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  1. 4 likes
    Way back in 1984 I made a trip from Connecticut to L.A., Calif. That's a long time ago but I wanted to see how the other side of the country fire depts operated. I was a firefighter in a small city of Connecticut (Norwich FD - 60 member career dept). I had been a fire buff since a kid chasing fires in Bridgeport, Ct where my father was on the job. In 1968 I got my first introduction to the very busy FDNY when I rode with Rescue 2. It was the beginning of what they called the War Years, as fires would become a routine way of life there for the next 10 years and continue an additional somewhat slower pace but still very heavy into the 1980s. A television show called "Emergency" introduced many in the northeast part of the US exactly what a paramedic was and what they did. It also introduced many into the world of County Fire Depts such as L.A. County. For the Northeast the word County Fire Dept still does not exist. we have many seperate fire depts. However, some career depts have adopted paramedics into their depts. Most private EMS in Connecticut offers both emergency transport and paramedic ambulances. Very few departments in Connecticut run the emergency ambulance service. I will follow up this series of what the comparison was, and in some cases, still is. Comparing the fire service of the northeast area with the fire service of the LA area during my 1984 trip. It was a completely different operation in comparison. Yes, the smoke and the heat is the same but thats about where it ends. To Be Continued.
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    Here's Peoria's 3rd rescue. I was initially told it would be going to 199's at Lake Pleasant, due to the 4wd, but most recently they've just been using it in rotation with the other two. 2015 Ford F-350/Northstar Type I (demo rig)..
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    Our squads here in the City are staffed by 4. An officer and 3 firemen. Historically, our squads haven't had bells. As a whole, our engines and trucks have bells as a traditional thing and as a last ditch effort if all other warning devices fail. We elected to NOT have chevrons put on as stated above, its just a strong recommendation. We have the short wheel based rigs due to our geographical area [ hills,tight streets, etc]. Hope this helps.
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    By the year 1984 when I made that trip out to L.A. the fires of NYC had started to slow down. On a regular basis, I would make the 75 mile trip from Bridgeport to NYC and then in 1975 when I became a career firefighter in Norwich, I continued to make those NYC trips. By then the FDNY was catching working fires faster than we could keep up with the. A book written by a South Bronx NY firefighter by the name of Dennis Smith had written the book called "Report from Engine Co 82", then the busiest firehouse in the world. Engine 82 would make almost 10,000 runs one year and very few of these reponses involved medical calls. It was all fires. In fact it was the same story in most of the city. The FDNY was responding to an historic amount of fire calls, many of which were serious building fires. Sometimes two in the same block at the same time. As the late 70s approached, other northeast cities began to see their fire activity increase. Places like Newark, Jersey City, NJ., Yonkers and Buffalo, NY., Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven, Ct., Providence, RI, and Boston, Mass. But very few, except for Providence which ran three ambulances, responded to any medical calls. These were older cities and many who had been burned out in their New York City neighborhoods were now starting to move into these cities. Many firefighters of the northeast cities smoked cigrettes at the time. Many were overweight including myself. The firehouse meal was a big event in each of these firehouses. Guys were good cooks and most were good eaters. Who could eat the most, often was the game played. I hate to admit it but in those days, "I won many contest". There was little concern for proper diet or exercise, but at the same time there were many more fires than there are today. Even in small city Norwich, Ct where we would usually have at least six or seven serious building fires a month. At the same time my brother was a firefighter in Bridgeport, Ct and they were doing 30 serious building fires a month. This was a city of about 140,000 people in about 18 sq miles. I remember a magazine called "Fire Chief". They did a story comparing San Diego, Calif., to Jersey City, NJ. About the same population but everything else very different when it came to fire protection. San Diego was spread out with a large square mile area, while Jersey City was only a few square miles with a much more densely populated area.. San Diego had much newer larger firehouses while Jersey City had much smaller, older firehouses. Jersey City's call volume was in fire calls, while San Diego's call volume was medical calls. My plan was to go to the LA area and see the difference in depts from the Northeast to the Southwest. Basically Boston to LA. So in 1984, my wife and I made the trip for two weeks. We did the tourist thing but we also agreed that I would spend three days checking out the Los Angeles City Fire Dept, and another three days doing the Los Angeles County Fire Dept. At that time, there were HUGE differences in the firefighters jobs of the Northeast area and those of the LA area. For a total of six days, I exchanged information and stories with some great guys on the job in LA City and County Fire Depts. I know when I left, I was pretty impressed by what they had told me and I think they were pretty impressed with what I had told them.
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    New Helicopter Tender.. Manufactured by West-Mark.
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    It looks like and airport crash rig
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    Howdy folks! Saw new Vista's New T126 via YT and looks sweet. Dunno if the Stuphen Tower will go into reserve or if the FD is keeping it at 125s as a second truck company. Enjoy!
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    Alot of people scoff at the Ladder Tender concept, yet it works and works extremely well. People say "what if a structure fire tones out and you're in the LT?" No big deal. The LT has everything the big ladder has, minus the aerial, which 90% of the time you don't need on a residential house fire. Besides, if an aerial is needed, the next closet one is dispatched. That's also another good thing of automatic aid. No delays in getting additional resources. The Phoenix metro is basically one big fire department. Only difference is the color of the apparatus.
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    And that, dear friends, is why metro Phoenix departments run ladder tenders ("LT's") on most truck assignments, leaving the aerial in quarters, with Low Acuity ("LA") and Medical Response ("MR") units running many of the 80% "I've fallen and I can't get up" calls, to save Engines from running their wheels off.
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    Battalion 51 is one of Chula Vista's two duty BC's, Battalion 53 is Coronado and Battalion 57 is National City. Battalion 33 is a special duty Battalion Chief for San Diego Fire
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    Not my photo. Saw this in a Facebook group. I thought the LAX engine was canceled?
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    Engine 42 is getting a "new" rig. It's E95's old rig, a 2010 KME. The Seagrave will become a reserve.
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    Paramedic Life Support....so these units only have 1 paramedic. To be considered ALS in the valley trucks are supposed to have at least 2 paramedics of the 4 members. I want to say that it's an NFPA recommendation as well, or at least will be coming up.
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    AMR M430 will operate 7 days a week from 1000-2200 and will be staffed with one EMT and one medic. M440 is also staffed with one EMT and one medic and operates from 0800-2000. The other three medic rigs are 24 hrs and have dual medic staffing.
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    The Torrance Fire Department has been approved to purchase three (3) 2018 Dodge RAM 4500 cab and chassis vehicles with refurbished paramedic rescue bodies from Phenix Enterprises in the amount of $421,899.12. They also were approved to purchase one (1) new 2018 Dodge RAM 4500 rescue vehicle as well. The new vehicles will replace one reserve (2000 Ford E-350) and three frontline rescue vehicles (2005 Ford E-450, 2005 Ford E-450, 2008 Ford E-450). The 2008 Ford rescue which has 66,693 miles is non-operational due to diesel engine damage. The new units will be unleaded gasoline vehicles. Apparently the ambulances that they purchased and were testing out were not favored and they are bringing back the squads.
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    Envision Healthcare is currently accepting bids from companies that are interested in acquiring American Medical Response. The first round of bids should to be completed this month. Additional bidding rounds could take place over the next couple of months. Envision hopes to close on the sale of AMR by the end of this year. It will be interesting to see if AMR is sold in whole, or sold off in chunks.
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    Hello everyone - Just got my login renewed, so I can post now. Here are Peoria's two Ford F-350/Demers Type I's that went in service earlier this year. They'll be rotated between Rescues 193 and 195, along with the F-350/Northstar 4x4 Type I that was delivered last year.
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    2016 Tahoe (via google) - not sure of location
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    Last week, I had the opportunity to check out the new LAFD Heavy Rescue 56. What an impressive rig!! 2016 Peterbilt 567 with a Century 50 Ton Rotator (can be remote controlled) and body, 10KW generator, and air compressor syste,m, amongst many other customizations. This rig replaces a similar rig, a 2003 Peterbilt/Century, which will become a fully equipped spare. The spare is replacing the former spare, which will be kept in the USAR caches. Thanks again to the crew at Station 56 and the HR56 guys!
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    guys , don't believe everything you hear. pierce is the # 1 fire truck builder in the us as well as overseas. there are literally hundreds of rigs turned out by pierce every year and have never had a rig returned for a weak roof. the process for cab manufacturing is the same for every rig that pierce turns out, there is no special process for la city so if it was truly a problem with the cab roofs it would be a problem with every rig pierce has turned out across the board. as for the turntable issue, it could be a change order that city submitted after the rigs were completed, happens all the time, new innovations, better parts, I have also heard it is a problem with the bean counters at city hall
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    I found out that some of the reason's not in service are... The cab roofs where weak. When Pierce strengthen them now they leak. Also the turn table was not built to LAFD speck.
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    In Feb '11, SMA attended LAFD FF Glenn Allen's funeral with 2 new KMEs (E3 & E6).
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    the fire took truck 61, battalion 8 usar support 61 and a zodiac inflatable boat used for water rescue, engine 61, (on a reserve engine ) was not consumed and was used in the firefighting effort. there were already plans to replace this station in the very near future, around the corner from where it is now, looks like the plans will be accelerated now. the other incident that rescue 51 was referring to was in apple valley, where a fire station out building was destroyed, the arsonist was apprehended near the scene
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    There are a bunch of new AMR branded medic units at the shop. 5-10 I would say.
  33. 2 likes
    Yeah PMT is being rebranded as Lifeline as well.
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    All R/M-own 911 rigs in Maricopa and Pinal counties in AZ have been remarked to AMR. Interfacility/GT are being branded as Lifeline Ambulance.
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    Total of 22 pumpers on order right now. The front-line engine fleet and most of the reserves will almost be identical by next year.
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    It gets scary sometimes when 3 of the rescues are away doing hospital transfers. Buckeye Valley has 1 rescue dedicated to that, but when they are gone, the next closest rescue gets called. Like you said, doesn't pay enough to overlook the consequences of what could happen.
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    Hello, it's been a while since I've been on this site. It looks vastly different. My old handle on EMT Bravo was LAFD Engineer. I got an email through my flickr page from one of you regarding the Super Station as I am assigned to FS51. All I can tell you at this moment Is the Super Station is only in preliminary stages. There are many configurations being explored due to the long range plans of the airport. I can't get into detail which is which but stuff is in planning stages only. It's kind of an exiting time for all as we are seeing the changes around us. I've there since 2007 and I can't count the changes, too many. What I can tell you is six new ARFF rigs from Rosenbauer have been ordered and are on their way. First four by November, and the last two by Feb 2016. All the ARFF rigs at 80's being replaced, one in reserve, and one slated to go to 51's staffed by one engineer and one firefighter. The 51's ARFF rig is tentative at this moment. LAWA owns the ARFF apparatus not the LAFD so the fate of the E-Ones is unclear. The Oshkosh is slated to go to Van Nuys Airport.
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    Too bad, ALF had a real legacy. It seems Pierce has fought the competitive wars and has solid grounding. It seems to me KME is trending up in $ales though still needs to work out some quality issues. I am not sure where E-One is going, it seems they have been fairly flat though I hope to see them sell well. Spartan, Seagrave, Sutphen, Ferrara, and Smeal seem to all be that next tier of manufacturers. A bit of interesting recent history on ALF from Wikipedia, I was hoping they were gonna survive: "In 1995, the company was bought by Freightliner LLC, which is a subsidiary of Daimler AG. Freightliner continued to utilize American LaFrance's original nameplates and designations including the Eagle custom chassis. Many of their Liberty products are built on Freightliner LLC M2 or Sterling Acterra chassis. ALF has additional manufacturing facilities in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, Sanford, Florida, and Hamburg, New York. As of 2005, they are the fifth largest manufacturer of emergency vehicles in North America. "In December 2005, it was announced that Freightliner had transferred the ownership of American LaFrance to the New York-based investment firm, Patriarch Partners, LLC. The headquarters and main plant in Ladson, South Carolina were not included in the transaction. However, Patriarch Partners were allowed to use the plant until early 2007, when DaimlerChrysler began using the plant for assembly of the Dodge Sprinter. Under new ownership ALF relocated within the Charleston, South Carolina, area in summer 2007 to a brand new facility, including manufacturing and corporate HQ, with nearly 500,000 sq ft (50,000 m²) of total space. "On January 28, 2008, American LaFrance filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection blaming problems with implementation of a new IBM enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.[2] On July 25, 2008, the company emerged from bankruptcy with a revised business plan to transfer the firetruck body building portion of the business to the remaining Hamburg, NY, (formerly RDMurray Inc.) and Ephrata, PA, (formerly Ladder Towers Inc.) facilities. The Summerville, SC plant continued to manufacture fire truck cab and chassis, but focused on vocational vehicles and the Condor vehicle line. On January 17, 2014, the company announced it was ceasing operations.[3]" -Rescue51
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    from LVFR info. page: Fire Stations (E-Engine T-Truck R-Rescue B-Battalion Chief HR-Heavy Rescue AR-Air/Light Unit HZ-HazMat Unit CB-CBRNE Unit MCU-Mobile Command Unit WT-Water Tender) FS 1 500 N. Casino Center Blvd, 89101 E1, E201, T1, R1, R201 ,R301 ,B1 FS2 900 S. Durango Dr, 89145 E2, R2, B10 FS3 2645 W. Washington Ave, 89106 E3, T3, R3, HZ3 FS4 421 S. 15th St., 89101 E4, R4, R204 FS5 1020 Hinson St, 89101 E5, R5, MCU FS6 1680 S. Torrey Pines Rd, 89108 E6, T6, R6 FS7 10101 Banburry Cross Dr, 89144 T7, R7 FS8 805 N. Mojave Rd, 89101 E8, R8, CB8 FS9 4747 N. Rainbow Blvd, 89108 E9, T9, R9 FS10 1501 S. Martin L. King Blvd, 89102 E10, R10 FS41 6989 N. Buffalo Dr, 89131 E41, R41 FS42 7331 W. Cheyenne Ave, 89129 E41, R42, B4 FS43 6420 Smoke Ranch Rd, 89108 E43, R43, WT43 FS44 7701 W. Washington Ave, 89128 E44, R44, HR44 FS45 3821 N. Fort Apache Rd, 89129 E45, R45 FS47 91 Pine Ridge St, 89138 E47, R47 FS48 9133 W. Elkhorn Rd, 89149 E48, T48, R48 FS107 9398 Sundial Dr, 89134 E107 FS106 1888 Stella Lake, St, 89106 E106 FS102 Bomb Squad / Fire Investigations FS103 Fire Warehouse & EMS EMS1 Future Station in Planning for 2014: FS108 4551 E. Bonanza Rd E108 2012
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    In 1984 when I visited the LA area, I didn't see one burned out building. It was quite different at that time in the cities of the northeast. There were blocks of burned out buildings, vacant lots where buildings once stood, and always a burned out abondoned car in the area. It was just so different. I remember one neighborhood in the Bronx, NY where the only building NOT burned out on the street was the police station. That was the NYPDs 42 precient on Simpson St. Whatever the LA City Fire Dept and LA County Fire Dept was doing then to prevent the arson, they were doing something right. Because once a building burns, there's no tax dollars coming in to support the services and if it is a business that burns, people will loose their jobs. I just could not believe that in my travels throughout the LA area, I never saw one burned out building. Of course shortly after I left, I saw the news showing a high rise fire in downtown L.A. A few months later, Firehouse Magazine did a story on it. Here in the northeast, many of us who were called "buffs" or "sparks" would get together maybe at a McDonalds or diner with our portable scanners to chase fires. In Boston there was a Howard Johnsons at Mass Ave and Southhampton St. It was called "whip city" because many of the sparks would hang out there with their cars, all having large whip antennas for their car scanners on Boston FD and the surrounding fire depts. Bostons Engine 43 and Ladder 20 were right around the corner and those guys knew what we were there for. They'd always give a blast of the air horn when they past us returing to the firehouse from a run. For awhile (just before 1984) many of us hung out across the street from the famous Engine 82/ladder 31 in the Bronx, NY. There was a store there called "Angies Market". While most of the area was burned out and vacant, they did a great business selling goodies to the buffs. A friend of mine was doing some work for a retired FDNY firefighter who worked at that firehouse. On his wall is a picture he took from the firehouse looking out at Angies Market. My buddy asked him what was going on in that picture, with all those people across from the firehouse. He asked if a riot was going on. The retired FDNY member told him, there was no trouble. That's just a picture of the buffs hanging out across from the firehouse. Today the fires of the northeast have really slowed down. Last week a friend of mine visited that same South Bronx neighborhood. There are no more burned out buildings or abondoned cars. No more rubbish in vacant lots. There are new buildings and rehabbed old burned out buildings. In the Bronx that day and there wasn't one working fire. The most I ever caught was 11 jobs in one trip and that was only within a few square miles. I had brought a few guys with me and it was their first trip. As we left one guy said; "It was like they opened the gates and let us out". Closet thing to a Third World Country you would ever see in America. When I had made my trip to LA I didn't know if there were any buffs or sparks in the area. I would have liked to have met some. There must have been a few though because at one time I got a newsletter delieverd to my house. It listed some of the working fires and any new equipment. I don't think I still have them. The newsletter only lasted for a year or so. I can't remember the name of it, but if I find it I will post it.
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    I appreciate that and I hope everybody enjoys them. Way back before the TV series "Emergency" was a TV Show called "Rescue 8". It was before color television and as a kid I watched it on the tube in black and white. It was about two firefighters who worked together on an L.A. County Fire Rescue Squad long before the days of paramedics. I am quite sure that it was the very first TV Series about the fire dept. And like the show "Emergency", which came out in the 70s, "Rescue 8" came out in the 50s but also was based on a firefighting crew working a rescue squad in Los Angeles County. Interesting that even back in the 1950s, fire depts were organizied into countys. Today, in a place like Connecticut where there are a total of Seven Counties, there is not one county fire dept. In fact there are 169 towns and cities in Connecticut, but over 300 totally independent seperately funded fire depts. Hard to believe, but the city that I live in has Six totally seperate individually funded fire depts. Boundry lines place a huge part into it. One side of the street might be one department, the other side a totally different department with different chiefs, officers, and members. There has been some regional dispatching but not at all based on a county wide system. As a result, services are duplicated many times over. I'm sure some may find that strange that so many seperate depts exist like this. In Norwich, Ct where I live, we have one career dept that covers a seperate area, and five other volunteer fire depts, all within a city of about 40,000 people in about 35 sq miles. But to get back on the subject of my LA trip, I would tell the members of these LA area firehouses how different things really were. But they all had the same question; "How do you guys fight the fires in the winter with that cold and ice" ? It's not easy and I told them, "we try to keep a little fire going so we can keep warm". (joking of course - really just can't wait til that cold night is over). But I told them (LA members) that in no way could I relate to the huge brush fires you guys get. Here in the northeast, we don't really know what a brush fire is like. ten or 15 acres is a BIG ONE for us. But I would like to pass this on. Hard to believe but some of the Biggest Brush fires I have seen were in New York City. That's right. I remember seeing one in Brooklyn, NY (has been referred to as "the Boro of Fire"). That large brush fire was in an area near a highway called "The Belt Parkway" which borders Long Island Sound. It went to a Third Alarm and it was the first time that I had ever seen water drops from a helicopter. An NYPD helicopter with a FDNY Battalion Chief on board, picked up what they call, "The Bambe Bucket". That large bucket picked up water from Long Island Sound and made several dumps on that brush fire. On my trip to LA, it was the first time that I had ever heard the term "Strike Team". At one of the LA County Stations that I stopped at, a member there described what it was and how they would assign engines from various parts of the county to meet up in one general area (stagging) to form a Strike Team and at the same time not strip an entire section. Here if there is a fire or incident where several companies are tied up in one area, units will be relocated to fill in some of the empty firehouses. Here in the northeast we are starting to become familiar with terms like "Strike Teams", "Tanker Task Forces" etc. I believe those terms have orginated in the west coast.
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    Also let me add, if you have any questions regading this thread, I'll be glad to try and answer them. Ask them on here or you could ask through a pm. I guess you could figure out by now, fire dept is my thing. i've been lucky enough to have a great wife who has since past away. she understood my hobby and interest from Day One. We were married for 35 years before she was taken away. Because of her (Helen), I had the chance to not only visit the LA area, but many cities throughout the country. Comparing notes, chasing fires, and able to see the best in action. On a regular basis I was usually chasing fires in NYC, Bridgeport, Ct or Providence, RI. Back in 1984 they were all burning. there were areas in these cities where there were more burned out buildings in a block than occupied buildings. Other cities that I spent time in were Boston, Worcester and Springfield, Mass. Hartford and New Haven, Ct., Yonkers and Buffalo, NY., Newark, Jersey City and Elizabeth, NJ., Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pa., Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio, Detroit, Mich., Washington, D.C. and Fairfax County, Va. I have many apparatus photos I took during my visits, and I believe a few may have been posted on Flickr. For anybody who was into the fire service, myself and many of those who were around to see the fire service of the 70s and 80s feel that we were certainly born during the right time. The huge changes that came about to the fire service during those years. Many of us got to see a historic time of fire activity. It was just the right time to be around. I would like to try and stay with the orginial thread of my LA trip in 1984. However, I did write about the fires in Bridgeport, Ct during the 80s, and also about the historic fires the FDNY handled during the 70s and 80s. If you're interested in reading these stories, some include videos and pictures, send me a pm and I'll send you the info. I would also like to Thank EMTBRAVO West for allowing me to tell this story. It gives me the opportunity to tell many what it ewas like for a guy from the northeast part of the U,S, to visit fire depts that seemed to be so different from my part of the United States. However, here is one statement that a New York City firefighter once told me. "If you fight a fire, the heat and the smoke is the same in any city". He was right and I never forgot that.
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    I was amazed to see LA City companies out doing fire inspections at night. I think maybe the FDNY would do a few inspections at night in the Times Sq area but as far as I know, nobody else here in the northeast would do that. In fact in the 80s very few places in Connecticut were out doing company inspections at all, and certainly not at night. The term paramedic was just starting to come into the northeast fire depts. And it was only because of the TV Show "Emergency" that a few depts here had started to think about providing paramedic service within the fire dept. I believe the City of East Hartford, and Manchester, Ct (in the Hartford area) were the first. Today, roughly about half of the career depts provide some type of paramedic service within the fire dept. When I first went on the fire dept in Norwich, Ct back in 1975, I was told by the chief that I would get the job provided that I became an EMT. Three quarters of the time I had to go to classes on my own time, with no pay. Of a sixty man career dept., I was one of about ten EMTs. We had four fire stations, and sometimes I would look out the window of the firehouse to see a private ambulance respond to a medical call only a few blocks up. The fire dept would not respond. To some the attitude was "we are firefighters, not doctors". And this was during 1984 when I was visiting the LA area. Regardless of what a TV show had about LA County Fire Dept Squad 51 responding with two paramedics to a medical call, most depts here were still geared to responding to fire calls only. Over the years things did change. They had to as there were fewer and fewer fires to go to. And like our trend setters on the west coast, the fire dept started to respond to medical calls on a regular basis. And pretty much all fire depts do now. In fact most depts now require EMT before even taking the test. But to try and tell my West Coast Brother Firefighters that "we do not respond to medical calls" in 1984 was something they just couldn't understand. At the time, even guys with years on the job said that they had ALWAYS responded to medicals. Eating salad, physical fitness, night inspections, and medical calls were all a part of the firefighters job in the LA area. Not really a part of a firefighters job in the northeast at that time. However, let me point out that things have changed here in the northeast since my 1984 visit. And I also want to point out that there were firefighters in the northeast who exercised regularly, but it wasn't mandatory. Also most northeast cities today do respond to medical calls.
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    This is old San Miguel OES 305 that used to belong to East County Fire then moved to Station 22 after the merger. Since San Miguel became part of Cal Fire, the department lost it's 2 OES Engines (305, 307). Lakeside has now acquired OES 305 which will be stationed at Station 26 in Blossom Valley and crossed staffed with E26. The old BME brush engine (BR26) is now at Station 1 as Brush 1 due to the arrival of the OES at Station 26.
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    You are correct. I believe the correct LA County staion I was referring to was County Station 41. TF33 and Eng 46 were the busiest LA companies at the time. It was in South Central LA just off the Harbor Freeway (?). I thought that area was referred to as Watts. It's been a really long time and I was only there for two weeks. I try to relate the stories as I remember it. Another area at the time that was probadly the most like the northeast was the area of LA City Eng 9. It was a rundown area just outside the center area of downtown LA. I also visited Station 4 (?) not to far from there. They had a Haz Mat Unit there. I do have pictures of much of the apparatus I took during that time. They are on a disk and I need to look them over to refresh my memory.
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    Correction Task Force 33 and Engine 46 are in the South L.A. area formally known as South Central. Not Watts. County station 54 is in the City of South Gate. Not Compton. You could be thinking of County station 41 which is in a unincorporated (Willowbrook) area close to Compton.
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    In the L.A. City Fire Dept., diet and exercise was a completely different thing for their Brothers of the Northeast fire depts. My very first day was a vist to L.A.City Fire Station # 3. It was a modern fire station in the downtown business area of LA. There were two pumpers and a ladder truck inside. I found out that the company was referred to as Task Force 3. If only a single engine response was required, one engine would respond with the officer and three firefighters, leaving one engine and the ladder truck (I believe a Seagrave tiller TDA) behind. If a second call came in for that area, the other engine with two firefighters, and the ladder truck would respond. They would be referred to as Lite Force #3. So my first vist to an LA City fire station (called fire station in LA, firehouse in NYC) was Fire Station 3. It was about 10 am. My plan was to have the guys pull out the rigs on the long ramp and get photos of the apparatus, then maybe talk to some of the guys alittle fire dept shop talk. When I rang the doorbell for assistance the guy that answered the door showed up wearing gym shorts, sneakers and a T shirt. I told him I was a firefighter from Connecticut and asked if somebody could pull the rigs out for me to take some pictures. He politely said they would but right now they are doing exercise class and could I come back in an hour or so. they'd be glad to do it then. Never before had that ever happen to me. I couldn't believe they were all doing exercises together. Many firehouses in the northeast had set up their own gyms. Most of the equipment was paid for or donated by the guys themselves. It wasn't mandatory and the guys from the northeast did their own thing when it came to physical fitness. When I went back to that firehouse (I mean fire station), the guys gladly pulled out the rigs for me and postioned them however I asked. Then I asked them about their physical fitness program. They told me that every firefighter exercises in the morning right after checking out the equipment. They said it is mandatory and everybody gets weighed once a month. If they are overweight they are required to loose two pounds a month. The overweight firefighter was put into what they called "The Fat Man Club" and were montiored for their weight loss results.They told me that a firefighter could be disaplined if they did not loose the two pounds a month. They also said that they would make a huge salad and that was the meal of the day at the fire station, and they worked a 24 hour shift. It was so different from the firehouses that I had visited in the northeast. At the time, NO dept was doing such a program. Needless to say I was very impressed after seeing these LA City firefighters and listening to them talk. I don't want to give the impression that firefighters of the northeast depts were out of shape. Most were in excellent shape, and they were fighting the fires to prove it. It's just that the LA City Dept had set up such an organized program. And I do also want to mention that each LA Firefighter would take turns leading the class.
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    Currently in the city of Las Vegas there is a dual response meaning that a unit from the fire department and a unit from a private ambulance will respond to the call. A new transport plan being made by LVFR is going to basically go like this- if a fire unit is on scene first and the private unit isn't on scene within a certain time then the fire unit will transport given that its a fire rescue, in the case of an engine or truck after that time period is up for the private to get on scene then the engine or truck will request a fire rescue to transport. Also in the case that it is a critical patient then fire will transport (if on scene first). In the past the dual response was used in order to free up the fire unit for more serious calls such as fires and MVA's but because of the economy it seems to be financially better to have fire units transport more. Not sure how the privates feel about it, AMR mainly runs with county fire and MWA runs with county and north town (North Las Vegas) fire departments so there isn't much of a loss for anyone at this point. This is the initial plan and as of now I haven't gotten word of when this new plan (if it hasn't happened already) will start.
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    I don't think it's so much of an LAFD thing as it is a California thing. California's terrain, call nature, and ever-changing DMV requirements make it difficult to run some sort of tower ladder for 15 or 20 years. Look at the big metro areas San Fran, Oakland, LA City, LA County, San Diego and they all run tillers. They all have hills, most fires aerial require ladder access and often don't get to a defensive mode, plus high call volumes, and the vehicle weight (weight per axle) is more manageable for California. If you look at LA City's Flickr page you'll see them take their tillers everywhere. Even tight mountain roads.