Danger

The rig isn't symbolic of anything bigger than just a machine. No pride in the machines. Got it.

I'm pretty sure I've been looking at this website for at least eight years if not longer, and the same people are still making the same posts about wetdowns and parades. Does it ever get old? Does anyone still wonder why this forum is dead?

The city writes a check and a few months later the truck shows up. How does it work by you?

Should all fire trucks carry water?...NO

I know that for me personally, the LOSAP program had no bearing on my willingness to volunteer. I joined when I was 16...I doubt many 16 year old kids are thinking about their retirement (I know for sure that I wasn't). The department that I was in gave $20/year up to 40 years of service for a Max-Out of $800/month. This isn't going to break the bank that's for sure. When I quit the department at 26, the last thing that I was thinking about was my retirement fund. It didn't even cross my mind.
There is one thing that it does accomplish. It results in a bunch of 45-60 year old guys who come to the firehouse after the rigs have left on the run to sign the call sheet so that they get credit. This anomaly is generally intensified between Thanksgiving and Christmas when a number of the fork and knifers come down to look at the points posted on the wall and realize that they are 5 to 10 calls short of getting credit for the year. Then they step-up their loitering for the home stretch.
The guys who are in it because they like to get a little bit of heat are the first ones there and are on the rig in the sleet, snow, and rain regardless of the pension program!

I think there are far more unprofessional things on the radio. Like, third tones for a crew... An EMT is needed....
XXXX on scene, working fire, retone for all available personnel...

Narcan does no good if its being paged 2 or 3 times and then goes mutual aid. And I want to see BVM's for OD before narcan.
What is really behind all of this?
One law enforcement supervisor told me that he was at a recent "conference" on Narcan for law enforcement that was sponsored by Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (the only manufacturer of Narcan).
What a shock. Anyone notice that in the last 7 years the price of the drug has doubled?
In a recent article; "Amphastar says it is not able to discuss its pricing history for competitive reasons."
What competitive reasons, as they have a monopoly?

As far as getting rid of cops? They do, NYC is down 6,000 cops since 2002, so, yes, they do get rid of cops.
I will let my original statement stand on its own and not even address your reasoning as to why, how and who decides reductions.
If you really believe that cutbacks are decided by one company beating another to a call, then I cannot argue your logic.

His personal pride and pride in his company have nothing to do with the amount of companies, then or now. That has more to do with politics than anything else. It is not something an individual company officer has any say or influence in.
A work ethic like that is rarely seen anymore, but it is sorely needed.
Calling them "morons" is uncalled for.

I honestly cannot see the allure of a rear mounted tower. Can someone shed some light on why anyone would want such a cumbersome rig?

What really irks me, more then the article itself, is that we have a fellow emergency provider, someone who is supposed to be on the same team as all of us, trying to defend the abysmal staffing of what occurs in almost 99.9% of career departments (volunteer staffing is a different problem altogether, and I'm a volunteer). It's not safe for anyone, and anyone who sits there and tries to defend it is absolutely clueless about firefighting, the safety issues that we face (and manage to miraculously dodge fire after fire without more LODDs), and the politicians that we currently fight with day in and day out to provide a safe environment for the communities we've sworn to protect. All of the fire engines in the world mean absolutely nothing, if the correct staffing levels are not there to safely, correctly and efficiently do the job.
I am not a paramedic, and will never sit there and attempt to tell you your protocols need to change when it comes to dosage rates of atropine during a heart attack, because I don't have a damn clue about what I'm talking about. I am not a electrician, nor a painter, or a ditch digger, or a cable repair man, so I will never sit there and tell them how to do their job, or the correct and safe way to do it.
So until you strap on a pair of bunkers, make a hallway, pull a victim out, all while having a vertical vent simultaneously cut, with multiple handlines being stretched, don't tell me the safe way to do my job, because I've also done it the poor staffing way, and can tell you the horrible differences between the two.
This is a public forum now, and every reply that is posted can be read by the public, press, politicians, and those who vote. And for someone who is supposed to be on the same team, as stated in your affiliations under your user name, to sit there and say 2 guys on a rig is perfectly good, does absolutely nothing but hurt us, and all the years of work that unions have fought for.
/rant.

A simple Seagrave ENGINE/PUMPER like this would be perfect for a lot of departments. Just a perfect sized, designed to work, bread and butter Engine, with a great price point with Seagrave quality. Would look nice running down the tight and brutal streets of Yonkers, Peekskill, Poughkeepsie, or many other communities where this would work day in and day out.
2014 Seagrave Marauder II.
(Photos courtesy Adams Area Fire District Station 42)
*In progress of construction photos*












And this is what it is replacing, another Seagrave:

(Photos courtesy Adams Area Fire District Station 42)

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.

These boards must be full of KME stockholders.

Yes, there will be 2 TOWVAC EMTs and 1 EMStar Paramedic together on a TOWVAC bus. If a patient requires ALS treatment, the EMStar Paramedic will provide care. If the patient is determined to be BLS, the TOWVAC EMT will provide care. In addition, EMStar will have extra BLS & ALS buses in the area, which will provide BLS & ALS mutual aid to TOWVAC.
Also, TOWVAC is in the process of becoming an ALS agency. EMStar is in FULL SUPPORT of TOWVAC getting upgraded to ALS. This is in stark comparison to the FORMER ALS provider who covered Wallkill. The "OTHER" ALS provider DOES NOT support TOWVAC being upgraded to an ALS agency. They went to the Wallkill Town Board and told them that they can provide BLS & ALS services to the town cheaper than what TOWVAC can. This was another blatant attempt by "THEM" to get another VAC shut down, so they can take over.

You got to be kidding me ????, it also has this thing in the middle..... called a pump.

EMS people constantly ask why they aren't respected as stuff like this happens. EMS should never be part of a commercial service. Don't expect to ever get public safety recognition when you act like a business.

Nice work Yonkers in working these 2 jobs the same day under really bad conditions.
Sorry did I just go off topic here?

Maybe it has something to do with the different physical requirements and stressors placed upon your body throughout a career. Exposures to an IDLH or physical violence. I know dispatchers have an extremely difficult job, but physically and mentally a body can only handle so much of extremely rigorous physically and mentally demanding duty, and the bodies and minds of firefighters and police officers out on the street will reach this threshold far before dispatchers will.

Consolidating.....Saving Money....
No way. Someone pinch me.
And floorabove, the call volume may not dictate the utter necessity to hire, but two houses in a 5 sq. mi. district, and no response from the volunteer's at this station, good call by the Commissioners. Save some money.

Right-to-starve would be more accurate.

So maybe we should come up with a SPOT-FILLER badge, a SPOT-FILLER helmet front piece and SPOT-FILLER lettering for the back of the turnout coat.
Maybe the design could be like a circle, partly filled with some sort of material, and a putty knife sticking out of it. Appropriate level numbers could be written on the handle of the putty knife, to show whether the person is a Level 1 SPOT-FILLER, Level 2 SPOT-FILLER or a Chief SPOT-FILLER.

It won't be the first or the last, but it should give pause to those who think that privatization is the cure all for budget ills.

In my next life I am coming back as a lawyer for a fire insurance company........I think it would be pretty easy to recoup most of the fire loss by going after substandard FD's and their officers.