New Years Eve???

[chazzo]

My FD is asking people to man the station during New Years eve. We are a Vol. FD and just wanted to hear some feedback from other vols.

[McCall]

Our VFD is having a New Year's eve party. One rational, is that there may be power outages (affecting users of O2, etc), MVA's, etc. and having a crew ready to respond quickly on such a busy night, would be of great benefit.

Terry McCall
Marbletown VFD
SAVAC of Oswego

The views expressed are my own, and do not reflect the views of my respective departments.

[FyredUp]

My volly FD intends on having at least an engine crew on hand for any emergency that arises. We are hoping for more people but I can't guarantee that.

Our village board as part of their Y2K plan asked us to do that. So we are.

We also intend to have a sort of New Years eve party. No alcohol of course but food and movies and whatever.

[iwood51]

Suffolk County, NY
The Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services Division (County Dispatch) has asked all Suffolk County Departments to man at least one station from 1800 hrs 12/31/99 to 23:59 hrs 1/1/99 (30 hours). Don't know how well this will work with all departments. I unfortunately will be working my regular job (One of the downfalls of being in the computer industry

[ChapCapt]

We decided to have a party at the FH. Mostly because no one knows what is going to happen and does not want to be in the middle of it should it happen. Stay home, safe and sound.

PS - our town has not asked us to stand by, nor any other towns in the area that I am aware of.

[Jim M.]

The number of cities and towns that are taking steps like this is just amazing. The problem is, this is going to create the crisis instead of prevent one. Anyone remember the story about Johnny Carson and toilet paper? He joked on the show about NY being low on paper supplies. For the next week stores could not keep it on the shelves because everyone was buying a few extra rolls "just in case". If we all run out to buy a few extra gallons of gas, we are going to create a gas shortage. Etc, etc, etc. The world is not going to end at the stroke of midnight. Yes, in January and February there are goiung to be things that go wrong but all the essential stuff will continue to work fine.

[FyredUp]

Jim,

I don't mean to sound rude....but well, duh. But as fire chief am I supposed to tell my village president and the fire board I am not going to do it? That would really put me in a good position come budget time or when I need their help. So whether it is stupid ( and I think it is) we will do it because we have to.

[Frank Allen]

We are a vollie dept. as far as I know no one is going to stand by at my dept. But I will be standing by at another vollie. dept. about 7 miles from my station. At the station I will be at that night we are going to have a basic party (without) alcohol. If any one has never had my bean soup you should stop by and try it. E-mail me with any questions.


(VOLUNTEER AND PROUD) NEVER HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY>

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"Volunteer and proud to be that way" To All firefighters paid professionals and VOLUNTEER PROFESSIONALS stay safe and go home tonight.


[This message has been edited by Frank Allen (edited December 14, 1999).]

[e33]

I cannot run station duty on new years eve...I will still be putting the finishing touches on my underground Y2K shelter

[Dalmation90]

And I will be partying like it's 1999.

Y2K computer bug is quite frankly the most overhyped non-event in history. There was areas to be concerned about, mainly very large intergrated databases, and even in these problems would show up with large lead/follow times (I was working at an insurance company 5 years ago when Y2K bugs began to hit! Gee, life did not end and the software got fixed) It's not like January 1st will hit and the computers stop working.

Let's face the basic fact of Y2K...it was an easy way for salesmen to scare their current customers into buying the latest upgrade to their software/hardware. That's the base of the Y2K hysteria. There are/were Y2K concerns, but most are/were extremely minor below even the level of a "bug"

Matt
MIS Manager
Fire Service Instructor
Emergency Medical Technician
Amateur Radio Operator (N1QLU)
And someone who can't wait to see how many things get wrongly blamed on Y2K.

[Jim M.]

FyredUp - yes of course we have to do things we sometimes don't want to. Didn't mean to imply otherwise.

Dalmation- you might enjoy this. In May 0f 1999 it became possible to purchase vehicles that manufacturer classified as model year 2000. Title certificates issued by State of Maine for first 3-4 months gave vehicle description as "horseless carriage". Wasn't caught because most employees never look at what's going in mail (computer printed it, it must be OK) and most titles go to banks, or finance companies where they are promptly filed away. Simple lookup routine, vehicles older than 1916 are classified as horseless carriages, from 1917-1950(approx) as antiques. Once notified, State fixed it in about 15 minutes.

[mesha]

As a Fire Chief of a volunteer FD in Ontario Canada, we have decided that since all our services have stated that it will be business as usual that we are going to have a pumper crew in place at each of our four stations for the date roll over. After having tested our paging system, radios, started all vehicles and generally confirmed that all is well, we will let our people continue on with their night. Should there be a problem, than all stations will be manned until whatever the problem is has been rectified.
Tim Bennett Walden Fire Department, Ontario, Canada

[Dalmation90]

Hey...actually, I got a news clipping of the Maine incident posted outside my office I thought it was cute.

The other thing to remember is the date doesn't roll over everywhere at the same time...in fact, it'll hit New Zealand 17 hours before New York, 20 hours before LA, and 22 hours before Honolulu. If there is to be problems, we'll have a lot of advance notice. So y'all on the West Coast can rest assured if us New Englanders start saying, yep, the trucks all started

What that is to go to say, is it's probably OK to have contigency plans in place, but maybe you don't actually go to the heavy staffing or whatever unless Australia, Western Europe, or the East Coast reports problems!

[Aff]

We are going to staff an engine/ambulance company at both station. This will be in effect from Friday 1700 until Sunday 0500. Not because the world is going to end, but for a little free PR. This was a voluntary sign-up and all positions filled in short order. Always comes in handy at budget approval and referendum time!
Stay Safe...
Mark

[stephen]

All four of our stations will have enough members to man at least one piece. The Town is giving money buy food and allowing the wives and children to come and stay with us.
On a funny but ironic note, we looked at our station doors and found out that if the power goes out one would not open. Everyone should check thier doors to make sure they will open in case the y2k worst case happens. Remember be save and think out there

[cacfpd]

We will probably have a standby crew around on New Years Eve. This is not done for any Y2K fears, as we normally do this for the auto accident we are likely to have to respond to for someone who thought they could have just 1 more before going home.


Stay safe and DRIVE SOBER
Dave

[lowg]

Our vol. dept is also going to have a crew on standby. I agree with Fyred Up... whether we agree that it's necessary or not, we have to be aware of the politics.

[J Almon]

If the electricity stays up, then all will be OK (we hope). All it takes is one car sliding into the right power pole and "unpredictable situations" could arise. All 4 of our stations will be manned, and we expect to run lots of fire alarms after midnight.


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J Almon

[OCFireEXP]

well, my department isnt volly, but as an auxilliary fireman, im not paid, so i guess im volunteer! ill throw in my 2 cents.

on new years eve, the usual manning standards will apply. its just another "A-Shift" day as far as everyones concerned. were gonna be ready to slide the pole if something goes down, but we are ready to do that anyway, any time, for anything!

im excited! if something happens, im riding as the 3rd man on a paramedic van. the "band-aid bus" is always buisy at station 21, and if you throw in some Y2K emergencies, its gonna be a hell of a night! i cant wait!

"-doin it for lives and property."
Joe Nassetta
Orange County Fire

[craig7404]

We have ask all members to be on stand by (no drinking and ready to respond) and we will have a crew at the station as we always do on all major holidays to respond fast in case there are any accidents or fires. Other then that we will be business as usual we hope. Good luck and be safe.