RES20CUE

The 5th USS New York will be an awesome display of the United States Navy's powerful force.

When the keel was laid, thousands of Sailors from New York were invited to attend and take part in the ceremonies, I was invited, but unfortunitly was not able ot make the trip. Some of my counterparts went down and spoke about how intense this project is, not only to the shipyard workers, but to the US Navy and the survivors and family of the WTC attack, who were also on hand for the ceremonies.

All the steel could not be used, due to damage and the strength that is needed for the hull of the ship.

I will make whatever time is needed to be there for the commissioning ceremonies!

At the Bronx CPO's Mess we have a statue that was aboard the 4th USS New York (BB-24), ironically that ship's keel was laid down on 9-11-1911, we are considering donating to the Chief's Mess of the new USS New York.

Actually Unit 3173 is not the VA's rig at all, it's Magnolia Springs, Alabama's. Unit 3172 and 3173 will be almost identical.

The chasis are Ferrara's Intruder IIS model, but are built by Spartan for Ferrara.

Body construction should be starting soon, so they say!!

Somers VFD's 75th Anniversary Parade

is Saturday, May 20th, 2006.

Step-off is at 1700 hrs (5pm for those who don't use the 24-hr clock)

95 Departmants, Companies and VAC's invited, so far only 45 have replied. 30 attending!

Parade route will be along Route 116 (Purdys Rd) to Route 202/100 (Somerstown Turnpike) past the Elephant Hotel, and continue down Route 202 (Somers Rd) past the Somers (Hamlet) Fire House and reviewing stand, and end at the Somers Middle School.

Carnival will be set-up at the Peter J. Babich Memorial Fireman's Field across from Warren St on Route 202.

Collectables will be available for purchase.

The Raffle for the 2006 Hummer H3 will go off the same night. Tickets are available for $100.00 each (only 1000 tickets). The Hummer is currently in front of Somers Fire Headquarters in Lincolndale- drive by and take a look. Ask any Somers Member about tickets.

The Old "Quack Attack" (minus the skid package) is the current Utility 5.

I'm not from West Somers (I mean Yorktown), but yes the old L-51 is going to remain in Service as L-68.

Somers will hopefully be returning to a mid-mount stick in 2007-8.

Four hand lines in operation for 15 to 20 minutes before hydrant blew out and you think the next 20 minutes is when you lost the house? The house was long gone by then. If that fire was set, and you had four lines in operation and didn't get it out, then you had no chance of saving it either way. Sometimes they just go out when they burn out. It dosn't mean anybody did anything wrong it's just the way it is.

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No one said the 4 handlines were in operation for 15 to 20 minutes! We were on scene for about 15-20 minutes when the we lost the hydrant! 2 of the 4 handlines were just put into operation, 1 on an exposure and 1 to start knocking down the front. The 2nd line was the back-up for the 1st line thru the back door!

How about keeping the Monday morning Quarterbacking to the football that you watch!

Somers house destroyed in fire

By BRIAN J. HOWARD

THE JOURNAL NEWS

Thomas Maffucci is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the fire. Call state police at 914-277-3651.

(Original publication: February 6, 2006)

GRANITE SPRINGS — State Police are investigating the cause of a three-alarm fire that destroyed a house whose owners were away in Florida.

No one was home at 10:11 p.m. Saturday when a fire was reported at 2739 Hilltop Drive.

Somers Fire Chief Edwin Byrnes declined to comment on the cause but said a hydrant struck by a car two weeks ago ruptured from the water main, cutting off the water supply used to fight the fire and contributing to the extent of the damage.

The hydrant at Quaker Church and Granite Springs roads flooded the lawn and basement of a nearby home and cost firefighters time while another hydrant 1,800 feet away was tapped.

"It was very frustrating," Byrnes said.

"We had a great attack going at the time. Without a doubt, we could have saved more of that house."

He didn't know if the hydrant was inspected after the accident.

The owner's son, Thomas Maffucci of Mahopac, said investigators told him a K9 dog detected traces of an accelerant that might have been used to start the fire.

Maffucci said he had not gotten any threats and couldn't think of anyone who would want to do something like this to his family.

The owner of Stardust Limousine, Maffucci said he had a dispute with a customer a few months ago over an unpaid bill, but after speaking with police, he decided not to pursue the matter.

His business has offices in Mahopac, but his parents' home is its listed address. He said he often parks his vehicles there.

The 30-year-old house was reduced to charred timbers yesterday.

A limousine was among three cars in the driveway.

Maffucci praised firefighters' efforts but was angry there wasn't water available to fight the fire.

"I tell you by the time I got here it looked savable," Maffucci said. "The (fire) trucks were here, but no water."

He also said he feared for himself and his family because of the possibility his parents' home was targeted. His parents, Thomas and Mary Ann Maffucci, are both in their 60s. They left for Florida in November and will return today.

Maffucci's girlfriend, Dorothy McGuire of Brewster, said she and Maffucci had just checked on the house Friday.

Cathy Cousin, who lives across the street, echoed Maffucci's frustration.

"We don't have enough hydrants," Cousin said. "Something has got to be done."

Doris Fisher and her husband watched firefighters battle the blaze from a neighbor's lawn until 2 a.m., fearful the fire might spread to their home next door.

"The wind kept shifting, and sometimes the sparks would land on our roof or on that house," she said, gesturing to the next house.

More than 100 firefighters from Somers, Yorktown and Croton Falls responded. A partial roof collapse forced firefighters to evacuate at one point.

Two suffered minor injuries. Firefighters were on the scene until after 5 a.m. yesterday.

Check-out the link below for the Journal News, and scroll down to "Multimedia" and click on Somers House Fire for a pretty cool slideshow with radio transmissions by Frank Bacerra.

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Here's the link righ to the slideshow- http://www.thejournalnews.com/legacy/slideshow/020606a/

2 FF injuries- 1 leg injury, occurred while trying to evacuate from roof collapse, 1 chest injury occurred when hydrant blew out of the ground! FF w/leg injury was transported to NWHC, where he was treated and released, FF w/ chest injury was treated at scene and released.

Water supply lost within first 15-20 minutes of operation (already had 4 hand lines in operation) Hydrant blew right of the ground, causing major flooding (YHFD had to pump out basement of residence where hydrant was located. Reports indicating that hydrant was struck by a car 2 weeks ago-- investigation continuing!!

2 hydrant was 1800' away, and needed addittional units to complete lay to reestablish water supply. House was lost during the 20-25 minutes it took to lay the addittional hose.

Fine job by all, unfortunitly, that hydrant mishap sent this incident into the crapper!

I'm still trying to figure out how Engine 139 is still designated an Engine? If the current vehicle has only a 400 GPM pump and the new one will only have a 500 GPM pump, according to NFPA and the WC desigation definitions, then it should be a Mini-Attack not an Engine!

Read the 1st post-

May 20, 2006

We have already received 20 replies from Companies attending! For those of you that have not sent in replies- get 'em in- placement is based on the postmark of your reply, and there were 95 invitations sent out!

It is with deep regret that the Somers Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. announces the passing of

Ex-Chief George Gordon "Gordy" Mason

Chief Mason answered his final alarm on Friday, January 20, 2006.

"Gordy" served as our 16th Chief of Department, from 1963-1965.

Department services will be held on Tuesday, January 24, 2006 at 1930 hours at the Beecher Funeral Home, 1 Putnam Avenue, Brewster, NY.

WE MOURN OUR LOSS

I went to the County a few months ago and asked for a list of classes took, in other words a transcript of classes and was told there is no such thing as this. They said that i should go to the State and get it that they keep those records. Well when i called the State they said they have not recivied any of my County training for the last two years only thing on the state transcript is the 3 classes i took at camp smith. The state has not recived any thing from westchester. So I hope you have better luck then I.

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I don't believe that you received the right information, there is always the possibility that you spoke to someone "not in the know".

Up until 2005, NYS OFPC used to send a printed copy of all FF listed under a certain FDID to that Dept. In 2005, they changed that and sent a CD to the Counties listing all. You can get this from the County FTC, as Shantz stated, you will need to provide the last 4 of your SSN.

Somers currently has 1 Reserve Engine (E-186), it is fully equipped with the exception of defibrillator, TIC and Gas Detector.

Whenever a front line Engine goes OOS for more than a day those 3 items are moved over to E-186 to run front line.

Being fully eqipped, it also can run as 2nd Due out of Somers House, where it is housed.

It still gets a considerable amount of work!

My hard copy came on Monday, I was left off of the e-mail, so the County thought they had notified everyone!

Count 2 in from the VA for this class!

I can assure you that all career dept's have NOT been notified of this class as of 1/5. I have not checked the mail today!

SOMERS= 1729. Will provide a break-down shortly. Up 225 calls from 2004.

Ladder 48 will not be a 75' Quint, it will be a 100' Staight Stick.

It will go into commitee for specs after the replacement for MA-14 and Eng 188 are completed this year (2006), L-48 should go into committee in 2007.

Plans right now are for it to be assigned to Granite Springs and L-18 to be re-assigned to Somers.

From the IA-

Katonah T-6 was not called. R-18 is Croton (LMFD does not have a Rescue)

Tanker shuttle was

T-10, T-11, T-14, T-15, T-16, E-188

Back to the "70th Anniversary Series" and not all the other Seagrave's out there-

It is my understanding that a die-cast model company is finally going to produce Somers Engine 182!

They came and took over 200 pictures of her back in 2004 for the mold, and fortunitly I have an original Seagrave blue-print drawing of her and her 2 sisters, which also became very valuable in the design phase.

I'm not spilling any more beans then that, but it should be released during 2006, for our 75th Anniversary, although probally not in time for our parade in May, but at least by the end of the year!!

You hit on the head DOC!

I called in the M/A right away due to all of the "key indicators" while enroute and my mental size-up.

The location is in a non-hydrant area, with very old tight streets and only 1 dry hydrant in the area, about 3/4 mile away (hopefully it would have worked).

The initial dispatch was for the house next to #75.

60-Control got on the air and stated that they were receiving numerous cellular calls, as well as Somers Dispatch stating the same.

The roads were already icing (I slid through 3 intersections enroute) the quicker the help could arrive the quicker and safer the operation would have went.

We all thought that we were going to see a big glow in the sky, but fortunitly for all involved, the fire was small and k/d on arrival. I think we all were shocked when E-188 reported on scene, nothing showing and investigating.

If it happened again, I would do the same thing. I usually don't jump the gun, and wait for a verification report, but it's cold out and I'd rather send the help home, with a quick number than sit there waiting and watching the house burn down.

Actually there were 2 FMOS patients.

I believe that VA Car 2573 was there (maybe doubling as a Buchanan Ex-Chief)!

MA-28 carries LUKAS hydraulic rescue tools.

Rescue 48 has been reserved for the VA, things are in the works for redesignation. More equipment will be needed before the Rescue designation will be implemented.

There are currently (2) Ferrara Intruder II-S pumpers on order to replace the current Engine 225 in Montrose and the current 91-11 in Castle Point. The Intruder II-S chassis is essentially the Spartan Advantage chassis. They will have 1500 GPM Waterous pumps with 1000 Gallon booster tanks.

The Montrose VA FD used to operate 2 engines from 1986 until 1998, when MA-28 was delivered and replaced Engine 224 (1970 International/FTI).

Long before HazMat 3 there was also a Utility vehicle (a S-10 pick-up with utility body and a "covered wagon" rear) that was used as the HazMat and Confined Space Rescue Vehicle.

Don't expect a quint anytime in the near future- it was hard enough getting funding for a regular Class A pumper.