CHIEFPHIL

The mayor presented his proposed 2007-08 budget earlier this week. In it he proposes to hire 10 ADDITIONAL firefighters after Julyabove what they currently have. This is what was reported in the Danbury Newstimes earleir this week. So , all you Danbury hopefuls, stay in there, do what these letters say and keep up on your cpat , dont let them expire etc etc etc... Not only is he proposing to increase the FD, but also the PD. Looks like public safety is taking the fore front this year in Danbury. Good luck to all involved int eh process.

Although , my dept is not in NY. We face similiar situations here in CT as well. my dept has broken down our membeership levels . we have cadets [16 and 17 yr olds] Active - 18 yrs old no max age. minimum call volume, must attend drills , meetings etc and hold either MRT, EMT or FF1 or above cert. Life - 15 yrs in dept... respond to calls, no minimum call volume must attend mandatory drills. drops from pension and tax abatement. Cannot run for line officer positions, only board of directors Retired - 20 yrs in dept, no longer can respond to alarms, but can be on board of directors , hold parlimentry positions and works on committees, max out in pension, dropped from tax abatment, no voting privaleges unless meets minimum meeting requirements Associate - 18yrs old and above , does not respond to any alarm, must work on 2 committees and is accountable to the board of directors. No pension, no tax abatement. no voting of officers, only board of directors

Date: 2/10/07 Time:1400 Location: Target Store, 7 Stony Hill Road Frequency: Units Operating: Stony Hill Eng 1,Eng 3 Rescue 2, Ambulance 3, Bethel Ambulance 1, 2 Newtow EMS, City of Danbury EMS, West Redding EMS S1 [chief] S-2 [a/c] SO [safety] Description Of Incident: Report of CO alarm in department store with symptoms Writer: Chiefphil Report of CO problem at Target. Multible victims reporting symptoms. Eng 1 responding with BFD to auto alarm on Wooster St, redirected to Taget Rescue 2 and A-3 responding to Target Bethel A1 responding to EMS call in Stony Hill dist Behtel A-2 responding to Target, redirected for unconcious on Castle Hill Danbury EMS requested to Target Newtown EMS requested to cover Stony Hill, redirected to Target Redding EMS requested to cover Bethel district Brookfield EMS request to cover Stony Hill district Bethel R-1 avail for EMS first responder Bethel A-1 at Danbury ER, avail, responding to Target. A-3 enroute with 2 bls DEMS enroute with 1 atleast 3 more to be transported incident on going, per command, still investigating at this time Engine 3 is avail on scene [14:45] Incident terminated 15:15 - Store to remain closed per command

MSNBC is reporting ARCANE was administered in the field.

Bethel Ct,, Headquarters only 427 fire 950 EMS

Wow ! Thay reminded me of the Agway store that went up in Bethel in '90

David was a good friend of mine, a confidant and a mentor. I will truly miss this man. Rest in peace brother.

In our town we have side mounts on 4 engines and 1 top mount engine. out tower and tanker are also side mounts. I have run all of them at one point or another. I prefer the sidce mount because of the following, I like to be able to "run around" the rig, make sure all is working, see what equipment is off the rig. Being on the ground, I can react to changing events on the fire ground that may need my help. Getting equipment out of an compartment. Helping to pull another line off. Basically keeping me near my tools. I also like to be able to keep my leg wrapped around the supply line in the event my gauge is not correct. No up and downs... aleviate the risk of falling. After a using the top mount to draft one night, my knees where kinlling mte from getting up and down to make sure connections tite etc. I lalso have seen the MPO's on top mounts get distracted and start to watch the fire and not the pump panel after 15 minutes or so, they become observers not participants.

The 77 Sutphen was ordered in 1972 and was paid for by a Federal Govt block grant. The rig was delayed at the factor due to the auto workers strike. When it was getting near completion, the Detroit FD walked in and bought it off the floor. Thru a lot of negotiation and talks and visits by the chief, the rig was finially delivered in June 1977. the first run for this rig was mutual aid to the city of danbury for the fatal prison fire. Ironically, this rig saw more service in danbury in its first 20 years of service then in bethel. for a while , this was the only aerial tower in norther fairfield county and was called upon many times to help out our neighbors. It has seen service in Newtown, Redding, Danbury, Brookfield and even New Milford, a 25 mile run !! Not to take anything away from bethel, but this rig served this town well for 29 years 7 months. We have turned many of a tide of battle with it. I myself will miss it, especially since it is a 5 speed standard shift. I remember well the first time I drove it to a job, we were a big job on main st in danbury. If I remeber right it was the 3 bldgs to the rightof the palace theater. , every time I touched the brake pedal, the LT told me to get my foot off it or he would break my leg!! It has been a long hard fought battle to replace this rig and ,the new one, I imagine will have it's own glory as well Also should mention this was the best appearing aerial tower at the CT state convention, 1977,78,80,81.

Here is a comment and question. I dont carry a bail out kit, my preference. But I do carry some rope and webbing for closing doors, hoisting tools etc. My question is this...When we deploy our life safety rope for training or an actual emergency, we wear special gloves, not our firefighting gloves to avoid getting carbon on the rope which will over time degrade the rope. If you keep rope in your turnout coat and over time expose your bail out kit to the products of combustion, wont it degrade the rope as well ? I'm not being negative in any way form or fashion on the use of bail out kits. Just a question ? On a purchased kit, not a throw together kit, is there a care requirement. I bring this up , because I teach a lot of classes ansd have about 10 days a year at the smoke house and maybe a half dozen or so jobs a year and as such, I clean my gear after every couple of uses and throw my tools, including my rope in a pile, never really cleaning them. I noticed that my webbing and rope get dirty even being in the pocket. So, I just wonder if a person has a bail out kit and see's a good amount of work [real fires and trainig] that we are not ruining the bail out kit and in the event need to deploy it that it does not fall apart. Again, not being that familiar with the kits... just wondering.

We use to do this a long time ago for a donation, until we were advised that this was a theft of service. Since we used the municipal water sytem with a town owned vehicle this was a no-no and stopped. One reason people would ask us to fill the pool was so that they would not pay for the water/sewer usage. In our town the municipality runs the water sytem. The second was so that they did not use extra electricity to run thier well pumps. A neighbor dept got smart to this and came up with a plan, using thier old tanker [not in service] registered to the fire company and had a well drilled for them to get the water on thier owned land, they then put in a storage tank aand during the summer months fill pools with thier own water. Not a bad way of doing it.

One reason it was done dealt with low band radio waves. When the radio is in a chest pocket [low band] the body tends to absorb the radio waves and reduce the power of the transmission. Having it on the arm,reduced the amount the body absorbed, providing better transmission nad reception. Today, most depts are going high band and UHF , plus with better technology, you should not have those same issues.

In Bethel Ct, we run EMS as well. Our ambulance is on the run card for all structure fires. Usually the ambulance or ambulances will respond 7-8 in order of dispatch UNLESS there is an immediate need. You would get Engine, Tower[or tanker], Engine , Rescue , Engine, other support units and EMS . With three ambiulances, one usually becomes triage/rehab, one for transport and the third covers the town from the scene or unless otherwise directed. Our ALS regional intercept no longer does fire standby, They must be special called. Some-how that was dropped from the contract. I should also add that each piece of equipmnet carries a jump kit both engines carry an AED, the rescue carries about as much ems equipment as the ambulances as well as an AED. Each chiefs rig has a jump kit as well as an AED

born in Port chester now in Bethel Ct - EX-Chief Bethel Fire

Happy holidays to all.... I'm visiting family in the Carolina's it was 70 yesterday...raining today... Right now I'm staying about 3 miles from the APEX N.C. fire last month. Was in Horry County yesterday, caught a couple of rigs going to a run on Highway 31. The Cary FD has been busy for the last 3 days, station 5 is down the road from me and they have had a few runs. Well, everyone in the Northeast have a happy and safe ne. TRUCKEE665 - we been quiet ?????????????? PS.. Hey one more thing I want to wish a SPECIAL HAPPY and SAFE holiday season to our brothers oversees as well as thier comrades in arms. stay safe

Both fire companies in our town are dry. Since both buildings are town owned, we must abide by the town charter and town code which prohibits alcohol on town property. When we have a social function, we must get a letter of approval from the 1st selectman. We also have to have a special rider on our insurance with the town as a party on the policy. We use to have our family picnic and clambake at a town park.. so we moved it to a private catring hall to avoid any problems. It ended up costing us more $$$$$ , I think we will go back to the park and limit the alcohol . Both stations used to have fairly nice and comfertable bars, bothed were closed down when a new station was built and had no bar at all. As much as I would like to have a nip or two on Fridays nights, I do not miss it at all.

I'm originally from Port Chester Ny, born at United Hospital. My family has over 100 of service to the Port Chester Fire Dept. My great grandfather was an original charter member of Brooksville E&H, my gradfather, father and two uncles all were/are members of Mellor E&H, both my grandfather and father are past captains, another uncle [deceased] was a captain of FirePolice Patrol as well. I was a memer of post 700 for a while before moving to connecticut. Joined the Bethel Fire Dept 8/4/82 Secretary 1988 Lieutenant Engine 6 1989-91 Captain 1992-1995 2nd A/C 1996-1998 Chief of Department 1999-2001 1st A/C 2004-2005 2nd, 1st Vice President Fairfield County Chiefs 1997-1998 President Fairfield County Chiefs 1999-2000 Currenlty serving as a mentor to groom young officers. Also have 4 years of service with the Dodgingtown VFC in Newtown CT during the same time period. Certifications: FF1,2 & 3 Fire Officer 1 Fire Service Instructor 1 Health & Safety Officer Motor Pump Operator Truck Operator EMT [6 yrs then dropped cert] MRT [6 yrs -current] Low angle and High angle rescue Cold water and Ice rescue awards: Town of Bethel Firefighter of the Year 1993 Fairfield County Fire Officer of the Year -1994 Fairfield County Fire Officer of the Year - 2002 Have a partime teaching gig , delivering FF1 & 2 TIC as well as pump operator classes in N. Fairfield county and S. Litchfield county. Manager of manufacturing support for a fortune 500 company in fairfield county. 4 brothers, only one other got into the biz... left to become a PO down South.

I think that if you wanted vertical stacks, you would research the idea first to see if : a] it was a good idea in your response area b] fit in your station we recently placed into service a heavy rescue and tanker with vertical exhaust, we run in n. fairfield county and have a both a suburban and rural response area. we have hgad no problems. our main concern was the bays and a railroad bridge. we cannot have any rig over 10'1" so our exhaust has to be low and not stick up as high. we also use a plymovent set up and this works out well . For a rescue truck with a cascade, this is an ideal set up as it keeps your exhausrt away from the intake and bottle changing area. with our tanker, it keeps the exhaust pipe away from the folding tanks if we are in a multiple drop tank operation.

Any time you want to do a hunt in Northern fairfield cnty, let me know, we can set it up.

http://hcfep.org/Guidelines_for_Minor_FF.pdf Here is the link with the afore mentioned letter regarding minors in CT.

Using a compressor or a cascade or the newer type booster pump cascade system wold be considered machinery [industrial] so being under 18 would prohibit under the CT labor laws. I know this is a cramp.... for years I hoped for these kids to show up at a job so I could free up an interior firefighter.

You should contact Darien EMS, as this is a corp that is run soley by 16-18 yr olds that work under the supervision of 21 yr old advisors. I believe this is an Explorer post. See how they run it and what SOP/SPG or legaleez is in effect. Since you are asking this ??????????? I assume you passed your test, Congrads !

Izzy - cjeck out this site http://qvec.org/welcome.htm This is one of the eastern CT regional dispatch centers, they have a specfic page on the requirements of naming pieces of equipment. Such as Engine Tanks, Engine - Hose, Engies etc. Knowing several FF's from that end of the state, where mutual aid and auto mutual aid is very common, they have told me it is a good way for the IC to know what type and capabilities of the rig coming in is . We are not talking about crossing on town line, but several. Sometimes I wish the rest of the state would follow something like this... but that is for another time.

In the early 70's there wasa big job at CO-OP City, my dad drove us down there and right along I95 the Super Pumper was working. Even as we drove by the noise was impressive. In '79 when the Port Chester post 700 had hosted the Boston Explorers for the weekend we spent the a day at E-207 when both the super pumper and super tender were still there. They were a mighty impressive unit close up. Had lunch with the Eng co. It was a good day. Spent a few hrs at the Brooklyn comm center also that day.

Could some one explain the capabilities and use of the JFK hosewagon and the manifold hose wagon. Is there a Laguardia hose wagon as well ?