Random Hang Out Topic

Our dept needs a 3rd station because the town is kinda divided by a huge highway (Route 41). Plus, the town extends down Route 41, so we need a station on the other side. They say that average response times need to be under 4 mins, and it takes that long just to get to Route 41 from the station, maybe even more.

Huh, sounds to me that they thought that there was a short somewhere, not that there was any fire.

I live in a town of roughly 4800. We are a paid on call dept, not something I fully agree with, and we train every monday night. We do have a few showy Firefighters, and that includes an Explorer too. I would say something but the Explorer be the chief's god son. I am hoping the the chief can see some of the people for what they are, but I doubt anything will be done as Vollies are in short supply around here.

We have a combination dept, 4 FF/PMs on each shift and vollies respond when needed.

Nearby town had a pretty good fire I took an ambulance to this morning:

News Story and pictures:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/five-alarm_fire_at_scotch_plai.html

Wow, did the whole house burn down or what, cuz the fire was through the roof...And are you guys volunteer? You have all the names on the tags I noticed...

Yeah, it was burned pretty good. I think the entire townhouse block there is not livable.

And this wasn't my town, my town is paid, I think the town the fire was in is volunteer. But after I heard the second alarm get toned out on the mutual aid frequency, then after a request for ems myself and somebody else brought an ambulance over.

OK, cuz my dad's dept does that tag thing. The TO is responsible for the tags and to keep track of who's on what truck.

Yeah that's just the accountability tags. Every department in the county uses them, and the Mutual Aid Coordinator keeps track of them at the scene.

My county is small, so we have a mutual aid system that determines what apparatus and what towns will be sent to cover assignments or to the scene, and there are 12 Mutual Aid Coordinators, these 12 Coordinators are all chiefs or deputy chiefs from towns around the county.

Here's more info about our Mutual Aid system and coordinators:

http://ucnj.org/government/public-safety/emergency-management/mutual-aid/

Huh, that's cool. So they could take like a tower from one town and a rescue from another or something?

Yeah, and it depends on the department and how many trucks they have. Here is a Mutual Aid dispatch from the fire this morning just so you can hear an example dispatch:

http://www.edispatches.com/orgs/general/2011-07-06-072503-UnionCountyMA-D237.mp3


And usually the way it works, is if they need apparatus to the scene, a paid truck will go to that, but if it's just a cover assignment, volly towns will be sent to that since they may take longer and probably wont be needed immediately (Unless a paid town is closer)

So for example let's say Union (My town) has a fire. Union Engine 1, 2, 3, Truck 3 and Squad 4 all go to the scene. It's just a kitchen fire, so our apparatus can handle it on their own, so the only Mutual to the scene is a Clark Engine, (Clark is paid).

Then, since all of our apparatus is out, a Elizabeth Ladder and Engine (Paid) and a Springfield Engine (Volly) will be sent (Elizabeth is going because their headquarters is right around the corner from the Elizabeth-Union border).

That's generally how each alarm will work in the county. I believe when it goes above 2 alarms, it's +1 EMS unit for each alarm.

So wait...does Elizabeth like cover for you guys or are they sent to scene?

Oh sorry, forgot to end that example. Our 3 Engines, Squad, and Ladder can handle it, so Yes Elizabeth and Springfield went to fire headquarters for the cover assignment. But if more was required, then those truck at the cover assignment would go to the scene because they are already in town, a new cover assignment would just be toned out, instead of toning out the second or third or whatever alarm.

Cool, so everyone kinda has each other's backs. I like that idea haha, but we have a lot of departments in our county, so it would be hard.

Yup, it's all been planned out so there is never , well rarely confusions when it comes it Mutual Aid in the county.

It might be able to work for a big county like yours, but it would probably have to be split into different overlapping areas.

Yeah but our county is pretty spread out and there are Interstate highways that run through it. I live in Schererville, next to us is Merriville, St. John, Highland, Dyer, Griffith, Lakes of the Four Seasons (I think), Whiting (a half hour away where my dad works), BP Whiting Refinary FD (the dept my dad works for in his refinary), I can go on forever.

Anyone know a good way to fix flat footed running?

Can someone tell me a way to make curved designs like how they do on some firetrucks or vehicles in general in gimp or photoshop like hoppah did?

curved youeither gotta make it with hand or with the one tool idk how to use lol

side note when it rains it pours heard like no sirens no calls in like 2 weeks toady within the hour we had 3 ems criticals and a multi car wreck on the highway with jmultiple entrapment and a fly out

aWESOME

We had a resp distress yesterday morning. Had to use CPAP O2 never got about 60 percent. Used our fresh on board tank and our portable tank. Sucked, because we had another call before we could change them.


On a side note for y'all on ambulances what kind of siren tones do y'all use. I only use wail and yelp only. On open road I use wail since it covers all levels. And yelp/air horn at intersections or when stuck behind morons. We run Whelen, wish we had dual whelens. We have to speakers. Haha

D. Lafferty wrote:On a side note for y'all on ambulances what kind of siren tones do y'all use. I only use wail and yelp only. On open road I use wail since it covers all levels. And yelp/air horn at intersections or when stuck behind morons. We run Whelen, wish we had dual whelens. We have to speakers. Haha

We have Federal Signal PA4000 and an EQ2B

I use wail and electric horn on open, straight roads, only when there's traffic. Occasionally I use the air horn on the straight roads, but not usually.(I try not to overdo it with the sirens). Approaching intersections, I use yelp, if it's a busy, small intersection, I use electric horn, it it's a busy big intersections, I use Air horn. Then on the highway, just wail when necessary when there's light traffic and they're not in my way. I use yelp with EQ2B and air horn if it's busy on the highway.

As you can see, I have a complicated method behind my siren usage lol.

Also, Fire in my town today. News story:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/fire_destroys_union_home_occup.html

The usual picture websites should have them up by tomorrow.

DUDE! So today I was on my way home in my friend's car, ok? I see this dark cloud...so I'm like 'hmm, watevz.' We keep on driving, and I realize it's smoke. I'm like, 'Hey, let's check it out!' So we went on an "adventure" (As my friend says) and found that in the forest, this huge barn was on fire! I mean, this new, gigantic barn was just...wow, it was a big fire. I forgot my iPod, so no pics. But still, they had the reserve trucks out and everything. We saw it responding.

Check out some of these links here, you can see some pics and stuff. I saw that the trucks were still out this morning while they were ripping it apart, but I didn't see the burnt barn though.

Barn Fire

Fire in my town today at my friends house. Thankfully she's alright. But there was fire on the second floor and extensive damage to the rear.

http://madison.patch.com/articles/cat-rescued-from-wayne-boulevard-blaze#photo-6932551

Wow, a lot of fires lately haha. Turns out that all 40 horses survived the barn fire and they're being relocated, but $1 million was lost in damage. It was a new, huge barn. There were 16 TOWNS at the fire!

More pictures from the fire. Extensive damage to the rear, I believe most of the fire was on the second floor. Just glad my friend is okay though. Cause is still under investigation, or if not it hasn't been announced yet.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.178475588882377.46992.101651479898122

Wow, at least she was alright.
P.S., Madison's T1 ladder looks awesome! Japanese looking turntable lol

lol yeah it's nice.

It's not an official word, but I believe there was lightning in the area at the time of the fire, so I'm wondering if it was a lightning strike. But, I don't know. I'll let you know when more pictures/info/cause & origin is released.

Oh boy. And yeah, that's a weird ladder to be seen in America.

They're actually slowly starting to become fairly common. It's made by Rosenbauer I believe, and it's on a SPartan Chassis. I like it, it's small, fast, and fits through the small tunnels under the train tracks, lol. All other apparatus from Madison is E-One, and their old Ladder was a 1981 Mack Aerialscope, and it was a bitch to get under the train tracks, so I think that's really the only reason they went with that instead of another E-One.

Here's pictures of Madisons apparatus:

http://www.fdnytrucks.com/files/html/otherstates/Morris%20County/Madison.htm

I really like that E-One engine. Looks like my dad's engine at work, just a different paintjob.

The Fire Department added 4 new pixtures to their facebook album of my friends hosue fire. They have pictures of the Cat the rscued and put on O2 with an animal mask (Which I still think is really funny lol)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.178475588882377.46992.101651479898122

Haha, there are 4 firefighters just helping that cat!

what a night.
1) I helped set up for the parade start time 6:00-6:55
2)I rode on a truck time 7:00-7:02
3)walked with a boot collecting about 200 dollars time 7:02-8:30ish
4)counted money 8:45-9:00
5)left the station 9:00
6)asked to help supervise fireworks 9:01
7)went to help sup 10:00-10:30
8)set up perimeter for giant dud 10:30-10:35
9)going back to station after picking up firework stuff 11:00
10) done 11:15

What was supposed to be a simple parade, turned out to be one hell of a night.... there goes my scanner for storm watch waiting 1 min and my phone is now ringing... explorer advisor.. c ya

Oh, you have fun! We had a storm yesterday and pool toys and rafts were blown all over the place, so everyone is giving them to us, cuz we're the only ones with a pool. Well, they're not ours, but hey, Score +1 for free stuff!

This was a note left by First Lieutenant Todd Weaver should he die, and was given to his 9 month old daughter. Todd Weaver was killed on September 9, 2010 by an IED. This is the letter to his daughter

wow..thats just..wow..that is so touching, i dont even know what to say, Rest In Peace

May he rest in peace. That's freakin' beautiful!

Oh yes. That's very sad, and I'm sure there are many more letters written like that. May all soldiers Rest In Peace.

My Grandpa served in World War II in the 82nd. He had all his death letters burried with him. He always said writting the letters was one of the hardest if not the hardest thing about his tour.

I was reading a book that takes place during the civil war, and the way the soldiers wrote to their familes was all just...wow. They were so vivid in battle descriptions and everything. Just pretty sad...

I love our little red baby

also notice the yellow line that is charged but still loaded...thats because our freaking engineer pulls the wrong dam handle everyyyyyg time

.

air horns! haha

Yup. Very effective lol. That, along with the EQ2B, and PA4000 siren. Thats actually not our newest one though we got it in 2010, we've gotten like, 2 new ones since that one, lol.

for the record i wanna kill our engineer re-racking hose is annoying enough but un racking charged house getting it empty and re-racking is the most annoying thing ever

IM AN EMT-B NOW WOOOO!!!!! (IRL)

Congrats, take your National and everything huh? I hated that test, but welcome to EMS. Job where you work for little pay and little sleep. haha

Thank you. Well only for the state of VA since I'm a only 17 but next year I'll take nationals. Imma be volly ff to hopfully by the end of the year so that's another plus.