Bnechis

4 minutes ago, Dinosaur said:

 

So the county has 58 departments.  We can debate the logic and necessity of that for days without ever resolving it.  Does it need 58?  Does the number of departments have some significance to fire growth?  I think not.

Population drives demand so dismissing population considerations is flawed reasoning.

 

 

Well the logic is, we need that many because we've always had that many. The problem is we need to call that many. I'm reminded of a room and content fire in the middle of the county about two years ago. A dozen departments responded.....for a simple room and content fire?  

2 hours ago, FD7807 said:

County as a wbole has a majority of volunrerr departments. Dont believe me but the facts are the facts. 58 fire departments in WC

Yes the majority of departments are volunteer.

5 are career or if they have volunteers, they no longer respond to calls.

9 are combination with the majority of responders being career ( in some cases the volunteers are exterior only and only have a handful left)

4 are combination with the majority of responders being volunteer.

and Port Chester.

So their are more volunteer departments. But what do they protect?

the population of Westchester County is 972,634

434,622 people live in communities with the 5 career depts. (approximately 45%).

177,397 people live in communities with the combination depts. with mostly career response (approximately 18%).

Thats 612,019 people (63%)

The communities with the majority being volunteer are hard to calculate as they include fire districts that do not have census data, but it is totaled at no more than 360,615. (37%).

3 minutes ago, pasobuff said:

 

NYS Fire Code Chapter 5 - Section 508...  508.5.2 Inspection, testing and maintenance. Fire hydrant systems shall be subject to periodic tests as required by the code enforcement official.

 

Section 508.5.3 specifically calls out private service mains and water tanks which need to be inspected, tested and maintained in accordance with NFPA 25.

Unfortunately, the PSC holds a higher level of authority than the DOS and they ignor this code. 

13 hours ago, pasobuff said:

Ummm...doesn't the NYS Fire Code require that copies of all testing be furnished to the Code Enforcement Official upon request?

For private or yard hydrants 

On May 25, 2016 at 8:15 AM, fire2141 said:

That is BS, I work for NYCDEP and the flow rates are broadcast over the two way radio from Shaft 18 in Valhalla to Hillview in Yorkers hourly, 24/7. If it were sensitive information they wouldn't be doing it.

That's what I have been told multiple times from suez

2 hours ago, NorthEndExpress said:

Didn't Eastchester or New Rochelle have the same issue a few years back?

Yes and still do.

Apparently if Isis gets their hands on flow data the region is doomed. National security says no one can know this info.

On May 18, 2016 at 2:59 AM, Rjsii1432 said:

I've never seen a tiered dispatch with ALS FD first response that TOTs to commercial Als ambulances. It should be interesting. I wonder how long it would take before AFD transitions to FF/EMT-Bs only. 

It's very common out west and some parts of Fla. 

4 hours ago, antiquefirelt said:

Seems to make sense at some levels? If these are single role paramedics with no firefighting assignments, the gear is heavier, constricting and more expensive than other gear designed to protect EMS folks from pokes and cuts at MVA's and such.  It sounds like they plan on issuing the lighter, less expensive gear purpose designed for EMS and not change anything for those firefighter/medics who have firefighting assignments. 

If that is the plan, it makes sense, but why collect the gear before issuing new stuff? 

13 minutes ago, frost025 said:

I have a good idea maybe the village should sell one of the pieces of apparatus and firehouse property of a company that can't get rig out for a call and put the brothers and sister back to work.....

It has nothing to do with money. The administration just wants them gone.

1 hour ago, SECTMB said:

A question? Obviously if Rye Brook was actually paying $1M for coverage which, by admitted breach of contract no longer exists, they presumably could approach the dismissed firefighters to work directly for Rye Brook.  It's been a while since I was in the area, but I recall a nice firehouse on King Street.  Whose firehouse is this? Port Chester or Rye Brook? And, if Rye Brook was only paying for a full time night shift Port Chester firefighter(s), who provided the coverage during the day?

 

Can someone let us know how this area is/was covered.

 

 

Rye Brook owns the house on King St.

A number of posts have assumed that PCFD was only providing an engine and a career firefighter from 7 pm to 7 am.

They were also providing (not getting into quality), the balance of the response to alarms (not mutual aid) 24/7. So even daytime when RBFD was staffed, PCFD automatically responded. Also PCFD Chiefs provided the IC since RBFD has no officers.

#RyeBrook Mayor Paul Rosenberg responds regarding elimination of paid #PortChester firefighters. 

"To my Rye Brook Friends and Neighbors:

I want to bring you up as to date with a very important issue which has arisen in in the past 24 hours.  A shared fire services contract with the Village of Port Chester requires them to staff the Rye Brook firehouse with one “career” firefighter from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM daily.  In the event of a fire, they would respond together with numerous Port Chester volunteer firefighters.  

Last evening, as part of its budget adoption, the Port Chester Board of Trustees voted to remove the “career” firefighters from their budget, moving to an all-volunteer fire department.  When that happened, Port Chester put all “career” firefighters on leave, including the firefighter who was staffing the Rye Brook firehouse.  At that point, we made the decision to staff the Rye Brook firehouse overnight with Rye Brook Fire Department personnel.  

Despite Port Chester’s breach of contract, the Village of Rye Brook will ensure that the Rye Brook firehouse will be staffed around the clock while we consider all of our legal options.  As in the past, the Port Chester volunteers will continue to respond.

Please be assured that the safety of our residents is of paramount concern to us, and we taking every step to protect your safety. 

I will continue to keep you informed as events warrant."

7 hours ago, Dinosaur said:

Is this purely a financial issue?  The village is looking to save 600K?
 

It is clearly not a financial issue. Watch the village board meeting on their website.

1) they state they want to add cops

2) they state they failed to pass the tax cap override 30 days prior (as required by law)

3) they stated they can only add cops if they cut the budget elsewhere (since they can't legally raise taxes)

4) they started with a number of cuts, including the $600,000 in salary/benefits for the career firefighters 

now here is is the kicker.......

5) they included dropping the Rye Brook "payment" (with no explanation). This payment is approximately $1,000,000 for fire protection.

So how many cops can they hire with this math? $600,000 - $1,000,000 = negative $400,000. In other words, the village will have to come up with an additional $400,000 to fund the FD. 

6 hours ago, soccers22 said:

I Guess I'm wrong I was under the impression that is federal law to provide Police and Fire Service. EMS is optional 

There are NYS laws that require Police and Fire. But they do not define it. So if you have 2 volunteers and an Indian tank you can call it fire protection and you are covered.

On April 22, 2016 at 10:30 AM, Dinosaur said:

 

 

The problem is NOT money in most departments - at least in this area.  The problem is prioritization and management.  I could go on and on about shaving 150K from the price of a ladder that's 1.5 feet bigger than the one two houses over (cause you know, ours has to be bigger) but I won't.  I could say spend a little bit less on "extra-curricular activities" and buy the PPE your guys need. 

$50-75K would outfit 100 guys.  That's not a significant expense when you consider the fund balances a lot of these departments are sitting on (or were sitting on) and a city could budget for this over 3 years with little impact on an O&M budget.

 

It's just a matter of someone saying "we need to do this".  I'd prefer that over someone getting hurt, sick or worse because they're not wearing the right PPE or any PPE at all.

 

 

 

You can't wear the same boots and helmet? 

Just curious.

If the boots are lace up yes, pull ups are questionable 

and the helmet for structural does not have a face shield for filtering smoke like a wildland one does

7 hours ago, Dinosaur said:

 

Is it? What's that include because most of what I've seen comes in at substantially less than that. 

NFPA compliant wildland PPE: pants,coat, boots, gloves, helmet and face shield. I just added up the average costs for each from one of the equipment catalogs.

13 hours ago, Dinosaur said:

We spend oodles of money to make sure every FF has proper structural firefighting gear.  Some departments go so far as to provide two sets to allow for cleaning, etc.

 

Why then, do we continue to wear the wrong or no PPE at all when fighting brush fires????

Am I the only one this bothers?  Isn't a couple hundred bucks worth the expense to properly protect our people?

Agreed, but it's approximately $650 per responder

14 minutes ago, STAT213 said:

 

• Suction hose of a minimum of 15 feet of soft suction hose or 20 feet of hard suction hose for drafting water.

Not sure where the hose and the hard suck are hidden in that Aerialscope...

 

Looks like it has the rest of the needed widgets.

15 feet of soft suction is easy to fit. And there is plenty of room under the boom

I'm close friends with their immediate past chief and he said it was used to drop about 75 firefighters. Just because they still sent other rigs on an alarm does not make up for layoffs. Everyone ends up working hard. Also the union pushed hard to go back to engine and ladders, but it took a full fleet replacement 20 years to do it.

8 hours ago, x635 said:

 

Wait, then what is White Plains? And how can their be a Public Safety Commissioner and a Fire Commissioner in the same city?

WP has a public safety commissioner. If it was a public safety department cops would be fighting fire and firefighters would be patrolling streets.

because it's just a title 

Quint/midi was a shell game to cut firefighters 

standard engine and and ladder in a double company with 3ff/1of each =8

then quint with 5/1 and midi with 1/1

hey the quint is a ladder and it only needs 3/1.   Bang you now have 6

56 minutes ago, x635 said:

Wait, when did Mount Vernon get a Department Of Public Safety? I thought Police and Fire were separate?

There is a difference between a dept of public safety (police & Fire) and a public safety commissioner who is in charge of both.

1 hour ago, v85 said:

I'm guessing it is because of the meds but that must be a NYC protocol thing. EMTs have atropine of organophosphate poisoning and nerve agent response in the Hudson Valley region, and I heard something about (rectal) Valium in the collaborative protocols as an assistive medication in refractory seizures

 

So  not to much differnce there

My dept. FF/EMTs are level A suit trained to use duaDote and Mark I kits. There is no way anyone could administer rectal meds in a level a suit. Protocol during WMD's is inject thru clothing. With level A double or triple gloves, it's like trying to pickup a dime while wearing a baseball glove

1 hour ago, wedgeclose said:

Which one did they buy with S&H Green Stamps?

 

Mamaroneck Rescue Squad did that

5 hours ago, dwcfireman said:

IMO there really is no need for paramedics in the hot zone of a hazmat situation (whether it's terrorism or an accident).  It would be better to have an EMT or two in there to quickly triage and pull victims out, allowing the paramedics to give life saving interventions to those who need it in the cool zone.  I've never tried to stick an IV with a class A or B hazmat suit on, but I'm guessing it's fairly difficult.

All ALS treatment in the hot zone is limited to med injections, (i.e. DuaDote, Mark 1 and Valium). No way is advanced airway or IV's appropriate in the hot zone. By the time patients are moved to the cold zone they will be DOA.