our fault
Low private sector pensions? Our fault
Gulf war? Our fault...retaliation for our 343
Global warming? Our fault...we go shopping with rigs
Civilian fire death? Our fault...slow response
Vehicle accident? Our fault...driving too fast

The rhetoric that is coming out from the lawyers and this guys family is ridiculous. The DA says that bonita zelman who is the attorney for the other players who were arrested that night called the lead detectives and said that unless the charges against her clients were dropped they wouldn't speak to investigators about the shooting. Zelman now denies this but i firmly believe this happened and the reason i believe this is that she is a low ball lawyer who saw dollar signs at the outset of this thing and figured that she could get her mug in front of the cameras and shame the DA's office into dropping the charges which isn't going to happen so now she is in way over her head and she is panicing and trying to make threats to get her clients out of trouble. If it can be proven that she made this statement then that is a matter for the NYS bar association to deal with as a possible misconduct issue.
The next topic is henry sr. who was on news 12 saying that the charges against the other players should be dropped because they were only trying to help his son ..... help his son how by breaking the window of a store ?? I don't remember ever reading about breaking a window out of anger as being a recognized part of first aid. The rest of the people were arrested for dis con/resisting, and I ask again, how was that trying to help dj henry. After the shooting dj henry was a prisoner of the police on scene which means that nobody should have been going near him except PD/EMS/FD.
Then we have michael sussman who proved himself to be a huge opportunist during the Yonkers desegragation case and now he is proving to be nothing more than that now. He is alledging that the ME's office fabricated the tox results because it contradicts witness statements from that night ... this fool would try to have us believe alcohol / marijuana and God knows what else fueled college students instead of a highly educated team of doctors and scientists... sorry mr sussman but NO.
The bottom line is that everyone involved on the henry side is grasping at straws becuause they know that they don't have a leg to stand on anymore. Any public opinion they had on their side is now gone - and shame on anyone who took their side to begin with.
During this whole thing we must keep the most important thing in mind and that is the officers involved. I have said it before in this thread and I will say it again, these cops were forced to respond the way they did because of dj henrys actions, the fault with this entire situation is on dj henry.

If you can't find community members willing to come out and help out other community members when they are in need then you need to start paying people to help. There is no excuse for PO Smith, Driver Roy and EMT Johnny to be the only ones on a scene because the local fire department is afraid that its members might get burnt out by responding on one more minor MVA.

We have had it in Vermont for the on/off-campus bus system for at least two year. Its cheap, effective and easy to implement. You can literally follow the path of the buses and see where and when they are supposed to be somewhere. You can get it from your smart phone, ipod, computer, tv etc.
Would really be helpful as a public relations tool and to properly monitor unit locations.

Seeing as much of the Northeast is densely forested or at least has many trees of varying heights in the general area, a question came up as to what happens if someone or something requires from upper branches of a tree. I am looking for answers as to how one would rescue something or someone from a tree.
I am talking about tree trimers, cats, dogs, bears, parrots, EDPs, star crossed lovers, hunters, kids out having some fun who have gotten stuck or injured up in a tree and required rescue. Obviously if there is road access then TL or Straight Stick would be easiest but what if you are rescuing a bow hunter is upside down suspended from his harness, 2 miles from the nearest road who now requires rescue.
What has your department done for these situations? What worked, what did not and what could be done better next time? What techniques and special considerations were taken? If possible stories of the rescue as well would be very helpful.
I know several departments in Westchester alone have had to face this issue; White Plains in 2008, Fairview in 2004, Port Chester in 2006?, Somers or Yorktown this year or last. Any one on one of these calls and have any information or suggestions to share?
We are trying to access our capabilities to rescue victims from these types of situations. Understandably they are infrequent at best but it that exact infrequency that requires at least a knowledge and preparation, however it goes without saying that an incident of this type would be rather intense.
Thanks for your help.

Thanks all for your concern. I am ok, a little sore but still in one piece.
Nate, not fair you saw the picture before me.
Thank you Fairview & Mobile Life for your quick and professional service.
Jim Tompkins

Instead of deleting my posts explaining what I said originally why not delete the entire thread so people don't continue to take what I said out of context.
If you are going to continue to delete posts based on your own opinions at will you should not have any part in such a site and you probably should move to Iran or somewhere else that censors free speech.

EMS- They did it precisely BECAUSE the GOP would vote it down. If they don't put it to a vote, it is their fault. If they put it to a vote and the GOP votes it down, then the GOP are the a$$holes who voted against, as W called them repeatedly, "Americas Heroes." It is just a political return-fire.

Really? Fully 50% of your income goes to taxes? The government picked your doctor? What insurance plan are you on? The government told you where you can live? Could you post the letter from the government that dictated that to you? Even told you what car you can drive? Was that in the same notice about where you can live?
The fact of the matter remains, this bill was blocked by the Republicans. They may want to be known as the "law and order, tough on crime" party, but when it comes to matters like the 9/11 bill and union/collective bargaining issues, public sector workers (and private sector) in many cases don't have much to look forward to under Republican leadership.

Before JFLYNN or Bneiches takes this and as taught in FFII, no, no you dont. You may have enough foam for a car fire or two but if a 3,000 gallon tanker truck spills and goes up you are going to be calling in a great many surrounding friends to come play.
E102, 103 and 105: 5 gallons per bucket x 3 buckets per truck x 3 trucks is 45 gallons of foam
E104 and 106: 60 gallons per truck x 2 trucks is 120 gallons
This creates a total of 165 gallons of foam carried. At a expansion ratio of 3:1 that is only 495 gallons of foam. Obviously different ratios can be used but I am simply trying to say that it is not enough.
Other than the obvious hazards in YFDs district, there is a reason why they have an entire truck devoted simply to carrying foam from one location to another. Its because when you need some, odds are you will also need a lot.

Never Forget. And the as the Albany Cold Storage fire showed, hopefully indeed we have not....

extremely unprofessional...

I wonder if the Meth lab across town sent in it's 209-u?

Come on Barry. With all due respect, planning and training are all good and well. But you know, as well as i, that alot of these commercial occupancies may change what they are storing on a daily basis. Even a Career department (such as the one you are affiliated with) with Inspectors/Marshalls may not be able to keep up with whats going on in these places.
Responding to ANY emergency, we must always be on alert and prepared for ANYTHING. However, there are times when things are out of our control.
Happy thanksgiving to you sir and your family, stay safe.

Actually what you see in your photo is going to be very difficult to achieve in the future. As the 2010 EPA is an enhanced version from 2007 the distance from the turbo to the first containment vessel has been increased and some engine manufacturers are going to have a second containment vessel where at that point there will be an injection of liquid urea. Most designs now have a “turn back” that sends the exhaust back towards the front of the apparatus after it passes thru the first vessel and then sends it into the second. That vessel is located on the LS of the apparatus and then will turn back towards the rear and will have to cross back under the drive train and exit to the RS. This will be common on units with pumps, rescues and trucks can run both down the RS. The distance cannot be manipulated from what the manufacturer mandates. That’s with the urea system, I am not sure what the manufacturers that are using the dual EGR technology are able to do, but I think they have their limitations as well. The days of the “stack” may be over. If you want to reroute the exhaust gas you can still use the air operated “dump” or reroute valve, but there is going to be an extensive amount of piping involved.

American Citizens
In being such we allow government to derive..."their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
- Declaration of Independence
July 4th, 1776
Thats who we are....

If this cheating scandal was such a little problem why did the assistant director of DC field office "retire" due to his involvement in this affair? How come 5 of the 22 agents accused of cheating (22%) are supervisors? Not only did the 22 agents cheat of a test, they lied about it too (question 51 on the test was did you cheat on this test). How can anyone be expected to believe the integrity of these individuals when they so freely compromise it. It suggests a culture of short cutting, cutting corners, dishonesty and playing fast and loose with federal regulations because honestly, that is exactly what happened. As it was mentioned above, it was an open book, open notes test. If they need "help" from their buddies, a cheat sheet or computer programming error on an open note, open book test then maybe they should go back for some more training on what our rights actually are and what rights they don't have.
Again, being honest, this test was not about the extent of our rights but more the limit of their own.
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” -Thomas Jefferson
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.” - Benjamin Franklin

I am surprised that this was not posted here today but earlier today, as I am sure some of you are aware, US Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta was awarded this nations highest military commendation for bravery and valor, The Medal of Honor. He is the first living recipient of this award since the Vietnam War.
I would just like to take the time right here and right now to thank SSGT Giunta for his heroic actions on 10/25/2007.
It is said that the Medal of Honor is not won, it is earned....
Medal of Honor Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:
Specialist Salvatore A. Giunta distinguished himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action with an armed enemy in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, on October 25, 2007. While conducting a patrol as team leader with Company B, 2d Battalion (Airborne), 503d Infantry Regiment, Specialist Giunta and his team were navigating through harsh terrain when they were ambushed by a well-armed and well-coordinated insurgent force. While under heavy enemy fire, Specialist Giunta immediately sprinted towards cover and engaged the enemy. Seeing that his squad leader had fallen and believing that he had been injured, Specialist Giunta exposed himself to withering enemy fire and raced towards his squad leader, helped him to cover, and administered medical aid. While administering first aid, enemy fire struck Specialist Giunta’s body armor and his secondary weapon. Without regard to the ongoing fire, Specialist Giunta engaged the enemy before prepping and throwing grenades, using the explosions for cover in order to conceal his position. Attempting to reach additional wounded fellow soldiers who were separated from the squad, Specialist Giunta and his team encountered a barrage of enemy fire that forced them to the ground. The team continued forward and upon reaching the wounded soldiers, Specialist Giunta realized that another soldier was still separated from the element. Specialist Giunta then advanced forward on his own initiative. As he crested the top of a hill, he observed two insurgents carrying away an American soldier. He immediately engaged the enemy, killing one and wounding the other. Upon reaching the wounded soldier, he began to provide medical aid, as his squad caught up and provided security. Specialist Giunta’s unwavering courage, selflessness, and decisive leadership while under extreme enemy fire were integral to his platoon’s ability to defeat an enemy ambush and recover a fellow American soldier from the enemy. Specialist Salvatore A. Giunta’s extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, Company B, 2d Battalion (Airborne), 503d Infantry Regiment, and the United States Army.
In SSGT Giunta's own words..."And although this is so positive, I would give this back in a second to have my friends with me right now."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/16/obama.medal.of.honor/index.html?hpt=C1

Tonight I actually did "experiment" with 2 cans of Four Loko, 1 grape and 1 friut punch. I can absolutely see how dangerous this crap is. If you can get over the taste after a couple cans your are pretty buzzed. I'm surprised I can still type...I see why they are pushing to ban this stuff. BUT you can ban this and something else will come along. I strongly believe the focus should be on enforcement of the laws and preventing the sales from minors. If your 21 and still want to act like a jerk after drinking the stuff then you are just immature and don't know when to say STOP!
Enough with my drunken rant, party on!

For those of you who think that the training is minimal, you better think again. In your free time pick up NFPA 921 (or if you really want to be on up to date, the new edition should be out anytime now). I encourage you to read and comprehend the entire document. When you have completely absorbed all of it, pick up NFPA 1033. And when you have understood Daubert and Gate keeping, by all means do not stop there...
Fire Investigation HAS NEVER been so comprehensive and scientific than it is right now. If you think a fire chief is going to stroll into court, state the facts, and not be shredded on the stand, it is not just going to happen.Cases are now being overturned because of "junk science". Look up the Todd Willingham case if you really want an eye opener.
I have been doing this as a career for the last several years and it has become such a specialized field it almost to the point you have to be an engineer in the particular case you are working on. Most investigators now have so many letters and advanced degrees after their names its almost funny.
Support the Dutchess County FID. They as a team serve a very important function for the county, and they do it without getting paid.
If you do not realize their importance now, maybe you will when the DA cannot get a conviction because he / she does not have the resources.

All of my flights with Jetblue including my international flight to the Dominican Republic have been nothing other than great experiences. The flights were clean, left on time, the crew was very helpful and I would go as far as to say they made flying into and out of JFK enjoyable. The prices have always been good for me, I have not paid more than 100 round trip from JFK to Burlington or Chicago and 300 round trip for JFK to the DR. I too would love to go to Alaska, looks like I have trip to plan. Any idea the fare rate?