Capejake72

The Blue Beast performed well at it's first few structure fire runs, the first being a mutual aide call last Wednesday (12/18/13) to Millbrook FD to actress Bette Midler's residence for a 20'x20' maintenance building fire, the driveway was off of one of our several dirt roads we have, the driveway was over a mile long, plowed but not sanded, the beast with 4x4 made the driveway with ease, unfortunately the structure was already fully on the ground and was extinguished.
The second fire was in our own district the next morning (12/19/13) at the Pine's restaurant located on Route 22, from all accounts the CAFS worked well and the main body of fire was knocked down, the many roof overs created some issues and JHK (x129k was the vent man) assisted with opening the roof with 36-45 to get into the several voids. We have several photos of the actual fire however out of respect for the owner's of the business we decided that we would not advocate nor support the posting of their building on fire. Upon arrival there was heavy fire showing on the A and D sides of the building and several tankers were called in as the nearest usable water source was approximately one mile away at the Pawling Corporation complex where JHK Engine 36-13 set-up at a hydrant to fill the tankers.
Our tanker (69-31) and Blue Beast (69-12) on scene flowing water

Sadly this is the way it's done in most business. The rationale is that by giving notice, especially before Christmas, the employees will treat the company and company equipment like they perceive themselves being treated. The other option of waiting until after Christmas without giving notice will allow the employee to overspend for the holiday with no post holiday income. There are no good answers, but most management training/programs/classes all say you must cut the ties quick without notice. All great reasons to ensure your community is protected by employees and departments who are under taxpayer control. Essential services are best served by municipal departments eliminating anything happening fast (you can only close up at the speed of government).

And I'm sure you would be eaten alive by plaintiff's counsel in the wrongful death suit.
If brush/wildfires are one of your hazards, you have to train for it. The budget argument has never held up in court. Quite the contrary.
(none of this is meant as disrespect.)

We'll see if any real fire depts. go for this "change." Close all the doors on the inside and hit it from the outside first. It seems to me that if you could get in to close doors, you could get in and put the fire out. This sounds like Lloyd Laymen deja vu...it works in a confined space but that's all.
Bear in mind that when you hit it from the outside, you've created steam inside. You lose much of your visibility for fire attack and search and steamed any victims that might be present.
Sometimes the tactic of an outside knock-down is a good one for perhaps a fully involved basement fire that has made the basement stairs untenable. However, if you do choose the outside knock-down, bear in mind that you may not be able to get down the stairs because it is still the chimney. You're still going to heavy steam and probably zero visibility.
Look at the picture in the article at the beginning of this thread. That's a vent hole, lad. It is only one window, so you don't know the whole situation, but your best bet is to leave it as a vent hole and go inside and bang a straight stream off the ceiling of the fire room then finish it up with a lower angled line. You kept a lot of your visibility for extinguishment and search, so just thank Mother Nature she had the wind blowing in your favor.
All these studies are under controlled conditions and you can do that at an actual incident too. Just get the fire to a manageable point, by tried and true methods, then pick up your radio and say under control.

Do departments in the area that have large areas of brush and wildland interface have proper initial and ongoing training to deal with these types of situations? Is it included in basic training? Do departments with brush trucks drill with them regularly?
I remember, in Westchester Career Fire Chiefs Probie School, we learned about forest/brush fires from the NYS Department of Forestry. I think the class was a day or two, and included hands on training to dig a firebreak, etc. It gave us a basic knowledge of how to deal with these types of incidents.
These types of fires are very different, dangerous and unpredictable. Properly fighting these fires is much, much more then putting water on the fire. I would hope that there is plenty of regular training and drills.

Took a few of our fleet today, minus the ambulance
Tanker 69-31, Engine 69-12, Light Rescue 69-51 and Utility 69-62


Big Blue and The Blue Beast together

The storms over the past couple of years have highlighted some needs for us, and we have either received those or are in the process of securing them.
We lost our old, aluminum "Rescue Boat" during Irene. With the FEMA money we replaced it with a 14' Mercury RIB w/ 25 HP motor. We (prior to this) expanded our water rescue abilities with training and equipment, as well as dual-responses with neighboring Yorktown FD's Water Rescue Team. During Sandy, we were able to put this boat on the ready as well as our spare 12' inflatable.
Sandy knocked out power to our only firehouse without a generator. Although it is in the Capital Budget for next year, our village has approved to pursue a federal grant now to install it. Hopefully it works out.
The storms have sent us on dozens of calls that don't truly require the response of our larger apparatus, nor a ton of manpower. This year we were able to get the village to purchase us a Utility Truck, which we are in the process of getting ready to purchase and build.
This vehicle will be outfitted with extra saws, traffic barricades, trash pumps and the like for storm-related calls. It will also allow us to take specialized equipment from a rig going out of service and keep it on a vehicle so we don't lose it - something we've lacked for a long time.
Lastly, our "Radio Room" has seen some equipment additions and upgrades, and more on the way. This will give us a better place to set up and dispatch our units from during storms. A secondary communications system has been built and put on another firehouse - which is also our Village's backup EOC now.
I believe anytime we come up short on something, that should be the last time. If we don't learn from our mistakes, we are doing a disservice to everyone.

The Regs do establish a standard compliment of hose and some modifications for winter operations. The Regs stipulate a total amount that must be carried, but companies do make modifications based on their response area. A standard hose bed might consist of the following:
2 beds are the same: 6 lengths of 1-3/4" on top of 10 lengths of 2-1/2". This gives you 2 16-length attack beds. More than 6 lengths of 1-3/4" is not permitted.
1 bed of 2-1/2" , 10 or 12 lengths. Attack line for commercial fires.
1 bed of 3-12", usually 10 lengths. This might be used to relay to another engine, supply a tower ladder or multi-versal or to inline pump from a hydrant.
3 lengths of 2-1/2" are kept as "roll-ups" for standpipe operations and are stored on the ledge below the suction on the chauffeurs side. One additional "roll-up" is stored in a compartment.
All engines have 500gal of water. (There might be some exceptions in remote parts of Staten Island where companies have 750gal tanks, but I'm not 100%)

Yes, there is a valve.
I'll answer your questions in the order you've got listed.
1. The top three are flexible hard suction, for drafting. That's why they're stored higher up, in the less accessible position. The bottom, smaller length isn't really suction. We CALL it soft suction, but it isn't rigid. It's is our go to hydrant connection, at least here in the Bronx and the areas of Manhattan I'm familiar with. It's 10' long and is flexible and foldable. It's easy and quick for the engine chauffeur to hook up alone. Once the hydrant is open, that 4" diameter length will expand to maintain its shape regardless of how it's bent.
2. During high pressure ops, the chauffeur will use either the officer side discharge or the rear, whichever is more conducive to stretching to the Siamese. Never on the panel side, there is no HP discharge there.
3. This was answered, but again, it's just a meter showing the position of the valve. I find them to be useless. What does it matter what position the valve is in? You have the pressure gauge and the flow meter and the numbers they show are what determine whether you have to gate down or open up......or up the master on the pro-pressure governor.

maybe plated for delivery from the shop???

maybe plated for delivery from the shop???

End of the day and week shots sent from the shop, the guys are working tomorrow to complete the punch list from our last visit.
Hose bed lighting supplied are 4- Whelan 3" round White/Red LED installed at each end of the bed in each partitioned area, the partitions are adjustable as well, under the photos of the lights installed is a link to show what these lights are like, it will be nice to be able to change the lights to red or red/white at night so they are not so bright when packing hose and the lights are shining directly in your eyes. Yes I see the bolt sticking up in the second photo for the hose bed divider, we'll get that corrected, don't want any hose getting hung-up


http://www.sirennet.com/wh3s.html
The cab brow light bracket was painted flat black from the aluminum at our request to help reduce flash back from the inner light bar, the light bar was also tilted down, these two items eliminated the flash back

Looking down past the CAFS air compressor fan you can see some of the components for the CAFS systems as well as the vents placed at the ends of the 3 suction compartments to help keeping this area vented.

Fire extinguisher placed and rubber wheel well opening installed, we went with the rubber to match the cab.

This is a pump that allows higher pressure discharges for high rise buildings. There are three impellers in the pump to boost the pressure 3 times allowing operators to overcome the elevation loss when crews are operating on upper floors of buildings that do not have fire pumps (or working fire pumps) on the standpipe system. This requires special high pressure hose to hook from the pumper into the FDC on the building but by the time the water gets to the fire floor you can use standard pressure hose since crews will experience normal pressures due to the elevation pressure loss. Without the ability to pump the proper pressure the crews will not have adequate pressure or flow to fight the fire. Think of how many buildings in Manhattan that are over 30 stories tall...
Most pumpers in the nation have either single or two stage pumps.
Hope this helps and its not too complicated.

FDNY High Water Evacuation Truck
2013 International 4x4/Ferrara
Shop # IM13006
Note these are not only used for evacuation purposes, but to get firefighters and equipment to and from scenes in flood situations.

FDNY's new Engine 34, a 2013 Seagrave with a three stage high pressure 2000GPM pump.

Data Sheet: http://www.gamewell-fci.com/datasheets/CS-2261.pdf

I got a few also

Pawling our neighbors to the South has a B.R.A.T (Brush Rapid Attack Truck) under construction at the Firematic Shop on LI in Shirley N.Y, the same location that built our BRAT as well as are building our Engine. Here are the specifications of their unit.
2013 Ford F550 2 Door Cab 4x4 Chassis with 19,500 lbs. GVW Super Single Aggressive Tread 19.5" Interco Irok Tires Heavy Duty Aluminum Fabricated Flatbed with FEA Tested Roll Bar Pro Poly 250 Gallon Protector Tank CET 19 HP Diesel Pump w/ Remote Cab Start/Stop Scotty Class A Foam Around the Pump Eductor Akron Brass Valves and S/S Manifold 1.5" Rear Direct Discharge Electric Primer Large Deadlay Hose Bed Area Elkhart Sidewinder Remote Control Front Deckgun Two (2) Electric Hannay Reels to Hold 1" Booster on Water Tank Front Warn Trans 4 Mer Grill and Bumper Guard Side Aluminum Pipe Nerf Bars and Side Steps Three (3) Aluminum Diamond Plate Compartments with ROM Roll Up Doors Whelen LED Lighting and Siren Two (2) Receiver Tubes Under Each Side Front Body . Photos added with permission from David Horton of Firematic, I am traveling to Firematic on Monday and will get some updated shots of the unit, Seth will be going too so I am sure he will be bringing along his camera as well.

People wanting to make decisions about a service that they don't really understand.

This is a rural fire district in Central Oregon, sorry for the indoor shots it's was not a good weather day. I didn't want the students to have to clean the rigs. It's a combination department with a very good resident student program.

The next generation of FDNY ambulances. 2013 Ford F-350/Wheeled Coach
Special thanks to Anderson Fland for the awesome spy shots!

Personally i think part of the problem is with the terminology commonly used Such as "mutual aid" which I feel is used to mask the problem that plagues our area.
From what I was originally taught and understood was that "mutual aid" meant 1) you needed additional resources such as manpower, or additional apparatus to assist you at the scene. 2) you need a specific reasource that you or another agency/department don't not have 3) you are already committed to a incident or whatever and need "mutual aid" to handle an additional call while you operate at your initial incident.
But, what I see "mutual aid" used for around here is a loophole to cover up the all but true actuality of what many have pointed out here that calls are going unanswered. I would like to see is the term (FTR) "Failure To Respond" used which would keep agency's/ departments more accountable for their inability to perform their primarily function and respond to emergencies within the acceptable standard. If that were actually used the facts would be presented front and center to the public and state that there is a problem and it needs to be addressed. Otherwise it just seems like this problem will continue to fly under the radar and put the public and first responders In danger.
Just my 2 cents.

Alachua County Spec Ops.

Here are pictures taken in my travels through out Florida...from the back roads to the big cities. I'll start with Alachua County. Heavy Rescue 16.

Yes, this is absurd. But really, it shouldn't be about unions or representation. The overwhelming majority of firefighters/EMS are not members of a union, nor are our military. This is about what kind of country we have become. A country searching for loopholes to avoid responsibility, that can't distinguish right from wrong, knows no ethics, adheres to no moral code. I don't know how all these things work, I just think if you lose your life in the service of your country or community, your surviving spouse should receive your paycheck and benefits, adjusted as if you remained on the job, until he or she re-marries or takes on a permanent significant other. And, that's in addition to whatever lump sums are provided as the initial death benefit.
Same for all the military coming home missing limbs and minds. The cost of caring for these people can't be more than a rounding off of a line on a budget. Some gave some, some gave all, and they or their survivors should be compensated properly.
Thank God for programs like 'Wounded Warrier Project' and the generosity of the public. But we shouldn't need these and similar programs in this country. We should take care of those who served without reservation for as long as needed. That we need these programs is a disgrace and a national embarrassment.