Bnechis

When will the bid's come back for tower ladder 11 ?

30 to 60 days after the bid goes out

Does anyone know what make tower ladder they are ordering?

No one knows

Why is a dedicated Foam Trailer needed?

Not a matter of if, it's when......

Everybody better brush up on your foam application skills.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/03/8563137/oil-train-shipments-expand-under-cuomo

Stay safe.

Because 98% of the departments in the county do not have enough foam.

Do the calculations on the new ethanol blends and you find the you need 100's of gallons of concentrate.

Just because you CAN buy something with grant money, doesn't necessarily mean you should. Look at the disastrous Mass Decontamination Trailer CT purchased. One truck and trailer for every municipality with a hospital and an airport. Trailers kept breaking down, company that manufactured/maintained them went out of business. Now, 10 years later, the regional committees are purchasing inflatable decon tents for a fraction of the price. Sure they aren't as sexy looking as the big red trailers and spare rescue trucks "Prime Movers" that everyone got at first, but the tents are a much better use of taxpayer dollars.

Funny, we wanted trailers but could not afford them, so we went with the tents. NYC did both. Most places have found while the tents are cheaper, they take more manpower to operate and they do not process as many people per hour.

A lot of the equipment is purchased with grant money. And to be honest, isn't it better that most of it isn't deployed, considering if it is that would mean a disaster has occurred?

Better to be prepared then get caught with their pants down, no?

I believe he meant deployed out to agencies as opposed to being centrally located with no personnel to operate them.

How many of the 5 NYS Decon Trailers that Westchester got and were to be deployed to different areas are still deployed? I know one was refused by the 5 depts. in its town. Another was returned. If they are still at DES they are of no use without a dozen or more trained members per unit.

Sorry, Yes it AR-AFFF 1/3

AFFF 1/3 Universal Gold

Agreed and sadly its more likely that fire depts. will consolidate (if ever) before schools and that's because: "I don't want my kid going to the same school as _______"

I wonder why now? They were all about the aluminum aerial being superior, that was one of their trademarks. Maybe the same reason Pierce started offering aluminum, so they can compete better in the marketplace with agencies that don't want an aluminum aerial.

http://www.fireapparatusmagazine.com/articles/2015/03/e-one-adds-steel-aerial-fire-apparatus-to-its-portfolio.html

Remember while its the same name, they have different owners.

Also they had a great opportunity to bring the lead designer in who previously ran LTI and then Crimson (Spartan ERV).

Wouldn't this diminish funding be another financial burden on the local Government?

Only if the current ticket revenue is more than the cost for the police dept.

If you take the PD funding out of the local government (saving millions) and you do not get to keep any of the ticket revenue (costing thousands) how is this a financial burden on local government?

This needs to be defined, as everyone has their own definition, and it's different for every service and different for every region.....Town A is happy with 2 engines and a ladder (all fully staffed) for a residential alarm, but town B is happy with 1 and 1 half staffed.

I call Bull S**T

It is defined, Lets start with OSHA 2in 2ot requires 4 interior plus IC & pump operator to go in and save property. If you can not do this 100% of the calls you are sub standard. I do not care how "happy" the town is.

Next its defined by NFPA standard 1710 which requires career depts. to but an engine with 3/1 on scene in 4 minutes 90% of the time and the remainder of the 1st alarm (min of 16ff) in 8 minutes 90% of the time. And for those that want to start the we don't need to follow the 1710 standard because we are not career. The NYS Insurance commissioner last year approved the new ISO standard which measures ALL departments based on 1710. So the "town" is happy and it does not meet this? If more than 10 people in the entire town knows about it I'd be stunned.

What about the ISO standard that requires a minimum of 2 engines and 1 ladder or service company on all fire calls?

Again does anyone in town even know this?

How many citizens and politicians believe the fire departments web site that claims we have 200+ members? I must be safe look at how many they have.....

How many happy citizens listen to 60 control tone out: "any available members on the 3rd dispatch" ?

Most are happy because they either do not think they will ever need it or because they believe the FD is capable of doing a good job.

What about the ISO

Lots of homeland security grant money drying up in the past few years. Not surprising that a company in that sector is having trouble staying afloat.

I suspect this had very little to do with it. They had been around for 40 years, long before homeland security. Their biggest sales were for chiefs cars and EMS fly cars, which were rarely funded thru HS.

This is a sector that has huge cash flow issues, they have to layout the cash for the vehicle, all of the components and the labor and then they don't get paid until 30 days after delivery (most governmental contracts). And the margins are not high.

Remember what Bnechis said about two year's ago about the cap. FD's and PD's are going to fail and fall by the wayside

Thanks. I actual 1st wrote it as part of a consolidation study 5 years ago (before the cap was passed), warning depts. that the cap was coming and it would force this.

Current fire station design standards are 14' x 14' doors, 24' high bays and floors that can handle a minimum of 80,000 in every bay also drive up costs.

If I am not mistaken, LAFD's "Task Forces" consist of a traditionally staffed Engine, a minimally staffed Pumper (for water supply), and a Truck responding all as one unit. So the number of "Engines" is likely skewed because some of those only have a Driver. But maybe Seth or one of the more frequent LA buffs can explain better than I can.

Even so, 5 BC & a DC

5 trucks & 2 USARs

Something else was going on at this incident

I'll play devils advocate. Department A responds mutual aid with their 16 passenger bus. 6 guys just throw 6 scba's and an assortment of tools into the walkway between the rows of seats. On the way the bus has a terrible accident and the unsecured tools fly all over the interior of the bus hitting the members. What would OSHA and NIOSH say to this act?

OR

On the way back to their district they come across a car fire...or a structure fire. Cant do anything can they. OK ok chances of that are slim.

How about an alarm for a house fire comes in or other alarm in their district on the way back. Are they going to go lights and sirens back to the firehouse to play key stone cops and jump out of the bus with all the "stuff" and get on "hopefully" the second due rig to go to the scene?

How would this scenario look to OSHA and NIOSH if something goes bad.

How would this look on the 6 o'clock news.....hmmmm let me get this straight....they took a bus to the fire and left the fire truck in the station?

Hard to defend this. Just take a front line rig. Again JMO.

Department A send 16 passenger bus to the fire training center for a FF1 class. 6 guys just throw 6 scba's and an assortment of tools into the walkway between the rows of seats. On the way the bus has a terrible accident and the unsecured tools fly all over the interior of the bus hitting the members. What would OSHA and NIOSH say to this act?

Maybe They should have a caged cargo area in the back or a policy that NO equipment be carried unsecured.

Now haw many departments have sent out this message: "Working fire - Additional manpower is needed" And a dozen additional private vehicles show up parked along the road leading to the scene. When they all go home, what if their is another call, what if they pass a car fire, what if?????

How do you defend when the fire in your district gets 1 engine and the other 2, 3 or 4 don't roll, because you no longer have the staffing? But the get replaced because we have to keep up the fleet.

You are really good at using Google images, I will give you that. I'm aware that fire department buses and transport trucks exist. I am also acutely aware that space ships exist. Yes, it is still dumb. We're not talking USAR or wildland. It's not a crew of part time college kids with backpacks and rakes. You have a fire station with firemen and fire trucks and now you want everyone to buy a bus to take instead of the fire truck. You are advocating buying 8-24 duplicate SCBAs, hand tools, saws, flashlights etc. To put on a transport bus. To take to a routine fire. Yes. This is still very dumb. Also if all the firemen take the bus, who is going to be there for the fire engine anyway? I'm starting to see the writing on the wall of why to stop reading this site. I'm arguing with someone on the internet if firemen should take a bus or a fire engine. Time to find a new hobby.

No I am not suggesting we all go out and buy these. My point was there are times when it makes sense to use vehicles other than engines for transport. that's all.

We can't outfit a small bus with 8 SCBA's to transport members of a mutual aid dept to the scene? I guess it's not as fun to respond in on a job on a bus as it is an engine!

Probably the dumbest thing I've read on this site in over ten years, impressive

I guess it is not possible to build vehicles for transporting firefighters and their equipment then?

Thanks for the post, I never realized how many different designs for crew transport their were, I only considered a van or suburban. Now I need to go get a picture of NRFD's 2300 passenger van (that we use for transporting relief crews to fires) I cant find any pictures of it.

Barry,

are you speaking from experience on this one?

Not going there

below (2nd Picture) shows The general configuration of these OSB I beams in another larger structure, Obviously These are being supported By 2x 6 headers and studs for a larger structure...obviously larger then a single fam dwelling

To meet the current energy code you need 2x6 Studs for single family if you are using fiberglass insulation.

To me all the "grief" is look at all the departments you are stripping. Your taking a large amount of manpower and rigs for a private dwelling fire, to me that ridiculous

Consolidation.............................

but I can tell you that congress wasn't designed to grind to halt either...

Actually it was designed to work at a snails pace. The founding fathers wanted committee's and debate and time to consider the ramifications.

-7 Engines (not counting coverage companies)

- Assuming there was only 1 draft site, subtract one of those, leaving you with 6 Engines on scene

-8 Tankers

-1 Rescue

-1 Truck

- A handful of utilities (including Mt Kiscos FASTbulance, which I'll count as a rescue for purposes of discussion because of its staffing and responsibilities)

We dispatch 4 Engines and 3 Specials on all box alarms. So is 6 Engines and 3 Specials really so ridiculous for a multi-alarm fire with access issues?

so about 3% of all engines in the county were committed to this fire,

But 50% of the tankers were committed. Tells me we have way to many engines, and too few tankers

Its not being mum. He took $20,000,000 last year and got away with it so he figured he could get away with $50,000,000 this year. That's not being mum....its speaking volumes.