mdm911

I am looking for a copy of the "New York State Fire Mobilization and Mutual Aid Plan" and the "New York State Hazardous Materials Emergency Contingency Plan." Does anyone know where I can find these? I have tried contacting OFPC but have not heard back. -Thanks

The general public will never understand that these numbers come from hours and hours of overtime. Poughkeepsie Journal Article: Fire districts lead public pay with average $92,000 per year. Link: Poughkeepsie Journal

Mva with injuries - one engine Mva with serious injury, entrapment, rollover, fire or on arterial/rt 9 - one engine & one truck.

The pictures above posted by me, were taken by me.

Check www.Fairviewfd.net and www.iaff2623.org later for more pictures...

Date: February 10th 2010 Time: 18:40 Location: 119 Emans Road LaGrange NY Frequency: 453.900 (Dispatch 1); 453.925 (Response 2); 453.800 (Command 3); 453.450 (FG 7/8); 453.625 (FG 9/10) Units Operating: LaGrange FD, East Fishkill FD, Beekman FD, DCSO Mutual Aid Standby: Union Vale, Arlington, and Pleasant Valley Weather Conditions: Snow Description Of Incident: Reported house fire with a possible occupant trapped. Reporters: NHFD21255, JetPhoto Writer: mdm911 18:40 - Initial Dispatch (Approximate time) 18:47 - Second Dispatch for remaining equipment. 18:50 - 47-31 and 47-11 responding. 18:51 - 47-12 to command requesting assignment. 18:51 - 39-15 to command requesting assignment. 18:52 - 47-9 to 47-2 advising structure is fully involved. 18:55 - Command requests Central Hudson and FID to the scene. 18:56 - 47-14 assigned to draft site. 18:57 - 47-13 requesting assignment, command assigns them to set up at North side of the structure. 18:57 - 47-11 requesting assignment, command assigns them to set up on North side of the structure. 18:57 - 47-15 command assigns them to South side of the structure. 18:59 - 39-51 requesting assignment, command assigns them to park out of the way and report to front of structure. 19:04 - DC911 to command, did you copy FF on FG 7/8 stating to evacuate building? 19:05 - DC911 urgent message on FG 7/8 to evacuate building. 19:06 – DC911 to command asking if command has made contact with FF who requested evacuation. 19:06 – Command confirmed all members out of the structure. 19:17 - Command requesting another frequency for water operations, DC911 assigned FG 9/10. 19:20 - Command requesting Red Cross and CIRT Team to the scene. Per JetPhoto EMS treated one civilian and one firefighter.

http://www.roadwars.com/otc/ Once you read the CDL manual, take the practice tests at that website. They are very similar to the written tests and really help you study for them.

I just want to make sure I understand you right. You are saying that you have been responding with 6+ qualified members? If you don't mind telling, where is this? I do not know if I have ever seen 6, 7 or more qualified people on a mutual aid rig (paid or volunteer) in the Poughkeepsie/Hyde Park area at least. It would be awesome but I haven't seen it.

A few more questions that arise in my mind; Would you have gotten the same response if the mutual aid company had been dispatched to respond to the incident scene to help? (ie get to go to work) What if the incident took a turn for the worse and the relocated engine was then requested from the station to the scene to help? How much help would they have been? Does the incident commander have any idea of the staffing of the engine during the incident or is he unaware of whether the engine has five interior firefighters or only an exterior driver? If a volunteer department wants to be seen on the same level of professionalism as area paid departments, they need to respond like the paid departments. Otherwise area departments (paid, volunteer or combination) are going to stop requesting departments that only send two exterior members and request an engine from a paid department where they know they will get a minimum of two interior firefighters(most likely three to four) right away that can go to work. This is not an anti-volunteer statement at all. I know that some volunteer departments in the county have a large number of well qualified members that respond at all hours and other departments are doing the best that they can. However, we need to use some common sense, if a department cannot send an acceptable number of interior personnel, do the right thing and notify the county. If I were in charge of a department and two exterior members responded (to relocate or to the scene) I would have to think twice about requesting them in the future. If the department notified the county and passed the call onto another department, I would have a lot more respect for them. Just because they were unable to respond once, does not mean they will never be asked again. I think everyone understands certain times of the day are better or worse for a volunteer response.

Full Article on PoJoNews.com: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article...ONTPAGECAROUSEL This sounds like an awful idea to me. Does anyone think this may lead to Dutchess County being more likely to open up a lab? Previously the Medical Examiner's office wanted a lab. Maybe a new lab would meet the needs of local law enforcement and the medical examiner's office.

I think I might be able to explain a little... A fire district is a self-sufficient group that provides fire protection. A fire district has it's own commissioners who make all the decision. A fire district creates it's own budget. A fire district levies it's own taxes. A fire district is not directly affiliated with a town or towns. A fire protection district is very different. As an example I will used Dutchess Fairview and the City of Poughkeepsie. Currently the Fairview Fire District protects a part of the Town of Poughkeepsie and a part of the Town of Hyde Park. The two towns are ultimately responsible for fire protection, however a town cannot provide fire protection, it must be provided by fire districts. In NYS you will never hear of the Town of Poughkeepsie Fire Department or the Town of Hyde Park Fire Department. You may however hear of the Town of Poughkeepsie Fire District or the Town of Hyde Park Fire District. A fire district has a board of commissioners and is not affiliated with the town. In a city, the common council and the mayor are the final say for the fire department, they approve the budget they make the final decisions. In a town, the town supervisor and town board have no say or control over the fire district budget or how the fire district operates. If a fire district is dissolved by the residents, it must first be determined by the town board of any town the district lies in (Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park for our example) that this is in the best interest of the public and a better way to provide fire protection is available. Currently what some of the residents want is for the Roosevelt Fire District to absorb the Fairview Fire District. With all due respect to the Roosevelt Fire District, anyone in Dutchess County realizes that the 100% volunteer fire district is barely able to handle their own calls at times and would not be able to take on an additional 1800+ alarms a year. The same situation applies to the Hyde Park Fire District. This would reduce the level of service provided, therefore it would not be in the best interest of the two towns to approve this plan. Fairview is also borded by the Arlington Fire District. Arlington is a career/volunteer combination department that covers the majority of the Town of Poughkeepsie. For this example let's hypothetically say that Arlington is not interested in merging with or absorbing the Fairview Fire District due to the high tax exemption in the district. This would leave the City of Poughkeepsie Fire Department. The City of Poughkeepsie is a municiple fire department. Now is when the fire PROTECTION district idea comes in. If both the town of Poughkeepsie and the Town of Hyde Park were to determine that the Fairview Fire District is not working out, an option that they have is to ask to become a fire protection district of the city. A fire protection district is an area outside of an incorporated city that contracts with the city to provide fire protection. The City of Poughkeepsie would have to look at the area, number of alarms, required increases in staffing and other costs and come up with a dollar amount that they would need to provide fire protection to the Fairview area. If the Town of Poughkeepsie, the Town of Hyde Park and the City of Poughkeepsie all agree on this price, they may enter into a contract. The two towns would still levy fire taxes, except instead of the money going to the fire district, it would go to the city who would be providing the service. This may sound like the answer to many people, although here is the catch in Fairview. The reason for the high fire taxes is not because we have a fire district, it is because so much of the district (about 47%) is exempt from paying fire taxes. The tax payers of Fairview would still have high fire taxes because the underlying problem has not been fixed. So a quick review of your questions: 1. Fire Districts and Fire Protection Districts are not the same. 2. Fire Protection Districts do not have commissioners. 3. Fire Protection Districts are established by the town. 4. The town board votes on whether to keep the district or reorganize. I hope this all make sense, it is very confusing. I got all this information from the NY Town Law section 184. I believe that everything I posted it true, however it is all from NYS law and the great thing about laws is, that it all depends on how they are interpreted, so if you view things differently please share them.

For those who do not already know. The Fairview Fire District in Poughkeepsie, has had tax related problems for some time. There are a large number of tax exempt properties in the district. These properties do not pay fire tax, but do receive fire and ems services. About 47% of the district is tax exempt. About 45 to 50% of the alarms in the district are to tax exempt properties. There have been many attempted solutions that the union and the district have been working on for years, but none have been able to solve the problem. The underlying problem is the fact that the properties are tax exempt. The only way to solve the problem is the legislation, mentioned on here before, requiring tax exempt properties to pay fire tax. This legislation is 100% fair. These properties receive fire and ems services, they should pay for those services just like everyone else who receives the service. There is a group of tax payers called "Fairness for Fairview" that have been attempting to fix the tax problem, they have tried all the same things the union and district have with the same results. No one working for Fairview has done anything to cause this problem, however some of the citizens want to terminate the fire district, close the doors and lay us off. There is another citizens group called the "Citizens for Equitable Fire Districts of Dutchess County." The only thing this group wants to see if the fire district to be terminated. Attached is a mailing that was sent to all of the tax paying properties by CEFDDC. This mailing is filled with mis-information about the state of the fire district. Our biggest concern is that the citizens of the community are going to be persuaded into signing this petition with this mis-information. If the fire district is terminated, fire protection is still required. Who will provided this protection? Anyone who lives, works , or knows someone in the Fairview Fire District, please help by informing them of the consequences of terminating the Fairview Fire District. Petition_to_Terminate_Fairview.pdf For more information on the Tax Issue please check out the following websites. Fairview Fire District IAFF 2623 NYS Legislation

The list of exempt properties is on both the district and union site. I also have a power point of pictures of the majority of the tax exempt properties, just to put into perspective the size and value of the buildings that are protected for free. For example, not to pick on Marist, but although they are only listed as one tax exempt property there are easily over 50 buildings on campus, including several highrises. Unfortunately it is a large file and it too large to upload here. I am working on making it under 2 MB.

The following bill would greatly help all of the Fire Districts in New York State. The purpose of this bill is to allow the fire districts to tax the properties in their district that are tax exempt. Although tax exempt properties do not pay town, school or fire tax, they do pay water and sewer tax. Fire protection is a service that these tax exempt properties receive for free, while everyone else is paying for them. Please help support this bill by writing to your assemblyman/assemblywoman. Bill A00772 Contact Your Assemblyman/Assemblywoman

Roosevelt Fire District 180 Cardinal Road Hyde Park, NY 16:28 on January 13th 2009 2 Alarm Fire For more pictures go to WWW.IAFF2623.ORG or click here http://www.iaff2623.org/index.cfm?zone=/un...t%201%2F13%2F09

The rest of the article from Poughkeepsie Journal

Sounds like Fairview in Poughkeepsie. Four guys 24/7 staffing two engines, a truck and two ambulances. Good luck brothers, hopefully you can get the much needed manpower increase.

Does anyone know if a city and a town, in NY, can form a fire district together or not? I cannot find a straight answer yes or no on this. I read that a city is required to provided fire protection. It also states that this is "typically" provided through a municipal fire department. What are the other options? A private contractor? Could the city contract with a fire district in a town and create a fire protection district?