AFS1970

Wow, several things to think about here.

First and formost, this was a tragedy, which was all too sadly avoidable. But it would be just as much of a tragedy if he had been hit from behind by anyone, regardless of service affiliation. I think the news was only interested in this because there were two members of emergency services involved, and they thought they could play the fued angle. We must not rise to this temtation.

Second, I do not know the agency organization in question, but it seems to me we keep hearing about this Volunteer Firefighter who displayed lights sometimes used by volunteer firefighters who was a member of a RESCUE SQUAD? I know in New Jersey, Rescue Squads are EMS companies. Was this guy even a Firefighter at all?

Third of all, volunteers have to stop thinking of these lights as courtesy lights. This may all be semantics, but nowhere in any law I've read does it call these lights courtesy lights. By training ourselves to not respect these warning devices, we risk training the public to ignore them entirely.

At least in Connecticut, what makes a vehicle an emergency vehicle is the use of a siren with lights, not the color or number of lights. While lights only does not grant any special rights to break traffic laws, the use of lights is meant as a warning to motorists that one is responding to an emergency, or may be stopping suddenly at an emergency, or that there may be people walking around a stopped vehicle. We are not responding to courtesies, we are responding to emergenccies.

Along with this, of course is the need to understand that lights alone do not grant special rights. Oddly enough I have found no prepackaged safety training avalible for home response. Departments are left up to their own devices to train members. Although I doubt all the training in the world, would prevent someone intent on breaking the law from doing so.

I have known of two incidents which were likely misuse of warning lights in my town, one while I was responding in apparatus, one that was called in over the radio while I was working as a dispatcher. I'm sure there have been more. BUt at least in my experience, I know several people that have lights and are almost affraid to use them unless it is a major incident. I have to think that most volunteers are capable of sound judgement in these matters.

I had forgotten about the Black roof on R77. And I didn't know about the old Glenbrook & other Long Ridge rigs. So I stand corrected. I'm not sure that the old E5 can be considered anything over anything, since it was almost a stripe patern of red and white, a strange but interesting looking design, to say the least.

Tower Ladder 45 is down at Interstate Trucks in Hagerstown, MD getting some repair work / upgrading done. So for the time being we are an Engine / Rescue house. The work isn't expected to take long, however.

I know Paul Conway makes Boston style shields including inserts for the New York Shield with the Boston style numbers. We had an ex-member who wore one like that. But then again I wanted to spec our new gear out with the BFD (F & D inside the holes of the logo on the back like Boston wears, but no one else liked the idea.

Of course there is a slight bad side to Amber lights. I agree that Amber is easier to distinguish from Red break lights on a car, but I think that the driving public is desensitized to Amber lights of any kind, because they are the catch all lights for anyone who wants/needs them. With Public Works, Tow Trucks, Snow Plows and even Mail Carriers using them, I am not sure the public really gets the idea that they are passing an emergency scene and should use caution around vehicles and responders. I think Blue or even Green is a better color choice, because it will still not be Red but also will not be confused with various non Emergency Vehicles.

A couple of thoughts on the Paid / Volunteer aspect of that article......

First of all, I think the phrase "On Duty" applies to all of us while responding to a call, regardless of payroll status. No matter what your opinion about pre-response activities, I think we should all agree that one is on duty while responding to and working at any incident..

Second, finally a news article that just talks about a Firefighter, not a Volunteer or Career Firefighter. Too bad it is a negative story. I have found that the positive stories often don't mention volunterism and the negative stories usually feature the word Volunteer prominantly. I'm glad to see news coverage that calls us what we are, Firefighters.

Probably dating myself here, but I remember Dark Green/Light Green Stamford Police Cars & Dark Green/White Stamford Auxiliary Police Cars. Of course back then Turn of River had all Red apparatus.

An interesting trivia not is that I believe the old E62 was the First White over Red rig in Stamford, and the new E62 is the first Black over Red rig here. The berst part about it is that the Boars Head boys have to stop with the Good Humor jokes now.

One Minor Correction, the Spartan/General that is assigned to E2 in Stamford is lettered as E12, which it will be when the new E2 comes in. E11 is I think the unnumbered Reserve used at the Training Academy, this is a white over red Mack CF that previously served as E5 and E1.

I was surprized to see the General yesterday in service as E2, as I had heard that it would not return after being damaged in a colision. I guess that rumor was wrong.

I read a mystery a few years ago that took place on Amtrak trains, I think it was called Foamers. The book had an escape by the hero, that utilized that old tunnel. I never thought about there being a train car still there, I would have thought it kept elsewhere then brought to the hotel as needed. Then again there are lots of historical mysteries under NYC.

I like to think that our website is worth visiting. The webmaster is constantly changing or updating stuff. There should be more pictures added soon, as the gallery is being redone.

Belltown FD Website

On the subject of using different sirens.

When I joined, one of the guys who trained me in a lot of stuff was a self confessed Siren Buff. He actually taught me some good things about sirens, most of which I still use, most of which are probably very annoying. All our rigs have Electronic Sirens, Mechanical Q's and Airhorns. I was taught to use them in levels.

I was taught never to use the Mechanical going to a Medical, only to Fire calls. Airhorns were for added noise at intersections or heavy traffic. When two Sirens were used they should be on different sounds, since the Q only has one, the electronic must have a sound that doesn't mesh with the Q. I have since adapted the no Q on medicals to use the Q as another level if traffic seems heavy.

I have no idea if there was ever anything scietific behind these rules, but I bet they were passed down from senior guy to probie more than once. I can't say I use them exclusively, but they do seem to work, when approaching non yielding traffic being able to add another layer onto the audible warning moves people over a fair amount of the time.

Westport is a combination Department, I do not know how active the volunteer side is. I know they run 2 man engines (I think 5 but I'm not sure). A Truck & Rescue share a 2 man crew, there is also a Command Officer and his Driver. I know there are Career Line Officers but I'm not aware of how many or where they are stationed. Wish I could give you more stats but that's all I can remember, some of which may have changed.

Before anyone gets offended, sorry for mixing up my lakes. I meand Mohegan and not Carmel. But I also misread Izzy and thought he was from Lake Mohegan. Thats what I get for posting when I'm tired.

Either way I have to work that day, and we have a big Softball game the next day, so it is unlikely that I will make the muster.

Years ago, I saw an article, I can't remember where, that addressed the number of colors displayed, but not the number of actual lights. The interesting thing is that it kind of said the same thing as the Red + Amber theory, in that this article said that a combination of ANY two colors was seen further away than any single color since the human mind processed the changing colors faster. Now this article was before LED's by a long shot, and before strobes were small enough to be popular in POV's, so the info might be a bit dated. I just thought it was an interesting factor to consider.

We have the flyer posted in our station, so I know it is on. Great to see someone from Lake Carmel, for a number of years the Belltown team was right up there on the hill next to you. There is some talk of us sending a team again, but I doubt it will happen this year. I personally don't go anymore, and I don't think we'll ever return to the hill.

Quiet cars are one of the reasons we went from that old single "gum ball" rotary to lightbars and corner strobes and grille lights, ect. We had to become more visible, since we were being made less audible.

I will add that I don't believe for a moment that any of that is an excuse. Yesterday I was going to an MVA, I was riding as the Rescue Officer, There was a Police Car moving in front of us (that's a whole other issue) but it meant that oncomming traffic had to know we were comming. I had the electronic & mechanical sirens going and was using the airhorns, yet still somone comming towards me felt they were ok making a left turn into a side street, across our lane on our side of the street. Judging by their speed taking that turn, I can't believe that they didn't see or hear us.

And of course from a patch collector standpoint I think New York may have more rockers than anywhere else, most of which I've seen in blue only.

Sounds to me like this was all political.

However the 10-code vs. plain language debate has recently come to the forefront nationally. I know at work we all got a memo with an attached article stating that FEMA wanted police departments to stop using codes. Stamford PD adopted this as policy, although there are many slips from people that still use codes (both our older 10 codes and our newer NIBRS codes). What was interesting is that there was an article I saw on a firefighting news site a short while later where FEMA told a group of Police Chiefs that it was ok to use codes because the security concerns outweighed the interoperability issues. Oddly enough we didn't all get that article in our mailboxes.

Now Police and Fire are different agencies all together but lets remember that codes were introduced to free up the air, and keep secrets. In this day and age of higher call volume and homeland security, both of these are still valis reasons to use codes. Either way, a simple mistake was probably not grounds for suspension of any kind, let alone one so long in duration.

I guess this is the best place for my first post.

I'm Alan, 2nd Captain with the Belltown VFD in Stamford (CT). Been a Volunteer for almost 10 years. Been Certified as an EMT for 11 years. For full time work I'm a Public Safety Dispatcher for Stamford's Emergency Communication Center, been at that just over 17 years. I've been an Advisor with our city's Explorer Post for about 12 years. As if all that wasn't buffy enough, 4 years ago I started working part time as an Armed Security Officer. And just like most of the folks in my generation, I grew up watching Jonny & Roy, which probably had alot to do with all this.