Fire Brigades - Capital District

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DaveNF2G

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I am aware of two independent fire brigades in this area - Momentive and Knolls in Saratoga County.

Someone else mentioned that there are a half-dozen. Where are they?
 

jmv3085

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GE in Schenectady
Great Meadow/ Washington Correctional facilities in Washington County (responds mutual aid to surrounding)
 

lafd55

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GE in Schenectady, both Knolls Atomic Power Labs(KAPL) in Niskayuna and Saratoga, Sabic Plastics in Selkirk, Momentive in Waterford, Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, Albany Airport in Colonie, Plug Power in Latham, Stratton ANGB in Glenville. I don't know if GE has a brigade at their research facility in Niskayuna or not. Also most correctional facilities have their own brigades.

Also, both Momentive and SABIC were once part of GE but are now separate companies.
 
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riveter

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I don't know if KALB and KSCH ARFF facilities really count as independent fire brigades in the same setting...
 

lafd55

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I don't see why not, they provide fire supression to their properties and have full gear and apparatus, that in definition is a fire brigade. Schdy Airport's ARFF isn't part of the airport it's part of the US Air Force. The ANG ARFF even responds off base for HAZ-MAT and Tanker assistance, I don't know if KAPL goes of property for anything.
 

KB7MIB

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When I think "fire brigade" I think of a private company that has trained a small group of it's employees to provide at least "initial attack" fire suppresision until the local fire department arrives on scene, if they aren't capable of handling it...
 

KB7MIB

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themselves without outside assistance. (Which I wouldn't be too surprised if some can.) An airport or military fire department, in my mind, is much bigger, and would have more independant capabilities, than a private company's fire brigade.
 

KB7MIB

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And I think dpcain has much the same thoughts as I do. That a private company's fire brigade usually can't be compared apples-to-apples with an city, independent airport or military fire department.
 
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DaveNF2G

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I don't usually consider airport fire departments to be "private fire brigades" either.

I had forgotten about the Arsenal. Thanks for the other identifications.

Now we need frequencies... (I know, check the DB. heheheh)
 
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DaveNF2G

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BTW, I used to be Assistant Chief of the fire brigade at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester (University of Rochester Medical Center). We had equipment carts but no trucks. We had no capability for direct radio communication with anyone outside the facility and never responded off-property. In fact, just about anything that happened outdoors was handled by the Rochester Fire Department.
 

lafd55

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Dave you never asked about private only brigades. Airports might consider themselves a department but their only responsibility is to protect a single property rather a municipality. Granted they might go M/A off property when requested or when it is preplanned too.
 

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Albany Airport, Stratton ANGB, and the Arsenal are fire departments not fire brigades.
They are recognized by the Office of Fire Prevention and Control and are assigned FDID's and they are civil service fire fighters, not employees with collateral duties to plant protection.
 

FDNY10-75

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Albany Airport, Stratton ANGB, and the Arsenal are fire departments not fire brigades.
They are recognized by the Office of Fire Prevention and Control and are assigned FDID's and they are civil service fire fighters, not employees with collateral duties to plant protection.

Most fire brigades have FDIDs too. For example, Owens Corning in Delmar has a brigade with no apparatus and no employees hired as "firefighters" but they have an FDID as does the NYS Corrections Academy.
 

58006

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Most fire brigades have FDIDs too. For example, Owens Corning in Delmar has a brigade with no apparatus and no employees hired as "firefighters" but they have an FDID as does the NYS Corrections Academy.

Eli,

Yes it was far from the best example. I guess I should have just left it at, they are not brigades, they are departments there is a difference.

Thank you
 
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DaveNF2G

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I guess the line is blurry. When I used the expression "independent fire brigades" I meant to indicate firefighting units within privately owned facilities that were not part of the state or county mutual aid systems.

However, units like Momentive have assigned radio numbers within the local numbering system, so "not part of mutual aid" is perhaps not a good description. Momentive does respond off-property when specifically requested for certain hazmat incidents. I expect that some of the units listed in this discussion are similar in that respect.

Airport fire departments are government operated public agencies, not fire brigades.

I think the assignment of FDID numbers to private brigades is to facilitate entry of their fire incident reports into BFIRS (or whatever it is called now). It might not have much to do with their official status.
 

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KE7JFF

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I remember my grandfather, long time GE employee of both Schenectady and Niskayuna facilities told me before Niskayuna R&D got their own fire brigade, they used the fire services next door during the time GE operated Knolls which ended in what, 1992 I think.
 
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