Volunteer fire companies investigated

[johnboycan]

Newspaper research series concerning vollies in Long Island
Must see !!!

http://www.newsday.com

[Smoke20286]

Loks like a facinating series, but judging by your other posts on this website I can't help feeling you have alterior motives in posting this.

[johnboycan]

It just makes the point that they have there priorities in the wrong order-I would take a 3 to 4 minute reponse time with a 10 year old mac pumper over a tiki bar in the gym any day

[Weruj1]

Pardon me sir.. .....but I believe we are all over here !

[Smoke20286]

It just makes the point that they have there priorities in the wrong order-I would take a 3 to 4 minute reponse time with a 10 year old mac pumper over a tiki bar in the gym any day

And while you may well be right, this is an isolated case, there is no need to tar all volunteers with the one brush

[johnboycan]

And while you may well be right, this is an isolated case, there is no need to tar all volunteers with the one brush

Your right not all vollie co's have tikie bars inside the gym - its usually in the Grand Ballroom next to the sauna room

[FyredUp]

jonnyboy....

If you knew as much as you pretended to know bout the volunteer service your opinion might actually be worthwhile. Your obvious hatred for volunteers makes you a moot point.

By the way, the career FD I am on has 3 stations and every one of them is far more plush than any volly house I have ever been in. Does that mean that my career FD has it's priorities wrong too? Or is priority setting only an issue with volly FD's? Please enlighten us with your hypocrisy.

By the way, alcohol in fire stations around here ended years ago.

FyredUp

[PFDTruck2]

Jonnyboy,

We are in the middle of remodeling our meeting room in my volunteer house. We ran fund raisers and are doing the work ourselves. When was the last time you ran a car wash, a bake sale, sold t-shirts and sold flowers on your off time let alone donated your off duty time to do the work in the firehouse?

[Smoke20286]

Do we really need another tired Vollie vs Career thread? This is quite an interesting story in itself. There is an much longer thread in the general firefighting forum on this topic already.

[PFDTruck2]

Sorry Smoke,

Didn't want to add to the feud, but I get tired of the sterotypes that don't even come close to how we run our department. Next time I'll try and grin and bear it a little longer.

[WTFD4305]

Some people are automatically assuming the "tiki bar" is alcohol related, if you saw the piece it was described as a tiki juice bar. I personally don't see the big deal, especially when we don't know how it was funded. On the flip side of things, the weight room is a nice perk and I'm sure it has helped with retaining members. Not to mention if your department is anything like mine there a couple a guys walking around who certainly could use some time on a treadmill.

[johnboycan]

A quote from the Newsday article

"Long Island's 179 fire agencies have the best trucks money can buy, and plenty of them: more than New York City and the city and county of Los Angeles put together, which protect almost three times as much land and six times as many people and answer more than 12 times as many calls for help.

And because of Long Island's volunteer shortage, departments often have more trucks than they can fill."

[Smoke20286]

We can all read johnboy. If you want to argue about this why don't you do so in the other forum

[RadRob]

I just wonder why johnboy is so anti-vollie.

(in a whiny voice) Can't we all just get along...

[BCmdepas3280]

It's almost like he has some type of A.D.D or something.... I just wish he would put a couple of periods in his posts.

[BD6413]

Yeah really.....jonnyboy is acting alot like a.....boy. Hey jon-boy what exactly is your reasoning behind your posting ? I've watched the video clips and read the articles about Long Island. Yes they have some excessive stations and apparatus out the wazoo but so what. Are they hurting you ? , costing you money ? or taking your job away ?

Long Island has some issues and I'm sure they'll work 'em out. We've all poked a little fun at the tiki-bar thing and a night club called 'HALIGAN'S' but you know if this is what helps keep membership on L.I. than so be it. Sure their priorities might be a bit off but I think when it comes to handling fires and emergencies they do OK. {To poke a little fun even though it may be a bit off color......They can bring enough apparatus to scare a fire out }

[johnboycan]

Yeah really.....jonnyboy is acting alot like a.....boy. Hey jon-boy what exactly is your reasoning behind your posting ? I've watched the video clips and read the articles about Long Island. Yes they have some excessive stations and apparatus out the wazoo but so what. Are they hurting you ? , costing you money ? or taking your job away ?

Long Island has some issues and I'm sure they'll work 'em out. We've all poked a little fun at the tiki-bar thing and a night club called 'HALIGAN'S' but you know if this is what helps keep membership on L.I. than so be it. Sure their priorities might be a bit off but I think when it comes to handling fires and emergencies they do OK. {To poke a little fun even though it may be a bit off color......They can bring enough apparatus to scare a fire out }

"During the daytime, I make all the calls, because we're short of firemen," said George Caracost, 82, the longtime Island Park commissioner and ex-chief who once broke in former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato as a firefighter. "Technically, I'm not allowed to go inside the building, but during the daytime, who's going to see it?"

Everything is ego-driven, everything is outdoing the Joneses," said a firefighter in the Village of Hempstead who didn't want his name used because he didn't want to make enemies. "They'll say, 'North Merrick got a new pumper? We have to top them. They got chrome rims? We want chrome rims with inlay.' "

"I guarantee in the end it would be cheaper," insists Ceriello, now an honorary member, "and even if it's not cheaper, you're guaranteeing a crew in front of your door that knows what to do. Not the baker, the plumber, the off-duty cop. Not my father, my 75-year-old father, who shouldn't be on the rig at all. Not the high school kid who just ran down from the high school. This has nothing to do with the dedication of the individuals. It has everything to do with the nature of living on Long Island

"Nobody wants to be honest and face the facts," said Commissioner William Theis, chairman of the Terryville Fire District in Brookhaven Town. "I never want to see a catastrophe, but if one happens, the public's going to be asking us, what did we do?

"Just go to a parade and see all the equipment you've got there. Look at my budget this year. In my heart, I know we could have a paid department, but if I propose this, believe me, every Tom, Dick and Harry will be cutting my head off ... But we don't know who is going to come to the fire when the alarm gets kicked."

[Smoke20286]

Man you are a broken record

[gfd417]

Not to sound "anti-volunteer", but I don't see why career guys would be hamering this guy for posting an article that kinda supports us. God knows it is already tough enough going into negotiations and asking for a cost of living increase when volunteer departments are doing it for nothing. Can't imagine why any full time guys would support or even be a part of a volunteer fire department. Not that they are bad people, but this is our bread and butter.

[Bones42]

maybe, just maybe, they live in areas that can't support a paid department?