FDNY questions

[mcooke]

I've been watching a lot of FDNY response videos on Youtube and have a few questions. Hopefully a few of you who read the NY forum will have the answers.

1. In the vids I see a lot of people hanging out in front of the stations videotaping. It looks like firebuffs just hanging out to watch them go out on runs. Is that true and is this fairly common at all the firehouses or just some?

2. Some responses are marked as "all hands". Is that a situation where all available units of FDNY respond and if so how common is that?

3. What's up with people not getting out of the way of the rigs? I've seen plenty of videos where people are driving alongside the rigs and even passing them.

4. What's the standard staffing on an engine? It looks like many of the engines have 6 firefighters on board. That's unreal. My local FD's will usually only have 3 on an engine.

 

[FrankRaffa]

1 - It's fairly common to have a lot of cameras around a fire scene: local media, curious onlookers, buffs and fire photgraphers all. At firehouses I can't say. I don't hang out there.

2 - The definition of "all hands" is 3 engines and 2 trucks at work. We have 235 engines (including spares) and 152 trucks (including spares). It would have to be one major fire if we used all of them at once. Even 9/11 wasn't that bad.

3 - This is NYC. No one gets out of anyone's way.

4 - Engines have an officer and either 4 or 5 firefighters. Trucks have an officer and 5 FFs.

 

[NeFire242]

Ha, I've seen where Engines have been blocked in by traffic and people have actually gone up to the cab to tell the driver to turn off the siren its too loud.

 

[KG4PSN]

Speaking of FDNY...

i think i read recently that FD is changing the way it's going to dispatch calls... until very recently,
I didn't have a clue about the concept of a DD (decision dispatcher) in the whole mix.

the article i think i read was about the idea of getting the trucks out the door faster by not getting
all the facts of the alarm prior to the dispatching of the alarm, and passing info enroute.

so my question is: is this new process implemented? has it helped or hindered the FDNY?

not being a serious fire buff and all, i was so surprised at learning the actual process of getting
trucks out the door (the alarm taker, the dd, the voice dispatcher...) i gather it's been done for
eons like this, and it seems to be a well oiled process, but i just didn't know so many hands were
involved in getting the trucks out the door.... truly fascinating....

 

[FrankRaffa]

so my question is: is this new process implemented? has it helped or hindered the FDNY?

The statisticians say it's working.

 

[gothamite]

The statisticians say it's working.

One of the top ten answers to any question, ever!!! :lol:

 

[mcooke]

i think i read recently that FD is changing the way it's going to dispatch calls... until very recently,
I didn't have a clue about the concept of a DD (decision dispatcher) in the whole mix.

the article i think i read was about the idea of getting the trucks out the door faster by not getting
all the facts of the alarm prior to the dispatching of the alarm, and passing info enroute.

so my question is: is this new process implemented? has it helped or hindered the FDNY?

not being a serious fire buff and all, i was so surprised at learning the actual process of getting
trucks out the door (the alarm taker, the dd, the voice dispatcher...) i gather it's been done for
eons like this, and it seems to be a well oiled process, but i just didn't know so many hands were
involved in getting the trucks out the door.... truly fascinating....

Our regional dispatch center moved to a pre-alert system a couple of years ago and it works great. When a medical call comes in it is put in pre-alert status by the call taker. It shows up in the dispatchers que and is tapped out as a pre-alert. Basically the station tones are hit and there's a voice broadcast of a pre-alert medical at whatever address it is. After additional details are added to the call, the dispatcher taps out the station a second time and gives the full dispatch with the call details. Very often the rig is heading out the doors when the second dispatch comes in. I'm not sure if this is the same as what you're referring to for the FDNY.