CHIEFPHIL

Yes, you did run into Todd. I spoke with him a lenght about that incident, sounds like the outcome may have been different for the vic if he was not there and was able to use his skills. He is actually assigned to a marine platoon as a combat medic. He left last week for his second tour.

Shirts and decals will be sold at the Bridgewater Connecticut Parade Friday night 8/21. A booth will be set-up outside the bull-pen

We do not typically get involved with returning veterns to our town. Our department has 7 young men currently serving . 4 are currently in combat roles in the Afgan war. The 3 other men are shortly shipping out for there 2nd and 3rd deployments . A 8th young man served two tours in Iraq and has since come home. When our brothers are on leave, we usually get together at a local resturant. When they shipped out the first time we usually have a gathering at the firehouse.

We send care packages to they guys at least once a year or when they need something. We actually had department license plates painted in camo and were attached to thier abrams and humvees.

2 attack pumps [ one for each house] carries 1000' of 5".

1 tanker pump carries 1000'.

2 supply engines use to carry 2000' each, but because of age/weight/practical purposes we lowered each load to 1500'. each carries a variety of LDH appliances. [one for each house].

1 tower ladder with 1000'.

Let me talk ta ya about permits and CO's.... We did [town building] for a two story addition and elevator. Held up the CO for months because our company owned building [museum] behind headquarters didnt have building permit and it was 20 yrs old.

Heard it Southbury about 35 miles away. WTNH is live with long distance video feed, still smoking. I fear that this may be a disaster.

Never had the plesure to operate or drive .. S model Maxim

My favorites....that I have operated.... 1973 R model Mack, 1977 Sutphen Tower and 1997 E-One Cyclone.

Least favorite... 1994 Spartan/Smeal

Turned down a free pumper? Sounds stupid to me.

The reason explained to us was that they felt the 1000 gallons made the truck too heavy for the roads and that it had a much smaller hose bed and could not sustain their standard hose loads.

Got to weigh in here as the exeption... our '97 E-one is great. It has had virually no downtime. Originally ment for Boston. In the '97 shipment to Boston, E-one added an extra pumper with a 1000 gallon tank. BFD refused it, although it was free. We picked it up at a real low cost. the body is in great shape.

I think the DFD has been profiled a couple of times on this site... but here goes a quick response to your questions.

There are currently 12 volunteer componies in Danbury. Co's 3 thru 9 are single piece companies - 5 engines and 2 squads. Co's 10 thru 14 have a wide array of rigs from engine, tankers, brush trucks. In old terms when Danbury had two political divisions [city / town] there was a distinction of city co's [3-9] and town co's [10-14]. the town co's had chiefs the city oco's did not. The chief titles remain, but the career chiefs run the calls etc.

The volunteer co's are dispatched to most calls..boxes, afa, structures , carfires etc. I do not believe they respond to hazmat type calls, but report to their stations to cover. When there is a job, usually several co's are put on coverage. Usually 2 volunteer engines and a squad is assigned to afa's, structures etc. Single engine with a single career engine to minor alarms. Two volunteers carry hurst tools, so one of them is assigned to confirm tool jobs .

The volunteers have a wide variety of special eqipment, such as brush trucks and tankers. Engine 10 is a 55' telesquirt.

the consolidation has been talked about for years, but now it is taking a greater spotlight as many of the volunteer stations need lots of building upkeep. The other problem they have,is that the engines need 3 interior ff's to respond. Sometimes the vol's will get 2 ff per station , they cant respond. So by putting 2-3 or 4 companies in one building they most likely will be able cross staff to fully man an engine.

I think this is a good idea as it is goingto be able to pool the resources the city has.

Hi All I am looking for a link to Fairfield County's web page or a site that will give me a rundown of the numbering system in Fairfield. THanks to anyone who can help

There is no numbering system in Fairfield County. Each town/city has there own system.

ironically, my mother was telling me just a few weeks ago how she and my aunt were supposed to attent the disco, but thankfully other planns deviated their attention to another place. one can only thank The Man upstairs

Yep, my aunt and uncle and grandmother were going there as well, then changed plans.. my dad fought the fire.

According to the Ct forum ,looks like 1/3 of the state is responding, both the work and cover empty stations. including the decon trailers, most of the foam trailers .

Yes, this year, the EMT-basic was added to the curriculam at Bethel High. One of our members is a EMS-I and ran the class. She did an outstanding job. My dept provided hands on help and lots of support. Claases here held at the high school and at our station.

I think that we had about 17 kids in the class. 4 have joined my company [bethel Fire] and 2 are applying in July after they graduate. I believe 2 or 3 have joined our other company Stony Hill.

They took thier state practical last saturday... we are hoping that the balance join one or the other company once they get thier results.

They did ride alongs with us, Danbury EMS and lots of ER time. They spent countless hours after school and on weekends working , studying at the FD and being menotred by various members.

It amased me that these kids gave up so much of thier time to complete.

I just hope this program is not cut by the budget cutters next year !

Hang in there Izzy.

there is one in Shelton at Indian Wells State Park, dont know the date..

I get a white screen or a DNS, my work computer detected a virus on Tuesday when I accessed the sight. Today is the first time I could get on. My home computer had a message that I had to download software for EMTbravo to work.

Quick question... how was water supply for this type of incident handled ?

Bethel Ct on the way as well..

Great old pictures .... I let my mom know about these, as she mostly saw most of these.

My see my grandfather in sa few of them, if you start posting the burning 70's I'll sure to remember most of them.

Ang, great shot of the capitol hotel fire !

5 Woodlawn Drive, Bethel, in the Stony Hill section of town.

I'm stuck at work in a meeting...

Mellor Engine # 3

Pretty sure the guy in the second floor window of Mellor's parlors is my grandfather.

We just bought three pairs of the new Globe boots, I have heard from the guys that got them that they are comfortable. I only heard one complaint and that was from another department. Apparently there is not much of a heel, so when climbing a ladder there is a very small lip and your foot can slip forward on the rung. I haven't worn them myself, so I can't give you anything firsthand, but almost everything I hear is positive.

I have had zip -ups and pull on leathers over the year. The zip ups were a hassle for me as well, I also had the problem of the zipper unzipping. At a job on night it unzipped and came off my foot... needless to say yhe next morning they were sold to a carpenter.

I currently use the globe mentioned boots with my assigned dept gear, I did not like them at first, but then got use to them. I did come across the ladder /rung issue. I have encountered my foot several times slipping forward of the rung. I would say the only draw back is the heel.

Kinda reminds me of the Summit Ave apartment building fire in Port Chester in the late 70's.

First, is your program a true explorer post or a cadet program. There is a distinct difference.

Before you start comparing a NY dept to a CT dept, you have to understand all the legalities behind the scenes.

First and formost, what-ever the policy of your department is, you must follow it, it is set up for a reason, usually your safety.

Secondly, if you an explorer post, [14-18] I do not believe you fall under your towns/dept workers comp if you are injured. Whereas if you have a cadet program [16-18] you are part of the fire dept and thus covered by such plans. This is just one such reason why our department decided to go with a cadet program .

As a point of refrence the term cadet replaced junior firefighter in Ct legal terms in the last few years. Cadets are actual members of the department, explorers are not.

Being you are from Connecticut you will fall under the CT Dept of Labor standards concerning minor firefighters, defined as a person between the age of 16-and 17, there is also a section that covers 14-15 as well. Your department was sent these guidlines as well as all 313 fire departments in CT well over 1 year ago.

I believe there was another such topic posted here some time back. I also believe one of my guys posted our entire cadet program here as well.