velcroMedic1987

I don't know about any medic. Many medics, absolutely. Chest thumping aside, I wouldn't hold my breath on the 5 year card any time soon as we're reviewing substantial changes to the program. Turns out there's a big difference between training and doing. In my opinion a smaller agency with more oversight would be better suited for the 5 year recert. There's just too many differences in experience amongst the 5 boroughs. An overnight unit is Staten Island just isn't staying as sharp as an evening crew in East New York or the South Bronx. The details aren't final, but we're probably going to a 3 year challenge refresher. I still think 5 years is better with the annual core concepts training and then a challenge refresher, but the system is so large they can't do anything simply.
Quick addition, Its more than just treating patients. Its about actually using the skills. There are some Manhattan units that are through the roof in call volume but in the basement with the more intensive ALS interventions. Treating 100 sick calls isn't the same as running 10 "mega codes". That is not to dismiss those 100 patient contacts. assessment is an invaluable skill that needs patients to develop, but at some point you need to use your skills and protocols or you lose them. In the Bronx I was doing Asthmatics so frequently we set up a little asthma kit with all of our drugs all ready in it. Now, in Manhattan I had to pause for a second trying to remember how much Mag Sulfate to give. It's been over a year since the last time I'd given it. In exchange for my Asthma/APE experience, now my knowledge of recreational pharmaceuticals and psychology has grown exponentially.

While I may not have several thousand posts or hundreds of popularity points, I've been around this place long enough to know that had this been a FF under that bus this incident would be a non issue. Being that it was a PO cast in a positive light by the media, his actions are scrutinized and criticized by the "brothers" on here.
There is an inherent disdain for cops on this site, especially when it comes to them performing any sort of rescue work. It is plainly obvious to see. How come there is zero criticism on the part of FD using spreaders to lift the bus? Wasn't too long ago when ESU was crucified by many on here for attempting and failing a lift with spreaders. Granted these guys used cribbing and took their time but nonetheless the majority on here condemned that technique as a whole... When cops were doing it.
With that being said, good job to the PO who put himself in harms way to comfort a fellow human being and FD for safely extricating the victim. Hopefully she makes a full recovery.

Sometimes, and it may just be once in a career, emergency workers are confronted with a situation that isn't "in the book" so they can't "go by the book". Officer Peck wasn't under the bus as a "rescue technician", he was under the bus as a HUMAN BEING giving comfort and support to another injured and frightened woman.
When the crane toppled and pinned Bridget Gurney in NYC, there was a monster response and the FD/PD/MD did the same thing Officer Peck did. They put their lives at risk to save her. If I recall correctly there were no guarantees that they wouldn't be killed or injured in a secondary collapse. We've all heard stories like it and it is one of the most compelling characteristics about our profession. In the face of obvious, and sometimes not so obvious, danger, we do something compassionate and caring for a total stranger.
Hopefully the first arriving rescue units insured that the bus was off, in park, wheels chocked and placed cribbing to protect them both.
I don't commend Officer Peck as a rescue technician and I'm glad the FD arrived promptly to extricate the victim; I commend him for doing something selfless and compassionate. We're reminded daily of all the negative things people in our profession do. This is a nice reminder about the positive things.

Based on your statement you clearly do not understand the job.
You need to go back and relearn the basics.
If a member gets hurt the job stops and all efforts tend to be refocust on the injured rescuer and the original patient suffers.

The officer made a decision to put the victims life first...his second. You can tear apart his decision all you want but at the end of the day it was his decision and a heroic on at that. His actions resulted in a positive outcome. I believe anyone of us would have done the same thing and I am sure his actions will leave a lasting impression on the victim.

I must agree with Bull. Personalizing a situation and as simple as what the officer did was probbly the best thing that could of been done. This allowed trained rescuers to focus on the task in hand without the screaming and hurry up factor, which can become very stressfull to some. Tactics, I am notgoing to comment on, because I do not agree with what was done. NYPD was destroyed and are still being destroyed for the incident that occurred there. Airbags or simple bottle jacks are the prefered method for such a lift. It is sad to see the deterioration of law enforcement participation on this site and everyone seems to put there head in the sand when it is brought up. Looking back years ago you could be in Japan and log onto this site and know what is happening in the area. We rarely see anything out of Yonkers or Mount Vernon anymore and you know there are jobs because they are on news 12 and lohud every day. I hope all our brothers and everyone stays safe this holiday season.

Date: 10/31/11
Time: 2345
Location: Palisade Avenue between Walsh Road and Ashburton Avenue
Frequency: YPD
Units Operating: 4th Precinct Patrol, 3rd Precinct Patrol, Housing Patrol and Street Crime, Detectives, ESU, Duty Captain, Empress EMS and Westchester County Aviation
Weather Conditions: clear
Description Of Incident: Person shot. Housing units must have heard the shooting because they put it over the air and were immediately in a foot pursuit of the suspects. Units advising to check aqueduct for additional suspects. Two suspects apprehended and firearm recovered. Victim transported to Jacobi by Empress. Suspects positively ID'd by witness. Crime scene established on Palisade Avenue. Shell casings recovered.
Reporters: VelcroMedic1987
Writer: VelcroMedic1987

Date: 10/31/11
Time: 2345
Location: Palisade Avenue between Walsh Road and Ashburton Avenue
Frequency: YPD
Units Operating: 4th Precinct Patrol, 3rd Precinct Patrol, Housing Patrol and Street Crime, Detectives, ESU, Duty Captain, Empress EMS and Westchester County Aviation
Weather Conditions: clear
Description Of Incident: Person shot. Housing units must have heard the shooting because they put it over the air and were immediately in a foot pursuit of the suspects. Units advising to check aqueduct for additional suspects. Two suspects apprehended and firearm recovered. Victim transported to Jacobi by Empress. Suspects positively ID'd by witness. Crime scene established on Palisade Avenue. Shell casings recovered.
Reporters: VelcroMedic1987
Writer: VelcroMedic1987

That was sarcasm, boys. Sarcasm. That terminal is a joke. With the number of people they're moving through it it should be double or triple the size. Stop bowing to the anti-airport morons who keep complaining and make it what it should be. A real airport.
I've flown out of Westchester a number of times but will choose Stewart and even Newark over Westchester every time.

Date: 07/25/11
Time: 0055
Location: Graham Windam School, 1 South Broadway, Hastings
Frequency: multiple
Units Operating:
Hastings PD - all working units plus recall
Yonkers PD - Patrol (1st, 2nd, 4th Precincts), ESU (all working trucks plus recall), K-9, Duty Lt., Duty Captain
Greenburgh PD - Patrol, SWAT
Westchester County PD - Patrol, SWAT, Aviation
Weather Conditions: humid
Description Of Incident: Initially reported as an active shooter, units responded to find that a youth was on the campus with a firearm. Aviation and SWAT maintaining perimeter and conducting search with K-9. Suspect eventually apprehended after ESU/SWAT conducted buldiing search. Evidence search underway for weapon.
No reported injuries.
Reporters:
Writer:velcroMedic1987

Lohud article on Indian Point relicensing
So instead of Indian Point we should buy our electricity from Canada? Where's the logic in that.

Lohud article on Indian Point relicensing
So instead of Indian Point we should buy our electricity from Canada? Where's the logic in that.

I have no idea if Greenburgh does or doesnt need a new PD. But to suggest a police and fire training center theres already one less than 5 miles away. Building another is a stupid duplication just to keep another fiefdom.

Just a question on your post Seth. If Heritage Hills were to contract out with someone, does that mean the district would pay for it? Or would they reduce the residents taxes to cover the contract costs in lieu of forking over some tax revenue? Not a bad idea...but also if its in your district it is what it is and that's where I agree that paid coverage supplmented by volunteers is the answer.
How many calls a year are out of heritage hill?

At least from what I've witnessed, a fire call will most always trump a EMS call.

That ship sailed long ago. Both offered to pay for ALS for the town (way back when) and the SFD turned them down because "Our residents dont want paramedics when they are having a heart attack, they want a friendly volunteer from up the block to hold there hand".
And both already pay fire tax which supports the current system.

Not to sound like a know-it-all, but a simple question: Why did that rig even leave the street?
When you go to a fire that is burning a field, or any fire that doesn't have an immediate exposure, and life is not in danger, quite often, we bring the highest dollar exposures, and park them in harms way, then put a bunch of life hazards(our people) into the mix. Don't get me wrong, not trying to criticize, and I know it is only a small snapshot into what is happening there, but it puzzles me.
From what I can see, it looks like it was a field. If there is no humans, animals, or buildings/equipment in the way, how big a deal is it really? Keep the rig (which in this case appears to have been two wheel drive?) on the pavement, and stretch a line or two to it. After the spring we have had, it's surprising the truck isn't sunk in the mud anyway. If there was a building involved, I would think it is connected to the road by a driveway.
To me, seeing a burned up pumper in the middle of a burned field, with no hose stretched, just doesn't make sense.

Seth,
Bell doesn't really make a decent, tested EMS airframe right now. The 407 is nice, but its little. The 429 is brand new and there's only one flying EMS in the states right now that I know of.
Augusta Westland is a European Company. They also make the previously mentioned NYPD a/c and a few other platforms. Life Flight of Maine flies two of them.
I am not sure why MSP went with something SO big, other than they could. I used to hang out with some of their guys at conferences and they were insistent that they had to have something bigger than the Dauphin. Everybody else in the country does EMS and police work in small machines like Westchester's 407 (which I think is a little too small for EMS) and Life Net's A-Stars (also too small) or medium machines like Life Net's EC135s. NJSP uses the S-76.
As a comparison, the AW 139 is rated for 15, count em 15 passengers, while the Bell 407 can carry 6. The Bell's rotor diameter is 35 feet, the AW 139 is 45. BIG difference in helicopters.
Hey, good on 'em, but to me its overspending taxpayers dollars.

This is a great topic and something I talk about all the time. As an EMT for 21 years, 9 of which as an EMT-I, I have seen such a decline in the quality of new EMTs. I am not sure if it is do to poor instruction, and people being "pushed through" the class, or it is Medic "dependency" (or a combination). I have always told my members that the best way to learn is by doing - the more calls you do, the better you will become. I have heard EMTs waiting on scene for the Medic to show-up - I always say, do what you have been taught and trained to do.
I admit, when the Medic system first came in to our Town, I had a difficult time with it. I went from running calls to driving the fly car. It was very frustrating to get up in the middle of the night, go to a call and either just stand there while the Medic "did his/her thing" and not say a word or give you any info, except for "can you find a garbage can for this stuff" and "who's driving my car". Things have improved greatly; I guess it just took time for them to realize the capabilities of the EMTs and for me to not be intimidated by them and be able to work with them.
Our Corps has abolished the CME program for recertification. We encourage people to take classes, attend lectures, get any further education you can. But when it comes to the basics, everyone should go through the skills and sit for the exam. If you can't do that, then you have no business being an EMT.

Money is always an issue for most fire departments and I certainly agree that you could do great things with 8-10,000 dollars. Really, that cost shouldn't eat into your budget, you just have to put it in as a new line for the bean counters. Accountability is essential to the smooth operation of any organization. Every company from a Fortune 500 to the smallest business is audited annually. It's a component of being professional and organized.

Perhaps there are two questions here. Should a line officer of an EMS organization have medical training? Yes, they should. Should agencies mandate that their officers be medically trained? I think the answer to that is No.
If faced with the choice between a good EMT who is a poor manager and a good manager who was not an EMT, I think I would choose the better manager. It is an option that should be left available to organizations and judged on a case by case basis..... a.k.a. an election. If individuals feel it is that important, they can vote that way, but agencies should not preclude the option by fiat.

When the numbers are broken down, it really looks terrible. Summed up, the FDNY protects 8x the population with 40% of the equipment. You can't get into a literal comparison, because it's apples and oranges, but those numbers certainly call for some sort of review. Response times don't HAVE to suffer either. You don't have to close down each firehouse, but you could reduce the equipment compliment by consolidation. Perhaps rescue companies could be made up of some sort of task force between multiple agencies. Maybe each dept. doesn't need to have a Rear-mount AND a platform. Two neighboring departments could make use of one each and have dual responses.
There are many ways to reduce an AMAZING redundancy of apparatus without hindering response times or levels of service.
8, 10, 15+ million dollar firehouses are a completely different story. I think a departments quarters should be nice and offer some comforts and maybe a luxury or two to entice guys to spend more time there. Thats fine. However, when I go to work in a 100+ year old firehouse that is LITERALLY crumbling, it makes you scratch your head at some of these palaces being built. Somehow 50 people (11 at a time) manage to work, eat, train and respond to many thousands of alarms each year out of this small and well worn firehouse. Plenty of volunteer organizations do quite well with comfortable and conservative quarters. If your willingness to participate hangs on how nice your firehouse is, you need to reevaluate your priorities.

The county and other places has spent oodles of grant money on equipment and toys and big vehicles that they can't staff.
And because they cant staff them they dont like to talk about them. Youd think theyd be out there parading these resources around but because they have no plan to staff them and deploy them when they're needed its embarrassing to them.
And because the four cities that account for most of the population dont need a lot of help and try to hold the county accountable, the County doesnt want to get caught claiming to have resources that it doesnt really have when one of the cities needs them.
And as a political appointee the boss there has to tread lightly or face the unemployment line.
Try calling your legislator and ask them what these trailers can do. DES has to answer to them.

One thing for sure. IMHO. In any such serious argument between a cop and a firefighter, *no-one* is going to come out a 'winner'. Play nice.

Once again its individual Police Officers that are doing this, let us not lump everyone together! I say block all you need, going off face value of the article I'd say at least one lane other than the center should have been blocked. And, if need be, block it all while the patient is taken out of the car and put into the ambulance, how long could it take? 5 minutes? How about 5 hrs for an AI when someone gets hit!