grumpyff

Just another paid position on a rotten fish. Being paid is not always the answer. How about every volunteer on this board, or better yet in this area write a letter and make a copies. Send one to FASNY, and the others to your elected officials demanding the same training as our paid counterparts. Professional firefighter training (and yearly refresher training) is written into law, remove the professional (paid) label so that firefighter training for both volunteer and paid is the same. The state will have find additional funding in the budget to accomplish this. FASNY would also have to be persuaded to support this. I think a lot of the problems we see in this area would improve. Might put a dent in some of the recruitment efforts, but maybe the ones who complain about training are not the people we want joining.

Personally to me it is dead. Stabbed in the back to the point I left, and haven't looked back

The newest addition...the 2013 Ford Police Interceptor. The first marked units have arrived and entered service within the last month. Here is a cell phone pics of one assigned to Highway 1 in the Bronx. The size of it surprised me at first, almost the size of the outgoing Ford CVPI. The inside looks well set up (no photos at this time)

Personally to me it is dead. Stabbed in the back to the point I left, and haven't looked back

The newest addition...the 2013 Ford Police Interceptor. The first marked units have arrived and entered service within the last month. Here is a cell phone pics of one assigned to Highway 1 in the Bronx. The size of it surprised me at first, almost the size of the outgoing Ford CVPI. The inside looks well set up (no photos at this time)

The newest addition...the 2013 Ford Police Interceptor. The first marked units have arrived and entered service within the last month. Here is a cell phone pics of one assigned to Highway 1 in the Bronx. The size of it surprised me at first, almost the size of the outgoing Ford CVPI. The inside looks well set up (no photos at this time)

Thats great, but what happens when the department or departments around you do not share your desire for training? Do you as an officer in charge call them for mutual aid, or do you bypass them. Just search for topics on this board using the term 'Yonkers' to get your answer. It happens frequently in Westchester, and is one of the problems facing the fire service in Westchester

Personally to me it is dead. Stabbed in the back to the point I left, and haven't looked back

Personally to me it is dead. Stabbed in the back to the point I left, and haven't looked back

As everyone here knows, or should know, NFPA Standards are just that; standards. They are glorified recommendations that NFPA boards of specialists suggest we follow in our agencies. They are not requirements, but standards put together by a board of experts in the field and offered as suggestions of what we as fire departments should strive to follow. These standards are then taken and voted on and turned into state and local laws, if approved. BUT...If you fail to follow what a board of experts suggested resulting in a serious injury or death??? Courts will rip you apart for that as a chief, whether you are a volunteer or career chief.
That is the issue, you were one of the only ones to write them your concerns. What needs to happen is ALL of us need to write FASNY and our local government and the state requesting these changes as a whole body of concerned firefighters. I will be doing this soon myself so if anyone is interested in collaborating let me know, we can write a decent letter if we put many minds to the task.
I agree completely with the physical standards being the same as well. Too many firefighters are dropping with heart related and unknown medical causes during and after the response. How many times have we all read about LODD that happened at the station AFTER the call was over? Firefighters found in their bunks, or in the shower deceased?? We are dropping like flies because we are not physically fit, and it needs to change. Dont get me wrong, my nickname is moose for a reason; not because I am a muscle bound freak, but because I have a convenient shelf to put my plate at dinner time or my beer while watching football, and I need to loose it BIGTIME. I am a chief, and the message I am sending the members is the wrong one. If we had standards for physical fitness I would have worked hard to keep my post-high school physique I had after playing baseball; I was 195 pounds and in the best shape of my life...now the only shape I am in is round. We as volunteers need to have the same training and the same physical fitness standards as the career departments do, and as someone already said above, if we end up loosing people because of the increase in standards then they are the ones we did not need int he first place. Im all for change, and its needed.

100% correct, and this is also why our new called "Senior Men" are not the "Senior Men" of 20 + yrs ago. Many are just as lazy and don't lead by example anymore or take the bull by the horns and pass their bad habits onto the Junior men and encourage them to do the same. "Tradition" in the Fire Service is becoming a thing of the past unfortunately. The Job has become nothing more then a paycheck!

I wanted to find out what everyones thoughts were on brotherhood in the fire service and maybe hear some memories of what a good strong brotherhood should be like.
Brotherhood to me is dead. I dont see it anymore and if it is claimed to be alive its fake and only for certain "Cliques" in the department; if you are not a member you dont exist.
The fire service should be a second family, which is why we call each other "brother" or "Sister", but you should MEAN what you say, and ACT as family and not just talk a big game.
When I was young and on Long Island with my father in my first department, I was constantly at the firehouse with him since I was in diapers. Most of the membership had actually changed my diapers or babysat for me or picked me up from school once when my dad was hurt bad in a construction accident where he works and brought to the hospital to my mother who was already there. Then a bunch of them STAYED at the hospital until my dad was stable, running errands for my mom, getting my mom, brother and I food...It was a true family.
When I became a member upstate it was a different world. I was a member for 9 years when my 2 year old son passed away, and only 2 members; thats right, only TWO members came to my sons funeral. None of them came to the hospital when he was there, or to our house to see if we needed anything...it was not a family.
I am in department number 4 now, and the last department I will be in because we just got our first house. But the department has very little "brotherhood" and as a chief I am trying to change that. I am trying to get more department functions, and trying to get the members to call each other more and help each other more. But you can't force something or order something like brotherhood on your members, it needs to be genuine and from the heart and meant for the entire department, right down to that annoying guy who keeps irritating the hell out of you at drills and meetings.
Brotherhood...Does it still exist in your area?

Just another paid position on a rotten fish. Being paid is not always the answer. How about every volunteer on this board, or better yet in this area write a letter and make a copies. Send one to FASNY, and the others to your elected officials demanding the same training as our paid counterparts. Professional firefighter training (and yearly refresher training) is written into law, remove the professional (paid) label so that firefighter training for both volunteer and paid is the same. The state will have find additional funding in the budget to accomplish this. FASNY would also have to be persuaded to support this. I think a lot of the problems we see in this area would improve. Might put a dent in some of the recruitment efforts, but maybe the ones who complain about training are not the people we want joining.

Sadly yes, in NYS the only mention of firefighter training relates to professional (paid) firefighters. A professional firefighter in an academy in NYS will receive 200+ hours of training, plus mandatory refresher training every year they are on the job. A volunteer firefighter will get around 90 hours in Firefighter I, with refresher training a bare minimum as required by OSHA (in NYS..PESH), with no requirement to train further. Some, like myself are grandfathered in, I took the old Basic Essentials of Firemanship, a grand total of 39 hours of training, with no requirement to take additional classes. I cant remember the exact numbers (or legal statutes off the top of my head) that mandate training.
In NYS, many volunteer fire departments are a taxing entity. They determine their budget, and tax rate, and submit to the town to collect it for them. Some towns/villages have no say in the fire department budget, either in the tax rate collected, or how the money is spent. Others are controlled by the town/village with input from the fire chiefs, or a board of commissioners (or trustees, whatever system the use). IN the lower part of NYS (Long Island, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam) it is not a lack of money or access to equipment that is causing problems.

Just another paid position on a rotten fish. Being paid is not always the answer. How about every volunteer on this board, or better yet in this area write a letter and make a copies. Send one to FASNY, and the others to your elected officials demanding the same training as our paid counterparts. Professional firefighter training (and yearly refresher training) is written into law, remove the professional (paid) label so that firefighter training for both volunteer and paid is the same. The state will have find additional funding in the budget to accomplish this. FASNY would also have to be persuaded to support this. I think a lot of the problems we see in this area would improve. Might put a dent in some of the recruitment efforts, but maybe the ones who complain about training are not the people we want joining.

Good luck with FASNY....I wrote them years ago when I was working as both a CFI and SFI and when the state went from the Basic, Int, and advanced cirriculum to FF1 and FF2. I expressed my concern that the time has come that we (volunteers) need to come up to par with the rest of the country with training. I felt that the FF1 as we have now was not enough for entry level and should include FAST, AVET, and HAZ-OPS at a minumum. Got no where.

On the contrary in NY paid firefighters have mandatory basic and in-service training. Volunteers do not although most volunteer deparments do require FF! and some FF2 as well but that is under home rule and not dictated by the state.

Just another paid position on a rotten fish. Being paid is not always the answer. How about every volunteer on this board, or better yet in this area write a letter and make a copies. Send one to FASNY, and the others to your elected officials demanding the same training as our paid counterparts. Professional firefighter training (and yearly refresher training) is written into law, remove the professional (paid) label so that firefighter training for both volunteer and paid is the same. The state will have find additional funding in the budget to accomplish this. FASNY would also have to be persuaded to support this. I think a lot of the problems we see in this area would improve. Might put a dent in some of the recruitment efforts, but maybe the ones who complain about training are not the people we want joining.

Just another paid position on a rotten fish. Being paid is not always the answer. How about every volunteer on this board, or better yet in this area write a letter and make a copies. Send one to FASNY, and the others to your elected officials demanding the same training as our paid counterparts. Professional firefighter training (and yearly refresher training) is written into law, remove the professional (paid) label so that firefighter training for both volunteer and paid is the same. The state will have find additional funding in the budget to accomplish this. FASNY would also have to be persuaded to support this. I think a lot of the problems we see in this area would improve. Might put a dent in some of the recruitment efforts, but maybe the ones who complain about training are not the people we want joining.

Just another paid position on a rotten fish. Being paid is not always the answer. How about every volunteer on this board, or better yet in this area write a letter and make a copies. Send one to FASNY, and the others to your elected officials demanding the same training as our paid counterparts. Professional firefighter training (and yearly refresher training) is written into law, remove the professional (paid) label so that firefighter training for both volunteer and paid is the same. The state will have find additional funding in the budget to accomplish this. FASNY would also have to be persuaded to support this. I think a lot of the problems we see in this area would improve. Might put a dent in some of the recruitment efforts, but maybe the ones who complain about training are not the people we want joining.

FOUND and ok!

I know many Career Chiefs that have gotten that position because they were the "popular guy" or the only one who "volunteered" for the Job! How about raising the 'bar" to get accepted and meet some specific standards and not worry as much about 'quotas" and offending certain groups! Let's begin moving forward in this manner by hiring the most qualified to be able to actually carry out that "Oath" we recite! Whatta ya say?

New Photos of E-105 2013 Seagrave -Photos by E106MKFD

1/2 Hour in

Two Chiefs , two Firefighters, NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO PUMP THIS RIG ???? sorry had to