Rescue boat disappears after falling off fire truck

[JetPhoto 626]

Rescue boat disappears after falling off fire truck

By Michael Randall

September 05, 2008

NEW WINDSOR — Whoever has it, the Vails Gate Fire Department wants its boat back.

The boat – a heavy-duty rubber rescue craft – fell off a firetruck on Route 32 while the truck was en route to a call in Cornwall Saturday morning, said Rick Hovey, deputy chief of the town police.

Read more at:

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...0904034/-1/NEWS

[EJS1810 7]

Uhhhh, Chief...................about the boat............

Edited September 5, 2008 by EJS1810

[irishfire2491 24]

A Few things come to mind on this one (I DONT HAVE IT) #1 Why is the truck responding to call when all of the equipment is not secured to the truck. #2 How does the truck driver still respond and not relize he lost something or did catch it and not stop to retreive it. #3 luckly no one was hurt or it caused an accident when it fell off the truck and finally #4 would the police be at fault pulling it to the side and leaving it there?

[smwells 7]

Per article - Boat w/ Paddles and Equipment.. Would seem to me that they got luck no one was injured..

I would think it is a sizable boat that you could not stuff it in the trunk of a car easily.. Other drivers had to see something..

As EJS put it "Uh Chief -- about the boat..." sez it all, someone forgot to secure it.

[Guest]

wow, that's funny!

finders' keepers' - and i wish i found it!

[IzzyEng4 427]

Any one wanna go fishing, I have a new boat........oooopsss.

[Guest MVFD334]

wow, that's funny!

finders' keepers' - and i wish i found it!

u beat me to it..

Edited September 5, 2008 by xfirefighter484x

[helicopper 1,050]

A Few things come to mind on this one (I DONT HAVE IT) #1 Why is the truck responding to call when all of the equipment is not secured to the truck. #2 How does the truck driver still respond and not relize he lost something or did catch it and not stop to retreive it. #3 luckly no one was hurt or it caused an accident when it fell off the truck and finally #4 would the police be at fault pulling it to the side and leaving it there?

With regard to number 4, according to the article the police officer was off-duty, removed it from the roadway to avoid an accident, and notified the FD that it was there. If he was off-duty he was nothing more than a good samaritan and had no responsibility to babysit the boat.

I think the liability rests with number 2. The driver of the truck - either didn't know equipment was insecure and/or kept driving after it fell off.

[efd184 59]

A Few things come to mind on this one (I DONT HAVE IT) #1 Why is the truck responding to call when all of the equipment is not secured to the truck. #2 How does the truck driver still respond and not relize he lost something or did catch it and not stop to retreive it. #3 luckly no one was hurt or it caused an accident when it fell off the truck and finally #4 would the police be at fault pulling it to the side and leaving it there?

The answer to # 1 is that they dont have to check their rigs everyday! The real question should be why not?

[IzzyEng4 427]

The answer to # 1 is that they dont have to check their rigs everyday! The real question should be why not?

I agree 100% with ya.

Doesn't matter what kinda department you are in do a rig check. First thing when you go into work, check your rig and gear. Stopping in at the vollie house? Check out the rig.

[TRUCK6018 50]

I was wondering who left that perfectly good boat lying on the side of the road.

[Guest]

A Few things come to mind on this one (I DONT HAVE IT) #1 Why is the truck responding to call when all of the equipment is not secured to the truck. #2 How does the truck driver still respond and not relize he lost something or did catch it and not stop to retreive it. #3 luckly no one was hurt or it caused an accident when it fell off the truck and finally #4 would the police be at fault pulling it to the side and leaving it there?

Yeah, blame the police for someone else's stupidity.

[JetPhoto 626]

I think they were returning from an incident, doesn't sound like they keep it inflated on top of the truck

[helicopper 1,050]

I think they were returning from an incident, doesn't sound like they keep it inflated on top of the truck

If they were returning from a job why not stop and pick it up themselves or immediately return when notified that it was on the side of the road?

[billy98988 107]

they were responding to an incident, the boat was strapped down. a strap broke. man made objects arent perfect.

[Skooter92 7]

Embarrassing, yes, but it could have been worse. At least they could still perform supression duties. I remember years ago, working as a dispatcher for a commercial service in lower Westchester that had a contract with King Street NH on the Greenwich/P'chester line. Call came in for a chest pain and per management, we sent the nearest available bus: from Montifiore in the Bronx. After they arrived, we got a phone call from the medic asking if we had anyone else in the area. Of course, we didn't (why else would we send them all the way from Monti?). He then informed me that they had left their stretcher, with the o2 bottle and monitor strapped to it, back at Monti. You can guess at the rest of the story.

[EXDC203 38]

You want to blame the driver???? A call comes in............Structure Fire, MVA, EMS.........you respond...... stop & pick up the boat???? Unless you are going to a water rescue..............NO!!!!! Paid or Vollie............No driver checks every piece of equipment on their rig every time they get into the driver seat....

Do You?

[IzzyEng4 427]

You want to blame the driver???? A call comes in............Structure Fire, MVA, EMS.........you respond...... stop & pick up the boat???? Unless you are going to a water rescue..............NO!!!!! Paid or Vollie............No driver checks every piece of equipment on their rig every time they get into the driver seat....

Do You?

As a career man and also a volunteer it is the driver responsibility - period. When I report to my shift at work, I have to not only check the rig I drive but also other rigs that we may use during the day from our station on top of checking my gear, station duties and inspections. Also every week, we have a weekly check scheduled for our rigs on certain days during the week. The daily checks are a quick once over and the weekly through one. At my volunteer company we have a chief driver who performs the overall maintenance of the truck and the weekly checks. The drivers at my vollie company and also the members riding do quick look-over before they leave the station, it takes less than a minute to make sure everything is secured, doors shut, ect.

I'm sorry by saying every driver doesn't check their rig before they drive off is like a person not checking to make sure their POV is drivable before leaving their home. If apparatus drivers are not doing that and something happens while they are going to a call, then they are ultimately responsible to the vehicle safe operation. A court of law would eat you up if you tried to defend your last sentence of your statement. If an accident is cause by a piece of equipment falling off you rig, YOU THE DRIVER ARE RESPONSIBLE.

[jayhalsey 6]

Ultimately the driver is responsible, that is true. But there is only so much a driver can do when checking a rig. Items do fail, and you dont neccessarily know in advance they are going to fail. As was mentioned earlier in the thread, a strap holding the boat down broke. How is anyone supposed to know that will ahppen in advance? True it could have been frayed, but what if it wasn't? Well, the driver didnt stop for it when he saw that the boat had fallen off. Well, if YOU were going to an MVA with a report of entrapment, or a working fire with reports of people still in the structure, would you stop the rig, to retrieve a boat? I have yet to see mention of what kind of call they were going to, or a statement from a reliable source that they didnt return to retrieve the boat as quickly as possible when they could. We dont know what happened. All we do know is that someone grabbed the boat.

Bottom line is this could have happened to anyone, career or volley.

[201/65 94]

They were reponding to a water rescue in the Town of Cornwall. I belive it was actually in their Fire District. Why you would have a zodiak boat strapped to the top of an Engine though is beyond me. Last I knew they had a boat trailer for it.

[billy98988 107]

They were reponding to a water rescue in the Town of Cornwall. I belive it was actually in their Fire District. Why you would have a zodiak boat strapped to the top of an Engine though is beyond me. Last I knew they had a boat trailer for it.

1. it was in cornwalls fire district.

2. its not the new zodiac, which is on a trailer.

3. it was strapped down on top of the rig, when there was no trailer for it. would you rather them walk it 8 miles to the call?

[stephen morea 1]

So hold on, before all this happened they had 2 boats, the one that was stolen and the new zodiac? am I correct? what would happen if you did not get this one back from the scumbag that took it, get a new one to replace it?

[John107 0]

Im not sure if they are going to replace it. There was no trailer for it. The trailer your are thinking about is the one for the new Zodiac at station 1. This boat came from station and there is no trailer for it. When ever they get called for a boat rescue they always throw it on top of the 4 inch and strap it down. Like billy98988 man made objects arent perfect and s*** does happen.

[Bunkers 0]

In leiu of this story... during the Hanna storm, we made sure that our boat was nice and snug on the trailer in case we had to use it. We didnt want any repeats.

[Guest MVFD334]

True it could have been frayed, but what if it wasn't? Well, the driver didnt stop for it when he saw that the boat had fallen off. Well, if YOU were going to an MVA with a report of entrapment, or a working fire with reports of people still in the structure, would you stop the rig, to retrieve a boat? I have yet to see mention of what kind of call they were going to, or a statement from a reliable source that they didnt return to retrieve the boat as quickly as possible when they could. We dont know what happened. All we do know is that someone grabbed the boat.

If the driver saw the boat come off the rig he sure should stop the damn truck. On his way to an mva/ fire or whatever. Dont ya think that boat being in the road might possibly cause an accident? If he didnt see it or he had another rig directly behind him to stop and pick it up or move it to the side then thats a different story, but at least get if off the road.

[mfc2257 464]

Yawn !

I love how a bunch of blowhards opine on how the driver was at fault and how he/she didn't check their rig when in reality, they may have checked the rig and there was a piece of equipment that failed causing the zodiac to come free.... I don’t think we’ll find out after the friendly commentary shown here…

Shame on us for not remembering that these guys are perfect and have upgraded hearing that allows them to hear a strap failing at 50mph over the sound of the radio, Federal Q, and electronic siren... Not to mention the officer in the seat next to them that is issuing pre-arrival instructions to the crew.

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't hear any of the righteous EMTBravo all-stars mention the fact that a pig walked away with fire-rescue property and is probably sitting in their garage with a six-pack trying to figure out how to discretely cover the "Fire Department" writing on the side of the boat.

[billy98988 107]

Yawn !

I love how a bunch of blowhards opine on how the driver was at fault and how he/she didn't check their rig when in reality, they may have checked the rig and there was a piece of equipment that failed causing the zodiac to come free.... I don’t think we’ll find out after the friendly commentary shown here…

Shame on us for not remembering that these guys are perfect and have upgraded hearing that allows them to hear a strap failing at 50mph over the sound of the radio, Federal Q, and electronic siren... Not to mention the officer in the seat next to them that is issuing pre-arrival instructions to the crew.

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't hear any of the righteous EMTBravo all-stars mention the fact that a pig walked away with fire-rescue property and is probably sitting in their garage with a six-pack trying to figure out how to discretely cover the "Fire Department" writing on the side of the boat.

well said.

[Bnechis 3,961]

They were reponding to a water rescue in the Town of Cornwall.

Then when it flew off they became an unequipped taxi. Maybe going back would have been worth the extra minute. The strap just broke...I don't by it. It was either not rated for the job, already damaged, cut on an edge,or not secured to something structural.

For example 1" tubular webbing is rated at 4,000 Ibs. A 13' inflatable is about 200 Ibs. Even with 55mph wind it is not going to just break. After 25 years of technical rescue training I've never seen a rated strap breaking without 1st showing some signs of damage.

[ny10570 745]

I can't believe this is still going on. Someone goofed. Either they didn't properly secure the load, they missed damage to either the strap or they missed damage to the securement points. Maybe they had their house duty the night before and maybe no one had been doing it all month. This thread has degenerated into baseless accusations and assumptions. I have yet to see an incident that couldn't be traced back to a mistake on the part of some individual. Now this dept can figure out screwed up and administer the appropriate discipline.

[billy98988 107]

I can't believe this is still going on. Someone goofed. Either they didn't properly secure the load, they missed damage to either the strap or they missed damage to the securement points. Maybe they had their house duty the night before and maybe no one had been doing it all month. This thread has degenerated into baseless accusations and assumptions. I have yet to see an incident that couldn't be traced back to a mistake on the part of some individual. Now this dept can figure out screwed up and administer the appropriate discipline.

another well said post.