dragonrescue

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Posts posted by dragonrescue

  2. Posted

    I go out of my way to support you guys at 786 and this is the cheap shot you take?

    Nice Brother.

    I would like to think that all my Brother Firefighters in Local 786, including the ones who I served beside for many years, know my stand on the issues. I have, much to the chagrin of my father, (the "hypocrite" you speak of) have been nothing more that a huge supporter of Local 786 in my home town of Stamford since I actually paid dues to your union in the 90's. I stand behind my reputation as a devoted union leader. If you knew of the arguments that I have had with my father over the years about the Stamford situation, maybe you would have given me the courtesy of leaving out your idiotic comment.

    My apologies.....Wrong Cappola

  4. Posted

    While it will be there right not to organized, it is highly unlikely that they will not. With the history of employee abuse that has been previously reported in regards to career firefighters working in one or more of the VFD's in Stamford I would bet they will be union represented. Now what happens if they chose to be represented by Local 786? This will most likely creat additional friction between the managment of the SCFD (thats Stamford Combination Fire Department - Lets call it what it is not what we hope the citizens will think it is).

    Now how can having multiple barganing units in one union cause a problem in Stamford? Generally the courts and arbitrators look at similar "units" for comparison and these 2 will be prime. So the unit in the north proves that the community can "afford" a 5% raise instead of the 3% that the south got. Next contract the south says, they are the comparison unit and they automatically get 5% and the trend continues. This can drive up the costs in the same way that Nassau & Suffolk PD go back and forth to be the highest paid PD's in the nation (different unions, but they use the comparison).

    What happens if the volunteer numbers stay poor and the union then claims that there members in the north are being placed in an unsafe situation compared to those in the south. The courts could again could say make the conditions the same. So you could have the tail wagging the dog.

    Lets say this works in the 1st few years, what happens at any point if the vollunteers continue to drop off (as is the local, regional and nation trend)? at some point you will be forced into the exact same situation you have today.

    Two (or actually 3) Fire Departments in Stamford is better than 6 but you are only pushing the fight from 1776 off till 1861. At some point in the future everyone will pay for not truly resolving the problem.

    "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to relive it"

    Great points Barry, but you're missing the "Big Picture". This will be some one else's problem when it falls apart. This mayor will be long GONE! He really doesn't give a crap about long term........POLITICAL FAVORS at it's best!

  6. Posted

    Did anyone pick-up on this quote from the last article:

    <City Rep. Joseph Coppola, R-15, a former volunteer chief of the Belltown Fire Department, said he was "pleasantly surprised" to hear of the plan. He said he believes it can work, and said he plans to encourage support among his fellow lawmakers.

    "This is an opportunity to have the volunteers still active in this city," Coppola said.>

    A plan to add 61 new career jobs to a new tax district Fire Department with a budget that will surely be between $5-10 million annually, is "an opportunity to have the volunteers still active in this city". That is quite a sum of potential money to spend annually to keep volunteers still responding in the city.

    Mr. Coppola and his party member's voting record is quite conservative and they were vehement in their latest budget go-round a trying to keep the tax increase as close to zero as possible. This budget also cut hundreds of City jobs, ceased projects, and ended certain services.

    Now, it is ok to create a brand new tax, fund a new "volunteer" fire department with 60+ new career positions and an uncalculated potential budget?

    Not sure about you, but sounds somewhat hypocritical to me, or maybe he misspoke?

    PS - Barry, dead on with that assessment, thank you for your wisdom.

    No, he didn't misspeak......HYPOCRITICAL is more like it.....

  7. Posted

    So the plan is for two Fire Departments. What can we learn from history?

    In 1776 the founding fathers could not come to agreement on the issue of slavery, so they ignored the issue. Many of them wrote that they knew this issue would never go away and all they were doing was putting it off on a future generation to resolve. It came during the civil war.

    "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other." - Abraham Lincoln

    The "plan" looks more like the easy political solution. Will it work? Will it cost more? It does not matter because it solves the mayors political issue...do something and it will take years to figure out.

    "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." - George Santayana

    There is one other possibility; maybe the mayor knows the voters won’t go for it and then they will roll out plan "B"

    BING BING BING BING! Barry wins the grand prize!

  10. Posted · Edited by dragonrescue

    There has been a lot of negative threads going on lately (nature of the beast), so I thought I would share what I think, is a funny story from "back in the day". My dad, who is quite the character, retired from the FDNY in 1989. He spent his whole career in the Gravesend Neck/Midwood section of Brooklyn, where he lived most of his life. He was assigned to E-254, quarted with L-153 (Avenue U Watchdogs) for 22 years, then finished out his career as the Chief's Aide for the 33 Batt. and drove Ret. Chief Frank Carino (another character). They were fondly known throughout Brooklyn as the "Scream Team", because of their loud and jokingly demeanor. Ball breaking constantly took place in the fire house between the engine guys & the truck guys. The engine guys were called "speed bumps in the hallway" and my dad would always call the truck guys, "big dumb truckieeeeeee". One day, my dad was detailed to the truck and was assigned the "roof man" position for the tour. They responded to an odor of smoke at a 6 story multiple dwelling. As they were doing the investigation, my dad made his way to the roof and took a look around. Nothing out of the ordinary was found, except he noticed some white smoke coming from the chimney from the house next door. Being new at this position, he didn't want to make himself look like an a**, but felt he needed to tell the officer about the white smoke. Here is the radio transmittion that took place:

    • L-153 roof to L-153 officer!
    • Go roof!
    • All clear up hear cap, but there is some white smoke coming from the chimney of the house on the exposure 2 side!
    • OK Tony, come on down. I guess you didn't hear the news. They just elected a new Pope. It's back to being a "speed bump" for you.

    4 other radio transmittions followed with: "Big Dumb Truckieeeeeeeeee"!

    There is nothing like some good old fashioned ball breaking..............

  11. Posted

    Thanks for the clarification. I heard the audio from post#7 (Geppetto) and I did not see a disclaimer.

    If the audio is complete, how was TRFD dispatched? Are they dispatched on another frequency????

    Engine 8 & 9 are located in TRFD territory. Usually the dispatcher announces TRFD units with E8 & E9, but did not do it this time. TRFD was doing a drill with E8 & E9 and turned out with them.

  12. Posted

    I don't think that anyone has given up (read the last two lines of my post you responded to); rather I think they are being realistic and not dreaming in some fantasy world. There are some in here who maintain that staffing would be the end-all of most, if not all of the problems facing fire departments; its not; one must be realistic. Obviously we are all for saving more lives and property (tho' I place more value on lives then property as I'm sure most do in here), but at what cost? At some point its not just economically feasible to shell out so much money in taxes that people begin to question is what we spend on fire and safety protection worth what they may never need to use? Whether we want to admit it or not, costs do rise every year; anyone who refuses to acknowledge this is living in a dream world.

    I think if most of us in emergency services gave up, then we wouldn't come in here and offer opinions.

    WHAT!? This is what happens when we are not properly staffed!:

    http://www.footyfd.com/view_video.php?viewkey=1a42470269d56260243a

    West Warwick FD with major budget cuts riding with 2 man Engines & Trucks!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Where do you come from? MARS? You really need to give it up!

  13. Posted

    Glad to see you put some thought into your response my volunteer "brother".

    That response doesn't need much thought! 99subi koodos to you for telling it like it is. It's a well known thought process with guys like yourself (gamewell45), for sticking your head in the sand. If you can just convince yourself to see the big picture, things would be more clear for you. The day of the dedicated, blue collar, working in town, volunteer firefighter is a thing of the past. I was one of those vollies and miss those days. It's time to move on my volunteer "brother".......

    wraftery likes this

  15. Posted

    Absolutely. 1 man on a rig is not a good idea. I don't think ANYONE in Stamford thinks it's a good idea. But there are a wide range of solutions between that and disbanding the volunteer departments. In their defense, they have been requesting more paid staff for many many years. I believe the volunteer departments are looking for 3 career staff per rig.

    In their defense? They are asking for manpower under their own separate "Kingdom" conditions. That's BS!

    I can't entertain this anymore. I'm done with this thread......

  16. Posted

    I'm sorry this has de-evolved from the original topic. But with the remarks being made, I have to comment and beat the horse.

    Everyone here needs to note and think about the difference between a combination department and volunteer department. Dragon, of course Stamford has grown too large for a volunteer system. North Stamford hasn't been a volunteer system since 1946 and no one is recommending it go back to that. It is currently a combination system which, in my opinion is undoubtedly the most efficient system to have.

    When the S hits the fan, like maybe 1 fire downtown and 1 fire in northern Stamford, SFRD can't handle it. Fire uptown and an MVA on the 95? Nope, because the rescue needs to be in two places at once. When this fire happened it took all of Turn of River's career manpower, and a downtown engine, rescue, and ladder. Turn of River filled in with the ONLY other heavy rescue in the city, and another engine. When a huge storm hit, no one could argue that the volunteer departments ran the majority of the calls. Do you really propose to get rid of that?

    786XPCover mentioned that a SFRD Asst. Chief proposed the entire city could be covered with the resouces SFRD currently has. Did they mention that that plan involved removing a ladder and engine from downtown? Will the people downtown be happy with that? Probably not. You can't be overstaffed and understaffed at the same time.

    Combination departments just makes sense. You aren't wasting manpower/$$ for routine business, and you get extra (free) manpower when you need it. Stamford couldn't afford to have the manpower required for 2 fires, a storm, a fire and an MVA, etc waiting around 24/7. But you can have your cake and eat it too with a combination system.

    How that system is structured is what's up for debate. Whether the vollies should exist is not up for debate. The fact that an officer made a bad judgement call is not justification for disbanding the volunteer system.

    I totally disagree with your combination statement. Showing up with 1 man on a rig and no idea of how many properly trained vollies with it, does not make sense. When is responding to a call ever routine business? "We'll just send 1 man to investigate and if it turns into something, we'll ask for help" is ridiculous (too late, house burns to the ground and people die). When the vollies in Stamford can guarantee a fully manned response with qualified trained personnel, then maybe I would change my opinion about a combination dept. in Stamford. It's a roll of the dice with what you're going to get when a call comes in North Stamford. I would be more comfortable with covering the entire city with the present SFRD then depending on the volunteer system that is at hand. Sorry, but the present volunteer system in North Stamford needs to be disbanded...................It's an accident waiting to happen..........I pray to God every day that it doesn't involve a LODD or civilian fatality. It's like sitting on a powder keg.....BOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!

  17. Posted

    As a friendly suggestion, If you feel that your not "safe" with "these guys" protecting you, then why do you continue to live there? Move to a place where you can feel that you have protection you are comfortable with. That's what i'd do if I felt as you appear to feel.

    While I'm sure that everyone who lives in Stamford would love to have a fully paid department, it all comes down to finding money to pay these fine gentlemen for their services, which means more tax dollars from those who either cannot afford to pay increased taxes or resent having the government dipping into their wallets yet again. Given the current state of the economy, this isn't feasible at this time.

    Read the second part of your post above and get a clue.............

  18. Posted

    That's why I like this forum. I do not like/expect to see replies like Goose's. Plus the officer that turned the resources away was career! haha.

    If you look beyond the paid vs. volly debate, there are lessons to be learned. If you listen to the radio transmission you hear him say "...we have adequite manpower" which he probably though, being that it was called in as chimney fire, and they happend to be having drill that night. Long Ridge REQUESTED that the city be sent on automatic mutual aid for alarms and above a long time ago and they haven't recalled them before getting on scene to even an alarm before. They thought this was a routine chimney fire and cancelled both volunteer and career mutual aid.

    The lesson that should be learned is: nothing is routine and you never know what you're going to get.

    Thought? Do you know what happened to "I THOUGHT"?

  19. Posted

    As a friendly suggestion, If you feel that your not "safe" with "these guys" protecting you, then why do you continue to live there? Move to a place where you can feel that you have protection you are comfortable with. That's what i'd do if I felt as you appear to feel.

    While I'm sure that everyone who lives in Stamford would love to have a fully paid department, it all comes down to finding money to pay these fine gentlemen for their services, which means more tax dollars from those who either cannot afford to pay increased taxes or resent having the government dipping into their wallets yet again. Given the current state of the economy, this isn't feasible at this time.

    So you would rather have your house burn down and/or someone die to save money? The volunteer system DOES NOT work in the City of Stamford anymore! It may have worked when it was a small town(s), but now it's a BIG CITY! Time to move on........

  20. Posted

    Is someone going to have to die before anything is done about this? What if there were people hanging out of the windows or trapped inside when they arrived? This guy is a clown and should be removed from his position. I live in North Stamford and I most certainly don't feel safe with these guys "protecting" me. They should just be disbanded. A city the size of Stamford should have a fully staffed professional career department.

    I've been on the job in Stamford for 15 years. The union and staff have been trying to make the City of Stamford a fully staffed professional career department for many years before I arrived. Even if someone dies it wouldn't make a difference. Nobody gets it! It's a very sad state of affairs..........

  21. Posted

    This is serious. A full investigation is a must! Cancelling units to a reported fire when the FD is not on scene is reckless.

    Listen to the radio transmissions. Excellent job by the dispatcher , guiding the Chief. The Dispatcher did his job correctly.

    I'm sure there is a lot more to the story and history leading up to the alarm. Bottom line- the public must not be left to suffer.

    We were informed that there will be no investigation! It was also announced on News Channel 12. Hmmmmmmmmmm......................

  25. Posted · Edited by dragonrescue

    Chris and Bnechis, I absolutely agree with what you are saying, I'm just bringing up the points that the voters/taxpayers might not SEE those things as relevant to them. The truth is the public at large doesn't see any problem with the service, because they just don't know better. All they know is how many mils they pay in the taxes, and that eventually a big truck shows up if and when they call. But like I said, nobody ever EXPECTS to use the fire department, so to try to justify the initial costs of a new regional organization would be a fight, simply because of the fact that people will say "I don't care, because my services are fine now, I don't use them and I don't want to pay any more for them." Response time maps are great, but it sounds like everyone is assuming all taxpayers and voters are educated in these things, when nothing could be further from the truth. There's a difference between someone saying that a truck is five minutes out, and them being able to look down the street at their local station. Think about it, anytime somebody goes to close a fire station we have this problem, even IF the company isn't being shut down and response times are under the acceptable margins, there is almost ALWAYS a community outcry.

    Anyway, I'll stop playing devil's advocate now.

    If a consolidation is to take place, the public must be educated first! Good luck in trying to make that happen. We can't even get them to understand the importance of having working smoke detectors in their homes!!!!!!