AFS1970

Coming in late to this, but I always thought that the difference (other than a branding difference) was that a ladder tower had a fully useable ladder with a bucket on the end. A Tower Ladder only had the escape ladder that is only used in the rare case where you can't get the bucket lowered and the emergency hydraulics are not working. I am not even sure if this has ever happened.
As for the county only recognizing ladder and tower ladder, isn't that a bit like saying we will consider all engines as hose wagons, we don't care if they have pumps or not? A telesquirt is most definitely a type of engine but a snorkel is it's own thing with some unique features that might be nice to know about, instead of having to remember which number truck is a snorkel.

This case will get interesting, especially since there is no age limit. I am not familiar with NY but is there a mandatory retirement age there? I know we do not have one in CT.
One area where I think the commission may have a problem is that they advised the guy to join the VFD and get certified, then passed him over. So in essence they have a candidate that passed the test, who they then trained, certified and put to work for no money and now say that he isn't a good choice to hire. That seems like somewhat faulty logic to me.
I had to laugh at the commissioner who thought he was just in it for the payday. Since this is an employment case, then yes that would have been the original goal. Everyone who applies for any job anywhere is looking for a payday, just a weekly one. Although the idea that the reason for not hiring him was a bad attitude that is shown by the fact that he sued after they did not hire him, seems odd. How did she know about this attitude if it is only demonstrated after he was turned down?

Ladder towers were used in medieval time to attack castles. Archers would shoot at the castle defender from the top. Game of Throwns starts soon. Tower Ladders are the safest type of ariels in the fire service. Rearmount ladders are unpredictable and have been known to hit firefighters in the head while operating at fires.

Felony convictions do not bar employment, as per the Civil Service announcement for Firefighter in the City of MV. Having no standards allows for a larger pool of applicants, along with a larger number of questionable events they will be involved in.

Maybe its just me, but I'm much more concerned that there are towns that have 9 Chiefs cars in service but only 5 Engines than I am with a PRIVATE company buying a large military tow rig.
Last I checked the owner of a private company can spend his money as he pleases. This being America and all.

Yep..and they're the only real winners here

I'm not PC nor am I religious. But the words "separation of church and state" can be found nowhere in the Constitution. The First Amendment was intended to keep government out of religion, not religion out of government. Jefferson, Madison, Fanklin, et. al. would be horrified to see how today's radical atheists, along with legislating judges; have subverted the meaning of the First Amendment.
They say that there are no atheists in foxholes. Emergency responders are constantly in "foxholes."

The need for the new station in Greenwich is not a new one. It has been around for years. At one point it was being called the Proposed King Street station because of the most likely location for any new station. However the lack of approval has spanned across many town and fire department administrations. I personally think that to some extent in our county, Greenwich is the low hanging fruit for the news media. You don't hear much about Westport FD, which has some nominal volunteers, 2 man career staffing and may still have a ladder and rescue that share a 2 man crew. Westport is also a "wealthy" town, although maybe not as full of celebrities as Greenwich.
Resource management is probably the most important aspect of any department, especially when manpower is perceived to be short. However in New England, station locations are generally not in locations that make sense to the current community growth. Sometimes they are located based on a small district within a town, sometimes it was where land was available or appropriate. I am not sure that building stations is always the answer, but one has to look not only at fire potential but also call volume. Yes, lots of big houses in Greenwich. How many have burned to the ground in recent years? What is being done to cover the areas currently? I know there is a large section of Greenwich that is partially covered by Banksville, NY. Just like we have areas in Stamford that are dual responses with both Banksville and Greenwich. I don't want to totally depend on mutual aid, but it is a factor in resource management.
Glad to see the other articles posted, as from what I got in this thread the main complaint was posting only a single article. As for how biased that is, well remember that the President of CBS has been quoted as saying there is no more unbiased news coverage. Like it or not the newspapers are going to take a side and that will extend into every article they write, not just their editorials.

Did they?? Since the application was made in 2013 one could argue that technically the "old" system was still in place since the Charter change was being challenged in court and had not yet been deemed legal by the judge. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

What is the evidence?
If that is true, that means a fire department is committing a federal felony. Statements like that need to be backed up

I believe that despite IFSTA making Spanish language textbooks that NFPA 1001 requires the ability to speak and read English.
A few years ago at a VFD conference on a cruise ship (yes it is a fun way to accomplish training) we got a tour of the fire protection systems by the ship's safety officer. He was Italian and said that since his fire crew was made up of employees from other sections of the ship that respond when needed, he had 56 different languages spoken by members of his team. Because of this English was the only common language and as such operations were in English. This meant that speaking English was a requirement to be on the fire control team. I found it interesting that in an international setting, he was far less hung up about English that we seem to be in an English speaking country.

I believe that despite IFSTA making Spanish language textbooks that NFPA 1001 requires the ability to speak and read English.
A few years ago at a VFD conference on a cruise ship (yes it is a fun way to accomplish training) we got a tour of the fire protection systems by the ship's safety officer. He was Italian and said that since his fire crew was made up of employees from other sections of the ship that respond when needed, he had 56 different languages spoken by members of his team. Because of this English was the only common language and as such operations were in English. This meant that speaking English was a requirement to be on the fire control team. I found it interesting that in an international setting, he was far less hung up about English that we seem to be in an English speaking country.

I believe that despite IFSTA making Spanish language textbooks that NFPA 1001 requires the ability to speak and read English.
A few years ago at a VFD conference on a cruise ship (yes it is a fun way to accomplish training) we got a tour of the fire protection systems by the ship's safety officer. He was Italian and said that since his fire crew was made up of employees from other sections of the ship that respond when needed, he had 56 different languages spoken by members of his team. Because of this English was the only common language and as such operations were in English. This meant that speaking English was a requirement to be on the fire control team. I found it interesting that in an international setting, he was far less hung up about English that we seem to be in an English speaking country.

I believe that despite IFSTA making Spanish language textbooks that NFPA 1001 requires the ability to speak and read English.
A few years ago at a VFD conference on a cruise ship (yes it is a fun way to accomplish training) we got a tour of the fire protection systems by the ship's safety officer. He was Italian and said that since his fire crew was made up of employees from other sections of the ship that respond when needed, he had 56 different languages spoken by members of his team. Because of this English was the only common language and as such operations were in English. This meant that speaking English was a requirement to be on the fire control team. I found it interesting that in an international setting, he was far less hung up about English that we seem to be in an English speaking country.

Next up - Person gets suspended for showing up after a fire is out and eating a sandwich made for the crews that battled the fire and is now suing for $50 million

I'm not really looking to have a discussion but if one insues, so be it. I have noticed in a few threads recently that some people aren't able to take criticism or jest very well anymore. I would like to take this opportunity to bring back an acronym that was used by many on this site. Q.T.I.P. Quit taking it personal. Guess what kids, this is the emergency service. You are posting on a forum that is dedicated to us. If you say something out of line or just plain stupid, you will get your various parts busted. That's just how it works. Thanks for your time guys and gals. As always, stay safe.
Wisker
P.s. If you are going to be a keyboard tough guy, sign your name.

Even if it wasn't an inaccurate replica, it clearly says New York on it. I was always under the impression that in order to be guilty of impersonation you not only had to represent yourself that way but also that a reasonable person would believe you to be what you say. So if he drove that around NYC, it would be a different matter, but really does anyone in England think that looks like a police car at all? If has no lime yellow stripes or checkerboards. The lights are red not blue. The patch has no crown on it. Who would honestly think it was a real police car?

Congrats.

Policies? Wow, if only more departments actually wrote those pesky things. I figured there was a policy to send someone with mutual aid and knew it wasn't "self-dispatching". Calling it self-dispatching was a very poor choice of words. Unless there is a policy or discussion with the requesting agency, sending more or less than is asked for undermines the entire operation. Time that nonsense stopped!
If people actually stopped commenting when someone answered the question properly on this site, there'd be half as many posts. But hey, we know what a department in Maryland does and what someone in Stamford thinks. Why listen to the YFD guy?

And you wonder why you can't get people to volunteer. Its BS like that.

One of my favorite Christmas quotes

Merry Christmas to all!

I guest FASNY didn't donate enough to the campaign.

I guest FASNY didn't donate enough to the campaign.

Yay big government! Maybe they can outlaw the sun next.

According to a good source, WCPD aviation has placed an order for Airwolf.