16fire5

Even with consolidation some of the stations are going to require career staffing at least 0700-1700 to address the issue.

Single trucks are not the answer. Yeah sure if they get in first on a can job they can do something but things work best when engines and trucks respond from the same house and the engine goes in the block first. Trucks will find themselves in tough situations with no water doing searches and VES.

Still not sure why they switched to the CPAT.

DOJ made it know that if you used the CPAT it would not be ruled discriminatory against females. Which I agree was a bad choice. The nations most vertical city could certainly make a case that a more difficult agility test was warranted. Lets face it the gear and tool assignments are heavier than 10 years ago. As we see there is no way to win in the game of policical correctness if you attempt to maintain high standards. That's why places finally throw in the towel and go to pass fail. Is the stupid Chicago method really more fair when they are picking out of a hat?

So it seems that some places are changing over from abrasive disc (Aluminum Oxide) blades to diamond blades on their forcible entry saws. Bill Gustin talks about it in a recent article he did in Fire Engineering. The other day I noticed that a SOC unit had one of these blades on their saw. I'm wondering what people think. A problem with the aluminum oxide blades is that they loose diameter as they cut. This is not the case with diamond blades and the new blades are thinner so the kerf is less which probably helps. I'm wondering how good they cut, what they cut, and how they last.

When you look at past FDNY probie classes there is no difference in promotion rates from the first classes off the list to the last classes.

I believe the opposite is true. The first classes (Open Competitive, not EMS promotion) have a much higher promotion rate.

Isn't COH talking about a new rig too? Maybe 1 truck could handle the town.

They do it with less people too. Many stations in smaller towns will have only a dozzen members. Most if not all turn out for the calls. There is much more accountability due to the command structure and the pay check. This is all based on Ireland but I think there whole system mirrors the UK. Oh Yeah they love the booster line there use it for everything probably until the fire chases them outside.

Tradition in the fire service is how we make firefighters. It is through our senior firefighters that our trade is handed down learned. While we are taught basic and fundamental skills in the fire academy it's the conversations at the backstep after a fire, on the apparatus floor, and in the kitchen where we hand down the tradition. When the rig shows up with a relativly young crew but they perform well at a fire it's because of tradition. So some may see it as a detriment but I see it as fundamental to who we are.

I give the guy a lot of credit because he did not jump on the bandwagon or take an easy out. He seems to truly get it and very few non members do. As for the Utica guys hopefully they had some senior men to sit with at the kitchen table afterwards to reinforce what they already knew sometimes no matter what you do it's not enough sometimes which is a hard pill to swallow especially when children are involved.

ISO does not accept cell phone text messages as a notification.

I have recieved notifications long after I was on-scene.

Being the resident expert you advise you clients to mantain their siren for ISO purposes?

There are a bunch of double houses that were built divided and have since had openings made.

81/46 and 90/41 come to mind.

We have in the past few years started publishing prehospital saves by engine companies in department orders similar to unit citations. The numbers are pretty impressive. I would say we do have a positive impact. Does it suck that that a segment of the public abuses ems and the first responders? Yes. But realize many of the things being complained about here were put in place for responder safety. The units are sent on the highway to provide protection. Also having fire with you many times gives you safety in numbers. I really can't see how anyone can make the case that a 2 person ems crew is better off by themselves at a serious call.

Kinda BS that a district itself can not bill.

Low Hud has some good shots from the incident. I like the command post across the street. The lobby of MD's are too small, they had a good view from where they were, and the spot across the street probably lends itself to better communications.

Would the following criteria be an acceptable compromise in regards to officer qualification/selection and thus the "control" issue?

Each candidiate for promotion would have to successfully complete:

1) A minimum amount of time served in the department or at a lower rank

2) Standardized State certification classes for each rank

3) A standardized promotional exam for each rank

4) An oral interview conducted by a board consisting of servng officers both career and volunteer from outside your department

and now the divergence

5) Eligible candidates appointed by Commission for SFRD / Eligible candidates elected bi-annually by membership for volunteers

Cogs

I hope you not equating time served in the volunteer ranks with that in the career. Why in 2011 if you were designing a system from the ground up would you continue elections?

Having actually been down in the caverns I must say it is truly an amazing project. That being said to me it's a waste of money. It's only a few stops on the E Train from Penn to midtown and lots of people bail off the LIRR at Jamacia station and take the subway into Manhattan. But Metro North will get lots more retail space in their new terminal to charge an arm and a leg for.

what percentage of your interior qualfied firefighters attend the parade

Judging by the ammount of chiefs and members in the line of march with goatees and full beards the interiors are not marching.

While the Arson background check is mandatory I'm not sure your able to do a background check. Your concern is very valid though since we are given a great deal of trust when let into the homes of the public.

We vacated a SRO that had chains through the door and wall. We cut the padlocks with bolt cutters which worked because they were not case hardened. The one positive about this setup is you can tell if there is an occupant based on the location of the padlock.

In how many places does the chauffeur (driver) routinely set up lighting so the crew can overhaul if the power has been cut? I think it is something that was traditionally always done by ladder chauffeurs. Ladder companies always had generators and the Circle D lights. Now lots of places get generators on all their rigs but aside from powering all the fancy lights on the rig how many times is the cord pulled into the building? This kind of stuff was a given but I think it is dying off. Flash lights are good but lighting is important especially if the investigators are comming.

While on the topic what do you use? I hear there is a trend to buy the work lights at Lowes or Home Depot since they are very cheap. Never thought of it but I have a set for work around the house and they're great but maybe not durable for banging around in the rig.

A colleague wrote this in a blog about the reliance on technology in emergency management and I thought it would be well received here too.

As departments spend oodles of money on new EOC's, new vehicles for command & control or communications (all emblazoned with the buzz word "interoperability"), we spend precious little time and effort on management and leadership skill building. New managers get blackberries and other technology to help them do their job but do they get basic management and leadership training?

Points to consider as we move into another season of new officers and chiefs.

In the past you posted an IA from a multiple alarm in the city of new york and pointed out the inculsion of things like a desigated safety officer and unit resource leader on the 2nd alarm and staging area manager on the 3rd. You were right on the ball when you made the point that a fire of the same magnitude 10 miles north would probably not get these important spots filled. How can we even talk about disasters like Japan when the smaller communities don't even know how to and there is no mechanism to incorportate the ICS tools at everyday incidents. It's not rocket science to train people as safety officers and resource unit leaders and planning section chiefs. That way when greater alarms are transmitted proper resources could be assigned. Unfortunatly what you end up seeing is chief officers from every responding department end up crowding the command post with no real job other than representing their agency.

The areas that were discussed are actually in Rockland not Orange.

I don't think anyone in the fire service debates the fact that the IC needs a vehicle with radios, their equipment, and warning devices to do their job. I have no problem with volunteer fire chiefs that uses the vehicle to pick up the groceries or run errands as long as they are in service. Even going to work where they will leave to respond makes sense as long as they are reasonably close. What does not make sense is what the original poster brought up, and that is the practice of the chief using the vehicle when there is no possible way for them to respond. If a chief takes the car and parks it at the train station for 10 hours a day 5 days a week it is serving the district no possible purpose for 50 hours a week.

The other concept that escapes me is the need for multiple chiefs vehicles especially in smaller volunteer departments. Actually some departments have an extra vehicle for the duty chief to use when the 3 chiefs are out of town. Is it really too much to ask for one chief to leave the vehicle back for the defacto IC to use? I will never understand why a volunteer fire department with 2 engines and 1 truck needs 3 chiefs cars. Compare the a residential alarm between a volunteer department and a career department. In the volunteer side you are more likely to get 3 chiefs and 1 engine. In the career side you will typically get at minimum 2 engines, 1 truck and a chief. I think the volunteer side would be better served if they sent one IC and sent the rest of the sparse resources they have to staff their apparatus.

The concepts I speak of are not ground breaking they are a way of life for the volunteer fire service in places like PA where the one chiefs car they have is a used one they purchased from a department around here.

The only correction I will make is it was not a quiet Saturday Morning. There were a number of other incidents going on including a 10-77 in 45/58's first due. Due to the simultaneous incidents the Bronx was severly depleted and there were multiple relocators into the Bronx from Manhattan and Queens.

Federal employees are unionized & don't have collective bargining rights. They also appear to do rather well.

That's relative. I don't think they do "well" compared their counterparts in NYS government.