FDNY 10-75

After many, many years of an outdated, poorly organized website, Wheeled Coach has finally redesigned their site to be relevant:
http://wheeledcoach.com/

Why do EMS agencies need to provide their own rescue services? How many fully self sufficient fire departments are there handling their own investigation and prosecution? Members trained to work with firefighters in rescue operations is just as effective. Or should firefighters be providing the rescue, treatment and transport for all fire victims while EMS handles the MVAs? What about a car accident involving fire? Police are capable of investigating accidents after fire performs the extrication. EMS handles victims of crime without PD taking over treatment and transport. Why is an accident or building collapse, fire victim any different?
Fire based first response is just a stop-gap way of filling a gap in coverage. Some of the bigger changes in EMS recently have been the emphasis on prompt transport to appropriate facilities. Great, you have the medic there but what good is that medic without a bus for your CVA, MI, GI bleed, etc. Wouldn't the patient be better served providing a paramedic ambulance rather than a paramedic engine? If fire based is truly a better service, why allow the patient to be handed off to a lower quality provider for transport? But this goes back to my original assertion that the IAFF did not get into this for altruistic reasons. They found a need, communities needed to get care to their patients faster; that fit their needs, they needed more productivity for their members. People still need that fast initial response, but they also need rapid transport.
Healthcare is absolutely government run. The biggest single customer in any hospital system is Medicaid and medicaid dictates many of the policys and procedures hospitals and the insurance industry follow. On a more local level the single biggest hospital system in NYC is HHC running many of the city's larger hospitals and all over the country there are municipal hospital systems. On every insured patient or cash patient that can't afford the full bill, the hospital loses money if they are not admitted. Hospitals want as many patients as they can because that means more admissions. They do not want the minor complaints that are choking these over crowded emergency rooms. Find them a way to keep the hospital packed and ER empty and they will jump at the opportunity.
Not too long ago the idea of specialty referral centers for EMS was seen as just as risky as transport refusal and treat and release programs. Things change, and agencies across the country are trying different means of keeping the BS out of the system. Saying that EMS should only be used for Emergencies is ridiculous. 911 should only be used for emergencies. Just as fire departments have evolved to handle more than fires EMS needs to adjust and handle more than just "emergencies".

Timothy Galanryk purposed the idea of a water pipe line system on his show Inspector America on the History Channel. A great idea; but since it is, it probably wont happen.

2-Years, Miss ya' Bud!

Thank you to all. My wife Helen, who I called "Pumpkin" gave up her battle with lung cancer on Saturday morning Oct 1, 2011. She was such a good wife. Very mellow and low keyed. To this day, she looked the same way she did when I married her on Oct 9, 1976. Even after all those chemo and cancer treatments, she could still pass for a beautiful 25 year old. She just never aged.
Our first date was on Valentines Day, February 14, 1975. We went to see a new movie out about a high rise fire called "Towering Infernio". I told her that I was on the list to get on the fire dept. But I really don't think she was too impressed.
Our second date, I had to stop back home because I had forgotten to take the tickets for the show we were going to see. I invited her in for a few minutes and she talked with my mother. Later when I came home, she said to me "that's the girl you're going to marry". She was right and we would have celebrated our 34th Wedding Anniversary on Oct 9th.
"Pumpkin" was an Angel. She died peacefully at Backus Hospital in Norwich, Ct. Those nurses were the Greatest.

Since the SEALS took out Bin Laden, and walked out of his compound with a treasure trove of computers and information, Al Qaeda leaders/bomb makers/planners are being picked off all over the world. I think it's only a matter of time before they get Al Zawahiri, the number two guy, the Egyptian doctor with the ugly birthmark on his forehead (makes a nice target for one of our sharp-shooters).
It took ten years to find Bin Laden, but what a gratifying feeling to learn our boys took him out. He was a crafty evil bastard, hiding in a Pakistani garrison town basically in plain sight, but in the end he wasn't able to outsmart the greatest military the world has ever known. And his over-confidence that he wouldn't be caught led to that mound of information he had in his possession about all of his lackeys, these sicko jihadis that multiplied like the cockroaches they are.
The one guy that I yearn for the news of his imminent departure from the world is one Adam Ghadan; the American mouthpiece traitor who's been trash talking our country since 9/11, making his videos about how evil America is. Can you believe this P.O.S. is a native Californian?
It's awesome to know how relentless our military has been in pursuing and bringing these terrorists to the ultimate justice they deserve; death at the hands of our soldiers.
It's been a tough price we've paid in blood. We've lost thousands of soldiers, and tens of thousands more have suffered horrific injuries.
But just like they initially named a camp early in the Iraq War after Ron Bucca, FDNY Fire Marshall K.I.A. on 9/11, the military has never wavered from the mission to get the miserable scum who attacked us; and took from us some of the greatest firemen and cops of our generation; and thousands of innocent people who just went to work on a bright sunny day in September, ten years ago.
The message is; you hit us hard, then ran and hid. But one by one, you're all going down.
It's hard to keep remembering year after year that our troops are still on the mission, and will not stop until the job is finished, and we get every last one of those responsible for attacking our country. Never Forget.

Amazing how the people who MAKE these decisions always have a secure job :angry:

Lawyer: Fire company consolidation would ease volunteer shortage
By W. T. Eckert
Register-Star
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
http://www.registerstar.com/articles/2011/09/27/news/doc4e814ef12187c316655664.txt

http://blogs.bostonmagazine.com/boston_daily/2011/09/28/learning-tragedy-boston-fire-department/
Learning from Tragedy at the Boston Fire Department
On the afternoon of January 9, 2009, the brakes on Ladder Company 26 failed, and the truck ran down Parker Street in Mission Hill, cutting across Huntington Street, and crashing into a building, taking the life of Lt. Kevin Kelley and injuring the driver and several other passengers.
Following the accident, the City commissioned an outside study of the Boston Fire Department’s fleet management practices that put forward some harsh findings about the BFD and provided a clear set of recommendations. The study found that the fleet’s management was largely haphazard, as evidenced by a vicious cycle of poorly qualified mechanics who either did questionable work or were unable to properly judge work done by outside vendors, so firefighters became reluctant to report problems and get trucks serviced. A separate inquiry into the crash found multiple breakdowns in protocol — improper parts, limited testing, weak documentation.
Click on link for complete article

Has a photo shoot at Cambell Supply In New Jersey

I think I would trust a trained NYPD officer with a sidewinder more than I would trust Barack Obama.
At least the cop passed a background check.
Just sayin'

Another crisis was avoided due to the home CO and Gas Detector. At around 1:30 Am today, I was awoken by the loud piercing alarm of my CO and Gas Detector. I ran down the stairs to see what alarm was sounding and yelling to my wife to get the kids. I grabbed the detector from the wall outlet and it was displaying GAS. Not smelling any gas and the unit immediately went silent and reset. Thinking it was a malfunction my attention was then turned to the noise of my dog at the back door. He had to go out. I opened the door and out he ran finding the closest patch of grass and immediately evacuated himself due to a bad case of diarrhea. It appears that as my dog was making his way to the rear door he expelled some gas activating the CO/Gas Alarm. The alarm in turn alerted me to my dogs impending disastrous situation within my house, which was promptly averted.
So remember to check your smoke, CO and gas detectors monthly and replace the batteries twice a year.

Some recent photos of Mount Vernon's apparatus