DaRock98

On 12/4, the members of Hughsonville FD in the Town of Wappingers helped make a little boys 11th birthday unforgettable. Christopher, the son of a close friend to my wife and I, has been diagnosed with "Leg-Calf Perthies", a bone disorder that has caused the complete deterioration of his right femur. Christopher has been confined to a wheel chair and has recently found out that he will be undergoing the first of several surgeries at Boston Childrens Hospital the week of Christmas. To celebrate his Birthday his family chose to rent the hall at HFD, seeing as Christopher has always loved the fire service. When the members of HFD found out what a fan of the fire department Christopher is they decided to give him a few gifts of their own. Sporting an HFD helmet and a huge grinn, Christopher was pushed through the engine room by the Captian of HFD and given his own personal VIP tour of the station. He almost jumped out of his wheel chair when the Lieutenant pulled "THE BEAST" (45-55 and Christophers favorite truck) into the back lot and sat him in the drivers seat. His eyes lit up as he was lifted into the bucket of the Tower Ladder and his smile could be seen for miles as the HFD members all accepted his challange to a "wheel chair race". Christophers perfect day came to a close with the members of HFD singing "Happy Birthday", having some cake, watching him unwrap his gifts and presenting him with his own HFD patch and T-Shirt (With a picture of "THE BEAST" on it of course).
From Christophers family: "To Chief Glenn Kramer, Assistant Chief Tim Laffin, Captian Ed D'Anna, Lieutenant Trevor Dhalla, Fire FIghter Ryan White and Fire Fighter Chris Baker:
Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts, you have no idea how much this ment to Christopher and how much you have just helped him. It was so wonderful to see him smile like that today. He was still talking about all of you when we got home. Thank You and God Bless!"
Here are a few shots from the party. I wanted to post this to remind all of us why we do what we do. As the members of HFD showed today, It's not all about getting on the big red truck and running into the devils play ground. It's about the smile on a little boys face when you hand him a helmet and say "blow the horn". Thank you again HFD for making Christophers birthday so special for him. Stay Safe!
If anyone would like to be kept up to date on Christophers journey PM me.

I think this kind of puts a little prespective on EGO Thinking.
We can think that we are important with our titles and all the other so called important goodies. But there is probadly nobody more important in this country than the president of the United States. Now, these are the most important people in our country. Can you name them ? If you can then you're really good. Now, how about the Second most important people in our country, the Vice Presidents.
So if you think you're somebody important, just remember most people can't even name the presidents of our country.
And by the way, they pull their pants down to take a $hit just like everybody else does.
We all have a job to do. If its to be in the fire service, so be it. If its to be a LEADER in the fire service, so be it. But nobody is better than anybody else. And no matter how good you might think you are, there's always somebody better. I hate to bust your ego bubble, but it is a fact. So go home and think about that. You are only a small speck in the system.
So sorry if your feelings are hurt, but get over it and get over yourself.

I agree that there is no rule against asking questions but if he interpreted it as I did it sounds as if you were trying to stir the pot a little.

I agree that there is no rule against asking questions but if he interpreted it as I did it sounds as if you were trying to stir the pot a little.

I've been giving some thought on some of the comments on not only Yorktown's recent fire, but other incidents and want to share my thoughts.
Ten years ago, many of us were getting along fine, making do with what we had at our disposal in terms of manpower. Most fire departments would handle a single family dwelling fire with little to no Mutual Aid. Was it because we all had an abundance of manpower? I don't think so.
Many people like to get on the "manpower soapbox" all too often to explain their dwindling firehouse numbers, yet it can generally correlate to other contributing factors that many don't admit to, or even recognize.
1. Poor leadership. Many people in the volunteer fire service are giving their time to the FD while balancing their family duties, jobs and other commitments. Most guys and gals join either to be an integral part of their community and/or to become part of a social club. When your leadership is doing it's job (leading when leading is needed, being fair and balanced, treating everyone with respect, making everyone feel safe and accpeted) then the troops feel better about themselves and the department they've joined. I've been in my department since I was an Explorer (1992) and have seen AWESOME LEADERS (Chiefs and Company Officers) and sadly, we've had a few too many crappy ones. If you can lead your troops when they need leading and you can motivate them by making them feel a sense of ownership in their company/department, then they'll give that extra effort.
2. Lack of Training Availability. So many of us strive to be the best departments we can be, and this means a lot of training. We've grown from doing roughly one drill per month to offering 4-5 different training venues every month. Since everyone has crazy schedules, you need to be flexible. Having just one drill night isn't going to cut it. Also, training that we are all required to have isn't always made easily accessible. I don't fault WCDES for the lack of some courses - I lay blame on OFPC (or whatever acronym they use now). Why can't volunteer fire departments have an MTO? In our own department we have a half dozen NYS and/or National Fire Service Instructors and we're being under utilized. We had a good thing going for a couple of years where one of our guys was granted a "supplemental CFI" status and was providing in-house OFPC classes, such as HMFRO, HMFRO Annual Refresher, Confined Space Awareness & Safety, Scene Support Operations and others that you just don't see often enough. Losing this has hurt our training program, and now it costs us more money to outsource and bring instructors in. In a nutshell, the current system sucks.
3. Personal Agendas. I've seen a couple of Chiefs (not just in our FD but around the county) that get elected with an agenda of their own. In order to get what they want, they start cutting funding for certain things, they lie to everyone and worst of all - they let the department's members suffer. For example, if your Chief is up in your commissioners officer / town hall lying to them about what your members need simply to make themselves look good - that will come back to the guys/gals and ruin their ambition to be a part of your department.
I know I may sound like a broken record, but it really does come down to how your department is run, from the top down. If your Chief can't run a scene, the guys lose faith in them. If your Captain can't be bothered with drill night because of his softball games, how are the guys in the trenches expected to show any initiative? And if all the guys walking around with collar brass don't take the time to guide, mentor and lead their men/women - kiss it all goodbye.
These things have major negative impacts on your department's performance call after call. You might get 40 guys in line at a parade, but how many of them can honestly remember the last time they got out of bed at 2am for a CO call?
Leadership makes/breaks fire departments - we can blame it on anything else we want, but this simple truth is what hurts so many of us.
Stay safe & train often.
/thoughts.

The only thing I can make of this post is your either friends with the subject of the photo, in the department, or both. Either way why can't we agree at the very least in hindsight it was a bad idea. You know what this website is becoming notorious for? People to the end defending some real bad tactics. We have a number of people sticking by using hyraulic spreaders to lift a car in another thread even after some of us have shared our experinces where things didn't work or are too dangerous to be used as a tactic. It's never good to be in the spotlight like this but it ocassionally happens to even the best out there the difference is they realize their mistakes and don't let them happen again. A previous post just aluded to it and I'll bet there are some officers on here that won't allow this to happen if they are in the same situation now that they have reviewed this. That's the reason that the secret list posts this stuff.

A Post-Incident Review is in planning, until then I can only offer some information.
The original caller reported a raft in the water behind her house on Truesdale Drive (south of Silver Lake Park). The original assignment of E120, TL44, R18 and EMS was dispatched.
Car 2083 arrived and assumed the initial command. While investigating the vessel and asking bystanders, it was revelaed that this raft was occupied by 5 men, none of which were in the raft. At this point, Assistant Chief Vlad confirmed that this was a swift water incident and requested Yorktown FD's Dive/Water Rescue Unit (per our SOG) and E119 for additional personnel.
At this point, I was leaving work and heading back to town in my POV, sans a trunked radio, so I don't know the specifics of what was requested nor updates given by the IC.
As I was entering our area, one of my Past Captains was giving an "Urgent" on our fireground radio reporting our boat had overturned and we had 3 members in need of EMS evaluation at the Echo Canoe Boat Launch (south of the train station). At almost the same time, another Officer giving an "Urgent" reported members rescued additional victims near Maio's Landing off of Nordica Drive and also needed EMS.
When I got to our command post, I assumed command and kept 2083 in charge of the operations section. At this point, Croton PD made a grab of the victim that succumbed to his injuries. Personnel began CPR on him, but he did not survive.
As Yorktown FD M55, Croton PD Boat 2 and the TRT's Zodiac worked their way up to the scene, we confirmed that we could account for four of the five victims. While the boats searched the river, personnel were located on both sides of the river from as far up as Croton Dam to the end of the river where it meets the Hudson. At a point (not sure of the time) one of my other Past Captains and a member of the WCTRT radioed that he had a visual of victim #5. Despite valiant efforts by all boats, they could not reach this victim.
Members of the WCTRT then went upstream and made an in-water rescue attempt, which was unsuccessful. While they planned, made and terminated this effort, personnel began formulating additional plans to reach him. While another attempt using a portable ladder in the water as a better "reaching point" was being established, units started to advise me that the victim was now free of the tree he was grasping and heading downstream. Luckily, the 3 Zodiac units were all in position below his location, and CPD's unit grabbed him and brought him to awaiting EMS at the mouth of the Croton River.
As the IC, I can sum up the whole thing in two words: "pucker factor." I was nervous the entire time about the well-being of all the guys working their asses off trying to rescue this guy. When the transmissions came over that he was loose, I could feel myself clench up, hoping that we could not only find him, but rescue him vs. recover him.
I can not give enough credit to the Croton PD boat, Yorktown FD Water Rescue Team, County Tech Rescue Team and all others on the ground and in the air that worked together to bring this event to a close without any injuries or worse to emergency personnel.
Units that operated:
Croton FD: 2082 (IC), 2083 (Ops), E119, E120, TL44, R18, M32
Croton EMS: 55B1, 55B2
Ossining FD: 2332, 2334, E96, E99, TL42, R14, U51 w/ Zodiac
Ossining EMS: 7405, 36M1, 74A1, 74B1
Cortlandt VAC: 88B1, 88B2
Peekskill EMS: 7511, 75B1
Briarcliff FD EMS: 53B2
Sleepy Hollow EMS: 73B2
Mt. Pleasant ALS: 37M1
Peekskill FD ALS: 39M1 (2 Medics)
Yorktown FD: 2531, R55, M55
Montrose FD: 2271, E121, R51 (Lighting), U53 (Rehab bus)
Montrose VAFD: 2571, MA28 (Lighting)
Irvington FD: 2202, R49 (Divers)
Millwood FD: 2253, R36 (Lighting)
Pleasantville EMS: 7605 (Rehab)
Westchester DES: Car 5/EMS 1, Bat 10, Bat 12, R77, U77, Zodiac
Westchester County PD: Multiple Supervisors, M3
Ossining PD: M15
Croton PD: Multiple Cars, Marine 2
NYSP: Multiple cars, Aviation Unit
NYPD: Aviation Unit
Covering Croton
Peekskill FD: 2342, E131 (who covered 2 additional calls in our district)
Cortlandt EMS: 88B1, relieved by Sleepy Hollow 73B2.
I believe Verplanck 83B1 covered another incident in Croton during this call as well.
On a side note, unless one lives under a rock, this incident has been all over the news. The County and Village have shut all parks and access to the Croton River due to the ongoing currents... and TODAY, Croton PD had to remove 10-20 people - including children - from the Croton River. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!
On behalf of the Croton Fire Department, we thank everyone for their assistance. We couldn't have done it without you.

Thanks to the guy who passed this my way. Hopefully everyone can hunker down, and study their rears off for this, because from the looks of it, it's going to be a doozy...

Yes... Lets close Indian Point and put people out of jobs, cut funding to schools and local FD's, and raise property taxes... Good plan! Can we have the blind guy back? The worst he did was gave us yellow plates!

So many thoughts on this so hopefully this is somewhat followable. The original poster was prompted to ask his questions based off the medal day book. So on that fact I will say this I think it is dangerous for most departments to attempt to operate like the FDNY. We have the ability to put a lot of firefighters on the scene very quickly and probably unparalleled. That combined with strong SOPs that spell out where everyone goes and what they do based on the building type and location of the fire put us in a unique situation. This is in no way a knock on any other department but I think your procedures and risk management need to be based on your staffing, experience level, and what you face. In a majority of cases I believe small departments should concentrate on putting all their initial effort on placing the first line in operation. Even in the case of people trappped unless you know exactly where they are the best course of action may still be to get water on the fire.
As for the can as a truck officer when I enter an apartment prior to the line which is frequently the case when the fire is on the upper floor since the engine will be delayed in the long stretch I usually bring the can firefighter with me and leave the irons firefighter at the door (inside holding the door closed). The can allows us to knock down fire very well. As long as the fire has not flashed over the can will have an impact. The can is very effective at pushing fire back and allowing us to close doors. And in the etreme cases where protection is needed to effect a rescue the can is handy. Passing fire is a very dangerous move and should probably be reserved for known victims.

I have sat and watched this thread for a few days now and feel I the need to step in and comment. Now that everyone knows what department we are talking about there is no "our" side of the story. The simple fact of the matter is yes we missed a call and yes we have staffing issues (just like a majority of the other Westchester County departments) Is this a valid excuse? Absolutely not! It's a MAJOR issue not only to me but my fellow officers as well. We are currently meeting and discussing this matter regularly to try and come up with a fast and effective solution. I do want to thank and apologize to our neighboring department that has bailed us out and that your help hasn't gone unnoticed.
He is a little background on the particular situation; we and another department had a duel response system in place for many years. We would run duel response on almost every call Monday-Friday from 0600-1800hrs. The system worked great up until the last 2 or 3 years. During the last 2 or 3 year we have seen a huge increase in call volume from this one particular facility in our first due area. (the same location that this topic started from) In the 2010 year we and our neighboring department ran approx. 60-70+ calls at this facility. 99% of them being false alarms. (From malfunctions, steam from a shower and the majority of the calls being malicious pulls of the box by students) That high number of runs to this place caused not only our department but our neighbors to be burnt out and not want to run calls there anymore. So it was decided (at a higher level than I am) that we would discontinue our duel response to all calls with the exception of smoke in the building, reported structure fires or anything else the dispatcher feels is something a little more than just an automatic alarm.
Yes we have some major issues we are dealing with right now and I can assure the land of EMTbravo that we are working on a solution. For those of you who say "hire career staff" you know as well as I do that it's not as easy as just waking up one day and hiring career personnel.
Thank you to all the people who have offered up constructive comments and if anyone else has any other questions or comment please feel free to PM me.
And to problEMS thank you for bringing this topic to light, it's clear that you accomplished your goal in stirring the pot and then running away. I have only one question for you, your age says you are 27 but in your age range it says you are 35-44 so what is it? Did you just make up a profile name to cause a problem for my department or are you so confused that you don't know how old you really are?

I, too, have sat back long enough reading these posts and feel the need to finally comment:
1. As far as the "said" department, they need to work on a schedule system so that they don't have to keep relying on their mutual aid departments.
2. As for the "facility" that the "said" department keeps going to, they HAVE spoken with the "head honchos" and they HAVE given them fines. I happen to work at the "facility", so I know this for a fact! The "facility" does NOTHING to correct the problems.
3. LOSAP - how can you compare that to a regular pension? I certainly hope your "real job" pension is more than $300/month!
4. A paid department in the Town of Mt. Pleasant? Are you kidding??? As a life-long resident of the Town, I for one would get on a bandwagon to vote down such a proposal. To increase our already high taxes to cover false alarms - which, yes, that is the majority of calls, would be totally ridiculous and would run every "old timer" out of the Town. My suggestion - grow a set of "balls" and start cracking down on members who are refusing to drive and/or respond. Or go back to the automatic dual response.
5. I think most departments have "frequent flyers" or facilities that call on a regular basis. Unfortunately, you are required to respond no matter what. The standpoint I take is when the call comes in, just think if YOU were that person or your family member waiting for that fire truck or ambulance, how would you feel if they didn't show up???
By the way, I sympathize with the "said" department because I believe most departments have been there at one time or another. They just need to address the issues head on and come up with a solution, so that people like problEMS don't get on here strictly to "stir the pot".

This is a serious concern for many depts. and there are proven methods to attack this problem, including the following:
1) Meet with the facility, try to convince them that this is there problem. The crying wolf could become a real disaster for them and that their failure to address criminal acts by their staff/residents is a big liability for them.
2) Pass a local ordinance that AGGRESSIVLY bills for repeat and or malicious alarms. Fee's should be designed to dramatically escalate so property owners are encouraged to fix the problem.
Fire Districts may not do this, but the town (thru the building dept can) and in Mt Pleasant they have an ordinance that’s at least 10 years old, but it has never been enforced. I spoke at length on this issue with your Board of Fire Commissioners about 10 years ago and they said the town would not enforce it because they wanted to be "nice" to the property owners.
If the town is unwilling to assist, you may have to play hardball. Advise the public that the situation is so bad that only 2 solutions have been determined: 1) the town strongly enforces its own ordinance or 2) your will be forced to hire enough firefighters to handle the problem this will result in 2x- 4x increase in everyone’s property tax to cover solution #2.....If you do not want this to happen, contact the town supervisor at 555-1234 and demand he/she solve this issue.
3)With enforcement efforts, we were able to address the collages and they started fining students who did not evacuate during alarms, at 4am this caused many of them to rat out those who were pulling the alarms and it no longer was a "game". With the funding from the fines they were able to purchase alarm covers, which made it easier to catch those pulling the alarm. They also established an expulsion policy (without reimbursement for tuition & board) for pulling a false alarm.
Our false numbers have gone way down because of these actions.

I have sat and watched this thread for a few days now and feel I the need to step in and comment. Now that everyone knows what department we are talking about there is no "our" side of the story. The simple fact of the matter is yes we missed a call and yes we have staffing issues (just like a majority of the other Westchester County departments) Is this a valid excuse? Absolutely not! It's a MAJOR issue not only to me but my fellow officers as well. We are currently meeting and discussing this matter regularly to try and come up with a fast and effective solution. I do want to thank and apologize to our neighboring department that has bailed us out and that your help hasn't gone unnoticed.
He is a little background on the particular situation; we and another department had a duel response system in place for many years. We would run duel response on almost every call Monday-Friday from 0600-1800hrs. The system worked great up until the last 2 or 3 years. During the last 2 or 3 year we have seen a huge increase in call volume from this one particular facility in our first due area. (the same location that this topic started from) In the 2010 year we and our neighboring department ran approx. 60-70+ calls at this facility. 99% of them being false alarms. (From malfunctions, steam from a shower and the majority of the calls being malicious pulls of the box by students) That high number of runs to this place caused not only our department but our neighbors to be burnt out and not want to run calls there anymore. So it was decided (at a higher level than I am) that we would discontinue our duel response to all calls with the exception of smoke in the building, reported structure fires or anything else the dispatcher feels is something a little more than just an automatic alarm.
Yes we have some major issues we are dealing with right now and I can assure the land of EMTbravo that we are working on a solution. For those of you who say "hire career staff" you know as well as I do that it's not as easy as just waking up one day and hiring career personnel.
Thank you to all the people who have offered up constructive comments and if anyone else has any other questions or comment please feel free to PM me.
And to problEMS thank you for bringing this topic to light, it's clear that you accomplished your goal in stirring the pot and then running away. I have only one question for you, your age says you are 27 but in your age range it says you are 35-44 so what is it? Did you just make up a profile name to cause a problem for my department or are you so confused that you don't know how old you really are?

I have sat and watched this thread for a few days now and feel I the need to step in and comment. Now that everyone knows what department we are talking about there is no "our" side of the story. The simple fact of the matter is yes we missed a call and yes we have staffing issues (just like a majority of the other Westchester County departments) Is this a valid excuse? Absolutely not! It's a MAJOR issue not only to me but my fellow officers as well. We are currently meeting and discussing this matter regularly to try and come up with a fast and effective solution. I do want to thank and apologize to our neighboring department that has bailed us out and that your help hasn't gone unnoticed.
He is a little background on the particular situation; we and another department had a duel response system in place for many years. We would run duel response on almost every call Monday-Friday from 0600-1800hrs. The system worked great up until the last 2 or 3 years. During the last 2 or 3 year we have seen a huge increase in call volume from this one particular facility in our first due area. (the same location that this topic started from) In the 2010 year we and our neighboring department ran approx. 60-70+ calls at this facility. 99% of them being false alarms. (From malfunctions, steam from a shower and the majority of the calls being malicious pulls of the box by students) That high number of runs to this place caused not only our department but our neighbors to be burnt out and not want to run calls there anymore. So it was decided (at a higher level than I am) that we would discontinue our duel response to all calls with the exception of smoke in the building, reported structure fires or anything else the dispatcher feels is something a little more than just an automatic alarm.
Yes we have some major issues we are dealing with right now and I can assure the land of EMTbravo that we are working on a solution. For those of you who say "hire career staff" you know as well as I do that it's not as easy as just waking up one day and hiring career personnel.
Thank you to all the people who have offered up constructive comments and if anyone else has any other questions or comment please feel free to PM me.
And to problEMS thank you for bringing this topic to light, it's clear that you accomplished your goal in stirring the pot and then running away. I have only one question for you, your age says you are 27 but in your age range it says you are 35-44 so what is it? Did you just make up a profile name to cause a problem for my department or are you so confused that you don't know how old you really are?

I have sat and watched this thread for a few days now and feel I the need to step in and comment. Now that everyone knows what department we are talking about there is no "our" side of the story. The simple fact of the matter is yes we missed a call and yes we have staffing issues (just like a majority of the other Westchester County departments) Is this a valid excuse? Absolutely not! It's a MAJOR issue not only to me but my fellow officers as well. We are currently meeting and discussing this matter regularly to try and come up with a fast and effective solution. I do want to thank and apologize to our neighboring department that has bailed us out and that your help hasn't gone unnoticed.
He is a little background on the particular situation; we and another department had a duel response system in place for many years. We would run duel response on almost every call Monday-Friday from 0600-1800hrs. The system worked great up until the last 2 or 3 years. During the last 2 or 3 year we have seen a huge increase in call volume from this one particular facility in our first due area. (the same location that this topic started from) In the 2010 year we and our neighboring department ran approx. 60-70+ calls at this facility. 99% of them being false alarms. (From malfunctions, steam from a shower and the majority of the calls being malicious pulls of the box by students) That high number of runs to this place caused not only our department but our neighbors to be burnt out and not want to run calls there anymore. So it was decided (at a higher level than I am) that we would discontinue our duel response to all calls with the exception of smoke in the building, reported structure fires or anything else the dispatcher feels is something a little more than just an automatic alarm.
Yes we have some major issues we are dealing with right now and I can assure the land of EMTbravo that we are working on a solution. For those of you who say "hire career staff" you know as well as I do that it's not as easy as just waking up one day and hiring career personnel.
Thank you to all the people who have offered up constructive comments and if anyone else has any other questions or comment please feel free to PM me.
And to problEMS thank you for bringing this topic to light, it's clear that you accomplished your goal in stirring the pot and then running away. I have only one question for you, your age says you are 27 but in your age range it says you are 35-44 so what is it? Did you just make up a profile name to cause a problem for my department or are you so confused that you don't know how old you really are?

I have sat and watched this thread for a few days now and feel I the need to step in and comment. Now that everyone knows what department we are talking about there is no "our" side of the story. The simple fact of the matter is yes we missed a call and yes we have staffing issues (just like a majority of the other Westchester County departments) Is this a valid excuse? Absolutely not! It's a MAJOR issue not only to me but my fellow officers as well. We are currently meeting and discussing this matter regularly to try and come up with a fast and effective solution. I do want to thank and apologize to our neighboring department that has bailed us out and that your help hasn't gone unnoticed.
He is a little background on the particular situation; we and another department had a duel response system in place for many years. We would run duel response on almost every call Monday-Friday from 0600-1800hrs. The system worked great up until the last 2 or 3 years. During the last 2 or 3 year we have seen a huge increase in call volume from this one particular facility in our first due area. (the same location that this topic started from) In the 2010 year we and our neighboring department ran approx. 60-70+ calls at this facility. 99% of them being false alarms. (From malfunctions, steam from a shower and the majority of the calls being malicious pulls of the box by students) That high number of runs to this place caused not only our department but our neighbors to be burnt out and not want to run calls there anymore. So it was decided (at a higher level than I am) that we would discontinue our duel response to all calls with the exception of smoke in the building, reported structure fires or anything else the dispatcher feels is something a little more than just an automatic alarm.
Yes we have some major issues we are dealing with right now and I can assure the land of EMTbravo that we are working on a solution. For those of you who say "hire career staff" you know as well as I do that it's not as easy as just waking up one day and hiring career personnel.
Thank you to all the people who have offered up constructive comments and if anyone else has any other questions or comment please feel free to PM me.
And to problEMS thank you for bringing this topic to light, it's clear that you accomplished your goal in stirring the pot and then running away. I have only one question for you, your age says you are 27 but in your age range it says you are 35-44 so what is it? Did you just make up a profile name to cause a problem for my department or are you so confused that you don't know how old you really are?

I will revisit what I stated above earlier in the thread. In the end progress, be it consolidation, hiring, mutual aid ect ect ect only happens when the majority of the membership of the department(s) are on board with the necessary changes. There is no such thing as a one man fire dept therefore while a Chief may have the greatest, most practical and ultimately best plan for the public safety, if the members don't support it it ain't gonna happen. This goes for career and volunteer FDs alike. Case in point: I can think of at least 3 all career or combo depts off the top of my head that brought in outside Chiefs, new thinkers, to "progress" their depts in which that Chief ended up resigning or not re-signing their contract. Why? Because the career staff did not suppport the changes called for. This lack of support ranged from "blue flu" to union intervention to outright refusal to enact the policies to "prove" the changes didn't work. This is even more evident in the volunteer sector where members vote with their feet. If 1/2 or 3/4 of a dept quit or simply refuse to follow the program what then. All the tough talk in the world about how the fire service is paramilitary, and "let em go if they don't want to follow the program" blah blah blah doesn't solve the problem of a dept that can no longer function without it's membership.....i.e.the people that will actually have to do the work of all those great theories.
Change is a process and one that relies on the willingness of those who will actually do the work to do it. Force feeding doesn't work especially in the volunteer sector. Those that have been successful in incorporating changes and making them stick are depts that have the majority of the membership firmly behind those changes. To get those who will do it behind the theory IS the process and that takes alot of dedicated work, perseverance and a good salesman.
In my travels to find solutions to Stamford's mess there has been a recurrent theme. Those that have been successful in addressing their shortcomings have been so because the core members and the members that have earned the respect of their fellows have sided with the need for change and supported the efforts. This, in my experience, is how long lasting and successful change happens.
Cogs

Just like in the recent thread on EMS in the county, there is little debate a problem exists. Who will finally play the role of a leader and start to take some action?
Posts like this one, calling out some FD do nothing. Everyone is well aware of the problems. Some may have their heads in the sand, but they are aware.
Instead of calling out this agency, offer some suggestions or solutions. Without offering something productive, this thread offers nothing.

I'm a little late to the party here, but I read this at the beginning of the thread and I need to call this out.
Why is posting a dept's name such a problem? What is heard over the radio is available to anyone. We're not in the business of keeping secrets here, we're in the business of saving people's lives (or at the very least, being there quickly when they call).
Going after someone's agency because they mentioned a manpower shortage of another is a really short-sighted move. I've heard dept's paging for manpower over and over again without a timely response. This is not acceptable. Some departments are manned well and others are not. Those that cannot field a crew in a respectable amount of time (to me this is less than 4 minutes) do not have the capability to act as emergency response agencies. Even if you can get a crew together MOST of the time, that's not good enough. Calling 911 should never be a crap shoot.
Consolidation Consolidation Consolidation!!!

This is a ridiculous statement. What you are referring to is a combination department, not a career department. The career member in question was almost certainly directed to drive the apparatus to the parade by his volunteer "superiors", who very probably refer to him (with intent and purpose) as "driver", not "Firefighter".
Kudos to the many level headed, volunteers who care about their community and have had the courage to criticize in this thread the disgraceful practice of taking apparatus out of their district for a parade.
I do have an agenda about lots of issues. One of my issues (concerns) is the ridiculous and hypocritical practice of bringing apparatus to parades outside of the district. I hear constantly about the need for funding and incentives to recruit to fill the diminishing ranks of volunteer firefighters who will "save the community the enormous cost of a paid fire department" (btw always using the word "paid" as opposed to "career"...this too is done with intent and purpose)...It is also incessantly and inanely regurgitated that "volunteers and career guys are the same and provide the same level of service"...The practice of bringing apparatus and a large percentage of members to parades outside district flies directly in the face of these statements.
It is apparent that this is a legitimate issue and it is not unfair basing of volunteer by career members. Many volunteer firefighters are ethical and have common sense enough to realize that this archaic practice no longer has a place in the fire service if "we", yes "we" (career and volunteer) take the oaths we have sworn to our community's seriously. Many volunteer firefighters have stated so in this thread and in other threads previously...
Are we beating a dead horse? Absolutely not! The problem still exists! Any avenue available to expose this problem for what it is should be taken. Many people outside of the fire service are unaware of this situation and many inside of the fire service are complacent and / or resistant to change. So, those of us who have an agenda will repeat our mantra...most others will remain on the sidelines, some may feel inspired to join in and speak up for positive change, and of course we will always have those individuals who will rationalize, attack the messenger, or blame shift.
Eventually though, apparatus in out of district parades will go the way of horse drawn engines, wooden ladders, and pullup rubber boots (Lord, how I miss those!)
Hopefully, the discarding of this practice will happen as the result of rational, forward thinking fire service leaders and not as a consequence of a high- profile tragedy.

My department holds them in December and the term starts January 1st. I absolutely HATE elections because they are nothing but a popularity contest and the best people for the job usually walk away losers because the membership doesn't care about the important things only who they like more. I wish departments would do away with elections and have strict promotional rules and regulations based on expirence and training rather then who is liked more.
End of rant!

My department holds them in December and the term starts January 1st. I absolutely HATE elections because they are nothing but a popularity contest and the best people for the job usually walk away losers because the membership doesn't care about the important things only who they like more. I wish departments would do away with elections and have strict promotional rules and regulations based on expirence and training rather then who is liked more.
End of rant!

I am currently serving as captain I took office as of January 1st following my term as 1st lieut. I just wish that our current process for office was a little more strict than it currently is. I'm not going to go around saying we do everything right because I know we don't. The reason I ran for the job was to try and make a difference and get our department moving in the right direction. (because I feel I can make a difference, but I am finding out its a lot harder then I thought)

My department holds them in December and the term starts January 1st. I absolutely HATE elections because they are nothing but a popularity contest and the best people for the job usually walk away losers because the membership doesn't care about the important things only who they like more. I wish departments would do away with elections and have strict promotional rules and regulations based on expirence and training rather then who is liked more.
End of rant!