helicopper

If you need to deploy quickly for mass decon, how about the deck gun/ladder pipe or initial attack hand-line? Mass decon wouldn't rely on garden hoses; you need copious/voluminous amounts of water for lots of people and you can't possibly get that from a booster line.
All the training I've ever been through was large bore, large volume, low pressure water to cover a large area for many people as quickly as possible. I just can't see a booster line being able to accomplish that effectively.

Much of what you wrote is valid, but some of these items are not:
"5 - Use as a secondary line for a car / truck / container fire by attaching a SG or CG nozzle using either a piercing attachment or a "pinapple wand" to get into those hard to reach areas (before a hood or an opening can be created). Again, doesn't take the place of the main attack lines, it an added resource."
While nice to have the special nozzle, why not have that 2nd line with enough power to back up the primary if something goes wrong (like the gas tank drops)
"7 - DECON and REHAB for your firefighters, nothing like having a small line to cool you off on a hot day or to wash down your dirty gear. Again, freeing up another larger line or main discharge."
Not for decon and "freeing up a line or discharge" I have never seen an engine run out of discharges, most today have 7-9 (4-6 main ones)
"8 - small propane tank leakes - less than 20 lbs tanks (adjust the nozzle to a good fog patter and disipate that LPG)"
Maybe you should calculate the potential btu output from oneof these before you go in with way too small of a flow
"9 - Use as an invesitgation line - The FM is trying to find the cause of a fire, got a few very small hot-spots or needs to wash down a small are without having the great pressure from a 1 3/4" line, the booster is your line. GRANTED it should not be the only line present, you should still have a main attack line present just in case! You have the poewer of both."
If the pressure is too much in the 1 3/4" line - Gate down. because of the reduced FL you can use less pressure (thus less volume) and get the jop done. If the booster is being justified for conviniance most of the time, how come here you are adding an extra line to do the job? thats more work not less.
Even when we had boosters, we did not do this, because we already had a line in the building. why clean and pack 2 lines.

"Final extinguishment of a smoldering engine compartment fire." So you pack up the 1 3/4" line that you used to get to that point and then pull the booster to finish the job?
"Hitting some hot spots found during the investigation phase." Same as above
"As a protection line for the engine for a short period of time while pumping a fire." If you need to protect your $500,000+ engine because you parked it too close, you need a real line
"We've used it in several situations where we previously would've used a can. A lot easier to put a little water back in the tank back at the station than servicing the can." Saves a whole minute
"We get called upon to "wash down" some public areas at times. Using regular handlines, we'd often have to refill at least once to complete the job. Just the other week my engine washed down the stage area of an outdoor "bandshell" style venue with less than 200 gallons of water." How is it that you use an extra 300 gallons with the regular line? If you put out more water you complete the washdown in less time and the amount should be the same.

No.
For gross decon it is not used as it does not flow enough
for technical decon & mass decon it has the wrong size couplings to match the equipment

Is anyone really using a booster line for mass decon? Every set-up I've ever seen called for a whole lot more water than that. Generally BIG water.

Is anyone really using a booster line for mass decon? Every set-up I've ever seen called for a whole lot more water than that. Generally BIG water.

Is anyone really using a booster line for mass decon? Every set-up I've ever seen called for a whole lot more water than that. Generally BIG water.

Will someone try to explain me why drinking is EVER allowed at ANY firehouse? And don't give me that camaraderie BS...

That makes me sick too...I have heard hundreds (no exageration) of young firefighters argue that with todays training it makes them equipped to be officer at an early stage...I still say BULL &^*%!!! This just proves my point; they lack the maturity and real life experience to properly lead a fire department or even a company. They may be well trained, yes, granted...BUT...You still need to take that training and apply it in the field to get real life experience, and you MATURE as a result of that experience. To read this article and see that his excuse was "Well company officers and members have been drinking at parades for a long time now and no officer or official have done anything about it..." makes me sick.
He KNEW about the problem and did nothing about it as one of the chiefs. He participated in the infraction himself being drunk behind the wheel, putting him, his FF's, and if his family or someone elses family was with them as well all in jeopardy. You need mature people with experience in the field and lots of training to properly lead a department as chief. Lieutenant...Maybe a younger person (21-25) can take that spot and learn from his/her captains and chiefs and gain some insight to properly run a dept, but any chief spot? That should be someone in the dept for over 20 years, knows the equipment, knows the district blind folded, knows the people, has tons of training and field tested experience on the nozzle or on the roof or crawling down that hallway with a high level of MATURITY to lead.
Luckily, no one was seriously injured or killed...this time. He injured one of his men (hopefully not out of work on disability or anything), and probably destroyed the truck wasting tons of taxpayers money to either repair or replace it. He put his district in danger because now they are down by one truck that they would normally depend on and have to rely on mutual aid. He should have the white hat taken away, and given a hot pink helmet with a bunch of AA stickers and 12-step program stickers on it for a year and have his driving priveledges permenantly taken away. Maybe that will give him the maturity he NEEDED when he took the office.
Sorry...im done now...and I respectfully dont want to hear any younger member say anything to me like "But there are some of us that are mature..." please...just respect my opinion because you will not change it until I see a young chief work miracles...then maybe we can talk...

And considering the anti-government sentiment that is so pervasive today (especially in California) wearing a billboard that says "not a government employee" may actually be a GOOD idea.

I go back to my original question: was this dispatched as a CO emergency or simply a medical emergency? Did the officers know that the car was running in the garage all night when they got there?
What they knew and didn't know at the time is a big factor in reviewing this call. "Keyboard experts"? Just a lot of questions and discussion. What's the problem with that?
Sadly they treated an off-duty, out of district FF as a hero and gave him awards for jumping off the TZ Bridge after witnessing a woman attempt suicide. He was battered and unconscious and needed to be rescued himself but he was still treated like a hero. Personally, I think he should have gotten a 72 hour evaluation at the Behavioral Health Center but that's just me. We very often pat people on the back and say good job even when it wasn't.

As Senator Greg Ball said last night... "Lets stop this insanity and repeal this bill!!"

I go back to my original question: was this dispatched as a CO emergency or simply a medical emergency? Did the officers know that the car was running in the garage all night when they got there?
What they knew and didn't know at the time is a big factor in reviewing this call. "Keyboard experts"? Just a lot of questions and discussion. What's the problem with that?
Sadly they treated an off-duty, out of district FF as a hero and gave him awards for jumping off the TZ Bridge after witnessing a woman attempt suicide. He was battered and unconscious and needed to be rescued himself but he was still treated like a hero. Personally, I think he should have gotten a 72 hour evaluation at the Behavioral Health Center but that's just me. We very often pat people on the back and say good job even when it wasn't.

I go back to my original question: was this dispatched as a CO emergency or simply a medical emergency? Did the officers know that the car was running in the garage all night when they got there?
What they knew and didn't know at the time is a big factor in reviewing this call. "Keyboard experts"? Just a lot of questions and discussion. What's the problem with that?
Sadly they treated an off-duty, out of district FF as a hero and gave him awards for jumping off the TZ Bridge after witnessing a woman attempt suicide. He was battered and unconscious and needed to be rescued himself but he was still treated like a hero. Personally, I think he should have gotten a 72 hour evaluation at the Behavioral Health Center but that's just me. We very often pat people on the back and say good job even when it wasn't.

I'd rather have that 120 pound woman than some of the 300+ pound guys I've seen on both career and volunteer departments.
But ideally, I'd rather have anyone that was mentally and physically capable of the job, regardless of whether they were female or not.
More to the point of the article, the idea that a sexist prank should cause us to recruit more females makes no sense. I've seen some females that can bust chops better than anyone and some that take it WAY beyond the scope. Its about having some respect and decency and understanding where the line stands.

Ability to do the job should stand above gender. Different standards for men and women are ridiculous. If you can do it, you can do it. If you can't, you can't.

FireMoose started this and I see a quote about putting the volunteers IN THE STATION. 100% absolutely true! Last year, Chester County (my home turf) enacted a dispatch change stipulating: Ambulance XX gets dispatched, if no response (I mean ON THE ROAD, not re-dispatch for driver, EMT, IV bag holder, etc), the next due gets dispatched. PERIOD. End of argument. There was a LOT of pushback in the rural western half of the county because, you guessed it, it takes at least 5 minutes to hop out of bed and drive to the station! I was at that meeting and I can tell you, those fire companies were told, in so many words "well, tear down your bar and/or your social hall and start building bunk rooms like the rest of us, or you'll be out of business in a year."
While my squad is now mostly paid staff, we have a strong and active volunteer contingent that MUST be in-house for their 6 or 12 hours and in uniform (identical to the paid staff since we're all there to do the same thing, save lives). The only time we page out for additional help is when we need to roll our bariatric truck or certain occasions when the duty crews will be committed to an incident for an extended period of time.

So lets forget all our training and just run in?
A traffic vest is a big difference from an SCBA
You are correct we don't know what info they got. If it was off duty FF's we would be saying the exact same thing.
So lets get ride of all PPE and training.We could just risk it to save someone.
As a supervisor, I have a responsability to my personnel to send them home at the end of the shift (or call). If we can save someone after evaluating and minimizing the risks (thru PPE) then lets do it otherwise we are not providing a service to the community.
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why would the transport time matter if its going to bring the patient to the correct facility, when that said patient is stable. Yes when the patient is unstable and with out a good airway go to the closet place you can. And life net is also a good resource to close that time when available.
Be the patient, think if they were your mother or father or close loved one where would you want them to go when they are stable and able to make the trip... majority of our patients are stable enough to endure a 30 to 45 min transport time if it means they go to a cath lab or OR in minutes on arrival to said higher care facility.

Yes.
Volunteer departments should be making every effort to encourage their members to staff stations. I actually beat the career guys in our department first-due to a job the other night because we were doing a shift night. We have dinner as a group, run a couple quick drills, make sure the rigs are in order, maintain some tools, etc. Not only are you providing a more timely service to your first due area, you're building camaraderie and helping keep the station in order.
Not everyone can come in for cleanup night due to work schedules, etc. But maybe they can hang around the station for 4 hours to respond to whatever alarms come in. If your department uses a points system, X number of points every 4 hours for a staffed crew at the station. Helps the guys with odd schedules stay active in the department and keeps the rigs on the road. Obviously not everyone can do this due to work, family commitments, etc. But if we get 15% of the department to start staffing the trucks, are we not improving service?
I don't think we should be doing away with pagers, etc. But if we can encourage our membership to be in quarters to at least get a first ambulance/engine/rescue out the door within a few minutes, it only helps us. The guys at home can come get the next call or the second-out piece.

It took 6 minutes for an in-house crew to respond? I think I am confused on this part.

Right on, Bnechis! The alarm system is doing its job and efficiently transmitting a timely alarm. There should be no penalty for this alarm. It is no different tan a person smelling smoke and calling 911. The detector may have very well prevented a larger fire.
As for Mrs. Smith, I've had her pies and they aren't bad, but they do tend to spill over onto the cookie sheet and occasionally make enough smoke to set off detectors. If she activates her alarms over and over she need not be fined. The punishment should fit the crime. She should be sentenced to "Take Out" fdr 30 days on her first offense.

1st we need to define a false alarm. If Mrs. Smith is cooking and burns somehing, the smoke sets of the smoke detector. We made it law that she has a smoke detector and that it will trigger an alarm. If its connected to a central station (which is sometimes required) it will notify the FD.
As much as we may not like it, this is not a false alarm. It performed exactly as designed and required by code.
I agree that in some cases they should be fined, but if you fine them enough they may just disconnect them and that was never the goal. How can you force them to disconnect a fire alarm,when in many cases it is required by code.

Please DO NOT buy a 4 wheel drive unit. Your area is pretty flat, (hell, one area in Mamaroneck is called 'the flats!'), and your PD and FD have about, what, 6 4 WD SUV's you can use in the rare heavy snow incident that your DPW has not cleared. It will be $7000, plus way more wear on front end, brakes, tranny every time you start and stop. I know you do not pay for maintnence, but it will be your down time. If you can document 4 incidents of stuck ambulances in MEM's 40+ year Hx, I would be surprised. (Yea, I know it was MFD Rescue for some of those years.)
Are you allowed to count trade in $$$ from your old truck, or is the Amb Dist/Town laying claim to that money. You may get $10 to $20,000 trade value on your old unit.
You do NOT need a HUGE model. Don't get box envy with the neighbors. Better a real good small truck than a stripped big one. Small trucks= easier to train drivers, less intimidating to the soccer moms that squads should be courting= more drivers, fewer dings, smaller blind spots, shorter stopping distance.
Gas versus diesel, eh. Both have good and bad. Chevy VS Ford, same deal. All being =, go with the cheapest.
As for modifier, I don't think PL custombody can be beat in customer service. My vol squad (Somers) and the squad I work at a lot (Yorktown) has had good customer service, etc. BTW If Somers and Yorktown, in the NW Hills don't get 4WD, you don't need it either.
Bill (one of your medics, case you wern't sure)

As it should be!