Random Hang Out Topic

LOL, it's 1 in the morning and my friend and I are watching Smosh videos.

About that 4 alarm fire in my town I was talking about last week:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/four-alarm_blaze_destroys_unio.html

We are a paid department, and the fire was literally right around the corner from Station 3, so Engine 3 was on scene in about 10 seconds. I think the second website I post actually has a picture of the fire station, with the house fire behind it, and a ladder truck parked in the parking lot spraying the fire. (and apparatus from the cover assignment parked on the apron)

Anyway, found two websites that both have really good pictures. Both have really good pictures, and both had different pictures of the fire, and some cool shots of the apparatus you guys may like.

First, (NJ Fireground Photos):
http://www.njfiregroundphotos.com/2011StructureFires/Union-NJ-4-Alarm-House-Fire/15795396_oUrsb#1184302683_MyjP6

Second, (Union Firefighters):
http://unionfirefighters.org/2011PotterAve.html

I like that Pierce in the first link!

Haha, yeah all of the trucks are Pierce, and I love them all. We have Pierce Quantum, Pierce Enforcer, Pierce Arrow, the Ladder (Truck 3) is a Pierce Dash, one reserve ladder (Truck 2) is an older model Dash, and the other reserve ladder (Truck 1) is a 1982 Mack.

The 2 fire ambulances are Chevy 4500 cabs, the other one is a ford Van-bulance.

The 6 regular EMS ambulances are all Ford E450 Cabs, some made by Road Rescue, some made by Horton.

Truck 3 is my personal favorite :

http://fdnytrucks.com/images/otherstates/northnj/UnionT3-2.jpg

are you in like a big city or just a pretty populated suburban area? and what are the requirements to join your dept?

jw

We are about the size of a small city, and very urban. We border two large cities. EMS gets anywhere between 5-20 calls per day, fire has 3 stations, and goes on 10+ calls a day.

Fire department requirements, I'm not too sure yet. I know you have to take a civil service test, and if the town you take it for doesn't accept you, there are 2 other towns that are allowed to take you if they wanted. I'll be taking that test soon though. If I find out anything I'll let you know.

EMS is half volunteer, half per-diem. Even though it is mainly volunteer, it still operates as a city department. For example, you have to stay with your ambulance and crew the entire shift, Try to spend as little amount of time on scene as possible (This means that once on-scene treatments done, either RMA or get in the ambulance and go, the chart can be completed on the way to the hospital).

The nice thing is that all of the firefighters are EMTs, so if your crew bails on you, you can call in service as "Driver only", then an engine will be dispatched to the medicals, and a firefighter/emt will ride in the back. And if there is no ambulance available, or nobody shows up for their shift, the fire ambulance can take it.

thats crazy usually its the other way around fire is vollie and emt is paid haha and find out when you get a chance I always kinda wanted to be a paid FF instead of just a vollie but I dont wanna try like you know a huge city haha cause I like smaller places or atleast places that dont look as urban

Try FDNY when you get the gall....hahaha. I don't wanna worry my mother so I won't join.

Haha, yeah. If you look up Union, NJ on Google Earth, you'll see it's fairly big and urban, but also a lot of residential. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that it's very dense. It's an urban, dense town, it's got a downtown, but all of the stores and restaurants over on Route 22 is kind of a second downtown. Many homes, (especially near the main roads) are multi-family homes or apartments.

FDNY is crazy tough to get into because everyone wants in it and like i said I dont wanna work for a huge city one you know LA or NY if you know the name to the city i dont wanna work in it haha i wanna work in it haha

All the information I have for you, is some scoring on the Civil Service Test.

Being a volunteer gives you some extra points, but coming out of the military gives you a ton of extra points. It may as well be an automatic acceptance. I've heard that the kind of questions are ones like:

"A window is 5 feet tall, there is 3 feet between the ground and the first story window, and there is 10 feet between in each window. How many feet is it from the ground to the 5th story window?"

haha really.....thats like 5th grade math stuff

So.. what.. 53-58 feet?

3+5+10+5+10+5+10+5+10+5

63-68 depending on if you want to top or bottom of the window

p.s. you should talk to the fire chief and see if ther hiring and if there is anyway I can apply and take the test over the internet someway obviously I'd relocate if I actually got hired but to relocate just to apply makes little sense haha and how old do you have to be 18 or 21?

wroth of another post check out this video our station just put up.

Pretty awesome I have to say. Are those the engines they have now?

Ahhh, Im so scared right now. Kids in my district are being held up at gun point at their bus stops, makes me feel like I should get up and walk my butt to skwl.

That's crazy! You better be careful or they'll come after you! MUAHAHAHA

J. Hannahan wrote:Pretty awesome I have to say. Are those the engines they have now?

Idk which ones your talking about so here are all engines we have



We have a squad and small rescue 2

I was talking about the second engine. The old looking ones...... It's cool that there is an FDNY patch on the truck to commemorate 9/11.

both our engines and all our ambulances have the FDNY patch from 9/11 I can't rembmer but I dont think the squad or rescue do just because there so small we dont have a ton of free space and the old one E-72 is our baby she like an old pick up truck old and beat but works like a champ were lookin to sell the white one E-71 looking into buy a ladder or squirt or something of that sort

I just heard the quint and tower and school today. They were flyin somewhere! I saw the quint returning to the station on the way home though. Just curious, how's the weather by you guys? Here it's supposed to be 60 degrees tomorrow!

50 in Minnesota.

Pretty warm today. Just came back from a walk through my subdvision. I got chased by a dog on no leash and it chased me but on the other ised of the road. It barked and barked but it was probably telling me to keep away though. I was scared as crap though haha. I just didn't look at it and it jumpes on its lawan while I was walking on the other side of the street. It was kinda disturbing for me lol.

Oh geez Hannahan...sounds like something I'd do...but good thing I'm a fast runner!

M. Cressler wrote:
p.s. you should talk to the fire chief and see if ther hiring and if there is anyway I can apply and take the test over the internet someway obviously I'd relocate if I actually got hired but to relocate just to apply makes little sense haha and how old do you have to be 18 or 21?

I already know you won't be able to take it online. The civil service test is from teh state and it's a pen & paper test. When you take it, it means that if hired, it will be either by the town that the address (that you provide when you sign up for the test) is in, and 2 other departments are allowed to accept people form other towns.

And to take the test I'm pretty sure it's 18.

Hmm okay that makes the situation slightly more complicated haha

55 today in western ny

Today, it like 68 here in mid-VA. I didn;t even need my coat. I could've went out with a short sleeve shirt haha.

I know. It was 60 today and I had a sweatshirt on and I was fine. It's cloudy though, so that kinda ruins it.

Saint Louis Finally regaining control of their own police department, hopefully this will take us out of the top dangerous cities. :-/

Well, I hope it get's yall out of the top dangerous cities.

It not violent crimes, its more so property crimes right now.

Who had control of it? State?

Oh I see, my dad (Who is a Sergeant with the Arkansas State Police) told me a story of something that happened here in Arkansas once. Little Rock PD wanted better wages, so most of the officers called in sick. So the city asked the State Police to cover the city. Well they did but crime dropped dramaticly with about 30 something troopers covering about 800,000 people. Apparently the troopers were arresting so many people, that everyone was telling each other to stay home or they will arrest you. That lasted about one day, then the city approved the raises.

State controls it, but its still the STLMPD, not MOHP. City has no authority over it. They have represenitives, but not a real big decision.

Yeah like here, the local police handles calls like small robberies, animal control, distubances, etc. But I live in a good neighborhood, so there aren't a lot of those calls. I think the cops respond to mostly car accidents or pulling somebody over rather than the other stuff. Everything else like arrests, raids, and stuff like that is handled by the county. They have the fast Chargers and the mobile command center. We once saw the SWAT team training in an alley behind our school, as it's right by the police station and there's a house used for law enforcement training.

Yea, Saint Louis County ironicly does not include Saint Louis, Saint Louis succeeded from the county some time around the civil war, when State took over the Police Department.

Oh I see. There's a county like that here in Indiana. Like there's a county, then the town with the county's name is in another county.

They did it only because at the time saint louis county was largly undevolped, and they were paying taxes for farmers, but it came back to haunt them, because now most if it is in devolped, we would be paying their high taxes.

Oh wow haha. Everything's about taxes...

Yeah, no kidding.

Yea. Pretty much. I think they obviously would see that state controlled isnt working out well, and that maybe, we should try and change our strategy.

Well hopefully they can fix it before it gets to bad.

Nationwide is on your side.

Husband: Like a good neighbor state farm is there. Wife: But, we have progressive. Husband: Oh. . . .

haha, gota love ya some insurance commercials.

That's for sure. About as funny as the superbowl halftime. . . . Well it was more messed up, but still.

Wow LOL! I know it was terrible. Anyway, Lego Coast Fire Department pics are up!

Yeah, best part was when it was over. lol