csr

You are not reading incorrectly.

I still have a CVC (crew vehicle communications) helmet from my days in the Army driving M1A1 Abrams tanks. Can I wear that? Please oh please? :wink:

As someone who worked as a paid firefighter/EMT for this city I can say based on first hand knowledge that we are in no way prepared fo an MCI or anything else beyond the average single dwelling house fire or 2 vehicle motor vehicle crash.

I think he knew and decided to roll the dice. Wether he knew or not he had a responsibility to find out. He never asked, "If I fall off my roof is a municipal, tax payer paid ambulance with to Paragods and state of the art medical gear going to pull up in my drive way or will a private ambulance service be sent and I get to pay a bill to AMR or whoever that is equal to a year's salary? If someone breaks into my home is a City paid police force ready to respond or will I have to depend on a sheriff's deputy in a substation 50 miles away to come out to take a report? And if my home catches on fire, where is my local fire department, are they paid or volunteer and what ISO class rating are they?" For much of my adult life I rented apartments. When I put my trash out it was picked up. My lawn was mowed and the outside of my place was painted and the bushes trimmed. When a pater pipe busted or my air conditioner stopped working I called the landlord and it got fixed. I never had a water bill. These services were what I got for paying my rent every month. Just like paying taxes in a large City. I paid for serivices provided where I lived. Then I moved to a new town. I got a manufactured home and had it put on a lot in a park in a good part of town a block from the City Hall and Police station. I had to find out where to go for permits and which services I got from the land lord for paying my rent and what services my town provided. Anything else I would have to fix or provide on my own. Now part of my taxes go to the city to pick up my trash. Now my landlord pays the water bill because we are on a private water line but I have to pay the sewer bill because we are on City sewer. Now, if a pipe busts or my air conditioner stops working I have to fix it myself. I also know that I live in a ISO class 5 fire district served by a combination paid/vollie fire department. I also know my EMS service is a private ambulance service which will bill me an arm and a leg for the pleasure of coming to my home and transporting my fat ass to the nearest ER. It is up to me to know this. What I'm saying is...Everywhere you live will have different services available. It is up to you to find out what the services are when deciding to move to a particular area. In this case, the guy moved to a community which had not provided for funding a public fire service. Around here it would be a ISO Class 10. It was his decision to move there. He was negligent if he didn't find out. A couple miles up the road from me is a mixed residential and business (read-strip mall) community. The crime rate there was skyrocketing and the community rightly felt that the Sheriff's Department was unable to control the problem. So the residents of certain neighborhoods and businesses formed a special Security District and everyone in those areas collectively pay for armed security patrol and responce. What happens when a business or home right across the street from this Security district is robbed or vandalized? Does the Security company have any obligation to respond? Do the residents get to run out and yell to the Security Patrol officer, "Hey! Those guys are breaking into my store. Here's my checkbook. Can I join the Security District now? How much will it cost for you to stop them?" NO. The Security Officer can sit and watch and then drive away saying "Damn Bob, they broke that guys windows and everything. Shame isn't it? I wonder where the deputies were tonight. Oh well. Wanna grab a burger?" Of course, I could be wrong.

In my example I did not mean to imply that State Farm, or any other agency, was to pay for his fire suppression service. I was trying to compare his attempt to pay for the service while the home was on fire to paying for homeowners coverage while it was being destroyed. Same as watching the water rise up your front steps and frantically calling to apply for flood insurance. Too bad too sad. Shoulda thunk of that sooner. Trucks, bunker gear, buildings, insurance, training...it all costs and is in no way minimal. This was not a public funded Volunteer service. It was a subscription service. They had no duty to act. They were not a "public" service and were not contracted with the municipality. They were a private, dues supported fire brigade which the homeowner neglected to join. True, that would be ridiculous and in major cities that is the reason for tax payer funded paid services. That was not the case here. Again, this was not a part of the public safety community. They were a private service. Got it yet? In the absence of a responsible township it is up to the individual homeowner to ensure that he has provided for this particular service. It is no different than a rural area where a private water service puts up a tower and runs pipes to any home in an area that wishes to join so that they no longer have to dig individual water wells on their property. Later a homeowner, who has elected not to join the private water district, looses water to his home because a faulty pump on his private well. Is the private water district at fault or under obligation to provide him service? No. Same for this case of a private fire brigade not putting out a fire on the property of someone who had not paid the required dues. They were under no obligation to act.

I don't see what the fuss is all about. It was not a publice service but a private, subscriber service. The Fire Department sells memberships. It's no different than a private security service refusing to respond and secure a store or home that didn't have an account with the Security Company. The town council or town hall, if there is even one in the area, would have no say over any private service. The article stated that it was in a very rural area and another poster here who works the area has told us the place doesn't even have 911 service. What we have here is a private Fire Brigade that is funded by dues paying members. Yes the fire department could have put out the fire and then charged the homeowner. But like many private ambulance services, it's often difficlult to get the money after the service has already been provided. If the private fire company in this story had offered residents the option of paying AFTER a fire then money for equiptment and training may not have been available. It's the homeowners and business who pay and don't need the service that keep the company in the black. Like an insurance company. Like buying insurance, the homeowner can't simply do without until his home catches fire then dial State Farm and ask for a policy to cover his home which is burning. The fire company stood by and assured that none of it's subscribers were threatened just as a private security company would post a guard at a subscriber business to protect that particular location. Don't blame the private Fire Department for not acting. They were well within their rights. Blame the homeowner for not finding out about the services in his area and preparing ahead of time. He is probably the type of person who moves into a community and doesn't take the time to attend City Council meetings, civic association functions, community meetings or read the local weekly newspaper. Then blame the citizens for not forming a public fire district and funding a fire department with public tax monies. They are the ones who have decided that this is the type of system they wish to have. When they, the citizens, decide it's time for something different then it will happen. Until then ... You get the services you pay for.

I get $10.50 an hour working for a contract Security Company as a EMT/Security Officer at a Steel Mill in Louisiana.

Not around here. Locally the private ALS service runs mainly 1 Basic and 1 Paramedic per ambulance (rarely 2 medics). Having a firefighter drive is not an option since only employees of the ambulance service are allowed behind the wheel. That means the Basic is gonna drive and the Paramedic will either handle the patient by himself or have a FR back there with him doing the monkey work, (bagging, compressions, etc). I doubt that anyone here, even the most hardened Paragod, would turn down an extra pair of hands from a local firefighter FR who can be spared to ride to the ER.

Man I love that movie. As one guy on my Fire Department said after watching it "I'll never look at ladder trucks the same way again." :twisted:

I get $10.50 per hour as a Security Officer/EMT working in private industry. Up side- It's easy work. Mostly handing out aspirin, Imodium or having employees pee in cups for drug screens. An occasional trauma to keep you from getting complacent. Down side- The stuff in the air at some of the chemical plants or factories where I'm at will eat the paint off your car. I've learned that you either put a car cover over your POV when you get to work or get a new paint job every couple of years. Also, because it's contract work, there's no guarantee that you will be working that post in 6 month from now.

I don't see a problem with having a Certified Medical First Responder (FR) as part of an ambulance crew. It may be due to my unconventional background coming from Government and industrial, mainly BLS, care. I got my FR and then EMT certs while working at a State prison which had it's own Fire Brigade and EMS service for transport of inmates. 99% of the time, when transporting an inmate to a hospital or other medical facility in the prison Type 1 ambulance, the crew was a FR driver and a EMT who rode in the back with the inmate/patient. The FR and EMT were both Corrections Officers who would normally be working in the dorms or in the yard when not needed for the transport. Pill Call was also routinely handled by FRs who would issue prescribed medications and even insulin to inmates several times a day. There was also a Paramedic on staff who worked in the medical unit and was available if needed for an ALS transport. Working now in Industry I often have to transport ill or injured empolyees in a facility owned van stocked with EMS gear. If the patient condition requires me to stay with him in the back of the medical van on the short trip to the local ER I have FRs who can drive for me. Most of the time I'm just providing a glorified taxi service. For ALS situations we contact a local private provider for transport. Sure I've met some clueless First Responders. At the Prison they, the FRs, sometimes taught the annual inservice first aid and cpr training every employee was required to attend. I was in class one day when the FR giving the class was describing the use of the Bag Valve Mask. He told the class that the BVM was "called an AMBLUE bag because when they first started making them they were blue but now the bags we use are clear." :shock: Or the day the instructor was describing the different types of BSI gloves used at the prison. "There are only 2 kinds of gloves, powdered and powderfree. Most of the time we will be given powerfree because you don't want to get power on your uniform." When I asked about the availablity of Latexfree golves I was told by the FR teaching the class "There's no such thing as a nonlatex glove." I pulled out 2 purple nonlatex gloves that I carried in a pouch on my belt that I got from my VFD which had switched from latex a year before. Still not sure what to make of the development the FR asked "What would you need nonlatex gloves for?" I told him that they were for both the prevention of developing a latex allergy as well as to use when treating a patient with a latex allergy. The FR responded, "You can't get an allergy to latex." Since it was his class and not mine who was I to argue? I shut up and finished the day along with everyone else. :roll: On the other hand I've met some competent FRs who knew their stuff and also knew their limitations and some, like me, who decided to go for their EMT-Basic. It's not uncommon for the local private ALS ambulance service to commandeer a volunteer Firefighter FR on a scene to ride in the back of the rig to assist the paramedic with compressions or bagging a patient while the Basic drives them to the hospital. It's happend to me a few times. If having a FR as part of a BLS crew to drive the ambulance while 1 or 2 EMT-Basics can attend to a patient in the back doesn't cost a volunteer FD or rescue squad anything I don't see a problem. I'd even see a place where the FR could be the driver of an ALS unit with a Basic and a Paramedic on board doing medical care. On scenes the FR could assist by carrying equiptment and providing an extra set of hands for tasks such as compressions or bagging the patient. The FR gets good on scene skills and the Basic and/or Medic is able to concentrate on their tasks.

HEY!! I resemble that remark.

I'm atheist and believe that evolution is a valid theory.

I don't think we are prepared but we can be entertained. A couple of years ago I read the book The New Madrid Run. The Earth's Magnetic Field shifts setting off quakes and a few survivors have to trek to safety. Check it out at- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...710209?v=glance .

The GMRS license is now up to $80. I'm a Tech ham- KC5SAS and licensed for GMRS- WQBY447. I also started and run the Yahoo Group, Scan Baton Rouge. I'm sitting here at my home with 4 scanners going as I type this. I also have a radio tuned to the local GMRS repeater so I can chat with a buddy who works nights sometimes. I don't use 27MHz CB radio.

I'm a mercenary. As long as they don't mess with my paycheck I would treat patients dressed in a Ronald McDonald costume.

Regarding FRS... I've seen a Paramedic using FRS to keep in touch with his EMT-B partner while working with a private service. I'm not sure how wide spread FRS use is in that particular service is but they had very few portable radios relying instead on Alphanumeric pagers, cellphones and the vehicle mounted VHF radios.

:!: OH GOD. MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!!

And I prefer to go right to the source by checking the FCC online database at http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/genmen/index.hts . I also moderate a regional scanner list in Yahoo Groups at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scanbatonrouge/ . I'm not worried about Bin Laden or those jerks. It's that Guard that fell asleep on the job last week and got fired who shows up at my guard shack ready to kill someone because I'm now working his old shifts. Or the guy who wrecked one of the trucks the company uses inside the plant and now he's out of a job and can't get unemployment because his drug test, THE ONE I WAS REQUIRED TO DO IN THE COMPANY MEDICAL CLINIC, was hot for illegal drugs. So I'm the target of his rage because I'm the medic who gave him the cup to pee in and then put the strip of paper in the pee. My Security partner is on patrol behind the Mississippi River Levee at the dock and I'm in the Guard Shack being strangled with my own stethoscope. :shock: Bin Laden is wwwwaaaaayyyyyy down my list of worries.

I voted no because where I'm from the only agencies allowed to have BLUE lights are Law Enforcement. If you don't have arrest powers in this State and you have a blue colored lens on a light you could go to jail if caught with it. You want to have some real fun? Go over to Firehouse.com and start a thread about putting emergency lights on your POV. They LOVE that over there. :twisted:

The local population is 70% black and the Fire Department is mostly white. When I was with the Fire Department is was a common occurrence to have patients, family or bystanders make racial statements. I just ignored them and did what I had to do.

Three guys and one girl.

I've never seen them except in textbooks or magazine articles.

I'm paid, I consider it a career and since I work for a private company and often transport then I choose that too. I'm Security/EMT for a private Security company which contracts with chemical plants and other businesses which need EMTs to work in their facilities. I handle most minor medical calls by treating patients in an on site clinic. When it is necessary for a employee to be transported to the local Emergency Room I can transport using a company provided 'medical van' which has spine board, AED, O2, splints and other BLS equipment. We respond to all medical calls within our facility and have several first responders working at the plant who can assist us as necessary. For major medical or trauma calls a local ALS service will be called via 911.

I don't have an iPod.