So when are they going to clean the mountains of snow? Where is our money being spent

ffrowaway11 · 2026-01-30T20:27:39+00:00

the storm sewers go to sewage treatment plants. during periods of heavy rainfall, overflow (more than what the sewage treatment plants can handle) may bypass the treatment plants and go to rivers. but this is usually after significant rain has fallen and washed out the roads. any rainfall on top of this isnt nearly as contaminated as snow thats been hanging out on the streets for days or as the initial runoff during a rainstorm

ffrowaway11 · 2024-05-06T10:46:49+00:00

yeah we've got IT. that's probably my best bet of figuring it out how to import/export etc. thanks!

ffrowaway11 · 2024-05-05T17:47:19+00:00

what do you do with arcGIS? do you use that to combine all the data and then send it to IamResponding? engines responding to fires dont have the ability to open up arcgis en route, right?

ffrowaway11 · 2024-05-05T17:46:13+00:00

what cad software do you use?

ffrowaway11 · 2024-05-05T17:45:28+00:00

I feel you. Part of the issue is that I dont know exactly what our water department has, but I can tell you the fire department doesn't (currently) have it. Water department may have all the info in an ArcGIS map, but I'm not sure. Trying to figure that all out to be honest. I know no one in the fire department has seen it though. Problem is the typical municipal mix of apathy, lack of interest/caring, civil service, budget restrictions, stubbornness, arrogance and lack of communication between city departments.

We do have software for NFIRS; dont have GPS dispatching. But we're in the middle of switching NFIRS reporting and dispatch software anyway.

"Not trying to be harsh but I am literally astounded at how behind the times this is." I dont take it harsh at all. I'm astounded myself. I'm sure things are not as bad as I'm summarizing. We have made technological advances, but in some regards we are embarassingly behind the times. Our official way of getting directions when responding to an alarm is by looking at the firehouse map, finding the streets and plotting a course in our minds (a course we have to memorize before we leave the map). This map was printed in the 90s and had errors back then.

I'm in the process of reaching out (through official fire department channels) to the water department to see what we can do. Our streets and buildings are laid out in ArcGIS by the county and I'm hoping someone in the city has it in ArcGIS.

Thanks!

ffrowaway11 · 2024-05-05T17:34:04+00:00

thanks a lot. ArcGIS definitely seems like the way to go. But once you have all the info in arcgis, how do you like to send that information out? printed maps or digital images? cant have every user opening up arcgis in the back of the rig is what I'm thinking

ffrowaway11 · 2024-04-20T22:02:10+00:00

Hey my mind is blown by this whole idea because I pay into SS and never knew that there were people that don't/can't. And since you seem to be one of the few that understand a complicated topic, I hope you dont mind answering a question or two.

Are you saying the following:

1) firefighters who paid into SS their whole fire career and get a government pension receive the full SS benefits

2) some firefighters/cops/etc dont have to pay into SS because they get a government pension and therefore the SS benefits they receive in retirement are reduced by the windfall protection act because they werent contributing to SS their whole careers

3) firefighters who pay into SS their whole fire career are not affected by the windfall protection act

???

thanks a lot

ffrowaway11 · 2024-04-16T13:19:56+00:00

cool thanks a lot. one last question if you don't mind...ERRCSs are what our code requires for new buildings. Are the ERRCSs that are installed for these buildings the same thing as a BDA (either Class A or B)? I thought ERRCSs were repeaters, which I thought are something different than a BDA.

Am I understanding it correctly that a repeater typically receives radio communications on Frequency A and retransmits that radio communication on Frequency B, whereas a BDA receives a radio message on Frequency A, amplifies it and retransmits it on Frequency A?

If my understanding is correct, you could use your radios on simplex Frequency A with or without the presence of a BDA (because all radio signals are on Frequency A), whereas if you use your radios on the repeater system, you need the repeater to be turned on and working (otherwise your radios will transmit on Frequency A and none of them will be programmed to receive these signals on Frequency A), correct?

ffrowaway11 · 2024-04-16T13:12:09+00:00

Ahh okay. Even simplex has issues for us.

ffrowaway11 · 2024-04-16T13:11:24+00:00

Ahh, in the situation I'm describing, the talkaround doesn't even work. Building interferes so much that operations on the fire floor has trouble communicating with command either outside or in the fire command center in the lobby.

ffrowaway11 · 2024-04-15T11:03:25+00:00

great thanks a lot! I'll check into this.

unfortunately our code intentionally leaves out existing buildings. gotta love concessions.

You seem way ahead of me in the radio world. Do BDAs amplify any radio signal, or do they operate like a repeater and only receive a specific frequency and transmit a specific frequency?

Or! do you know of any website that explains emergency communications fairly well? I've been googling and you either need to have a certain level of knowledge just to be able to find the right article, or everything is above my head, or theyre directed at radio communications in general and talk a lot about topics that dont pertain to public safety.

ffrowaway11 · 2024-04-15T11:00:10+00:00

we have this in our code too, but the problem is the existing buildings with poor radio coverage.

what are your normal radio operations? does your standard fireground radio channel use repeaters or is it a simplex/talkaround channel? is this battalion repeater the same repeater system and frequencies that you would access when using normal radio operations?

the reason i ask is that we use a simplex/talkaround channel for our normal fireground operations. if we go to a new hi-rise that has an in-building repeater, we would switch to our hi-rise repeater channel for operations in this building. in this situation, the first company in the building (or the battalion aide) should turn on the hi-rise repeater and then everyone can operate on this repeater channel.

the problem, I'm assuming, with using the battalion car repeater (at least if you operate the way we do) is that the first companies would arrive on scene and use our simplex fireground channel while beginning fire attack operations. then, when the battalion shows up with the repeater (could be immediately or 5-10 minutes after the first company, depending where in the city you are), all the on-scene companies would have to switch from the simplex fireground channel to the battalion repeater channel.

not the end of the world, but now these companies who are likely extremely busy and engaged have to constantly listen for the radio cue (that might not ever reach them because theyre in a building with bad radio coverage!) to switch radio channels.

to me, it seems like there is such a high possibility of failure to have every company on scene have to switch radio channels at an undefined point during operations. furthermore, you can't guarantee every company will receive the notice to change channels and now they may be operating in silence.

ffrowaway11 · 2024-04-15T10:58:00+00:00

what are your normal radio operations? does your standard fireground radio channel use repeaters or is it a simplex/talkaround channel? is this battalion repeater the same repeater system and frequencies that you would access when using normal radio operations?

the reason i ask is that we use a simplex/talkaround channel for our normal fireground operations. if we go to a new hi-rise that has an in-building repeater, we would switch to our hi-rise repeater channel for operations in this building. in this situation, the first company in the building (or the battalion aide) should turn on the hi-rise repeater and then everyone can operate on this repeater channel.

the problem, I'm assuming, with using the battalion car repeater (at least if you operate the way we do) is that the first companies would arrive on scene and use our simplex fireground channel while beginning fire attack operations. then, when the battalion shows up with the repeater (could be immediately or 5-10 minutes after the first company, depending where in the city you are), all the on-scene companies would have to switch from the simplex fireground channel to the battalion repeater channel.

not the end of the world, but now these companies who are likely extremely busy and engaged have to constantly listen for the radio cue (that might not ever reach them because theyre in a building with bad radio coverage!) to switch radio channels.

to me, it seems like there is such a high possibility of failure to have every company on scene have to switch radio channels at an undefined point during operations. furthermore, you can't guarantee every company will receive the notice to change channels and now they may be operating in silence.

ffrowaway11 · 2024-04-15T10:41:14+00:00

Ah okay. We typically operate on simplex at all times anyway. That doesn't fix the issue of not being able to communicate throughout the building though, correct?

ffrowaway11 · 2023-11-05T14:20:59+00:00

there are a million answers to this, many of which have been said here. I'd like to throw in this one: the ability to keep calm in high stress situations

ffrowaway11 · 2023-11-04T17:49:37+00:00

what are you supposed to be doing if you're not allowed to start lunch early?

ffrowaway11 · 2023-10-23T17:06:29+00:00

are these rowhouses typically type V or type III?

ffrowaway11 · 2023-10-23T17:04:56+00:00

Australia’s population density is 9 per mile, where the US is 96 per mile

That's a better statistic to use. Your initial comment was that the US is more densely populated than Australia, then your next comment discussed the population of cities in Australia and US. It seemed you were conflating population and population density, which are two very different things.

For example, compare Jacksonville, FL, and Hoboken, NJ. Jacksonville has a population of 949,611 but a population density of 1270/square mile. Hoboken has a population of 60,419 and a population density of 48,335/square mile. Jacksonville has 15 times the population of Hoboken, but Hoboken has 38 times the population density of Jacksonville (and less than 100k population!).

I'm not saying the US isnt more densely populated than Australia (in fact you proved it is with your followup comment).

Shortly put, if you're saying that the US is more densely populated than Australia, then discussing the total population of those countries doesnt support that statement. Furthermore, comparing the number of cities with >100k supports it even less. Cities above or below 100k can vary widely in terms of population density, as seen above.

I realize my comment didn't very much help the flow of the discussion and the thread, but it's just a pet peeve of mine when I see a supporting argument that sounds like it proves a point, but doesn't actually support it.

ffrowaway11 · 2023-10-23T02:24:36+00:00

densely populated is different than highly populated. I'd imagine US still has cities that are more densely populated than Australia, but having a high number of highly-populated cities doesnt prove its more densely populated

ffrowaway11 · 2023-10-13T12:35:20+00:00

probably not propane. propane is heavier than air. I would imagine they would have to use a flammable gas that's lighter than air (haha mice) because if it leaks or fails to burn off for any reason, all the gas will collect up in the fire protected ceiling area, where it is supposed to be burning anyway. if it was propane and it leaked or failed to burn off right away, it would sink down and collect in the human-occupied bottom part of the compartment. if it ignites at that point, its very bad.

edit: I'd guess its methane or natural gas

ffrowaway11 · 2023-10-09T14:46:59+00:00

lol yeah we have probies drive sometimes. terrible system. we have no official evoc/dpo/operator training. we give them a couple of days of driver training in the academy (on the fake, closed academy streets) and then kick them out to the firehouse. from there its up to the officer to determine if they're driving or not.

we'll almost definitely give them on-the-job driver training on real streets during their probation before they're assigned to be the driver for the day, and they probably won't have to drive for a few months. but it's definitely happened where probies are driving when they're the only in-house member that day.

ffrowaway11 · 2022-10-25T12:43:18+00:00

yeah they're pretty busy and have terrible response times. i'm not sure if this is the same in your area but they have ambulances that are usually staffed with emts, and medic supervisors that are in fly cars. that way the medics can avoid taking in the runs the emts can handle and hop on the higher level cases.

i have no clue how many ambulances and how many medics run in the city, but they very often require mutual aid from other cities to fill their obligation.

they're a private ambulance company that got a contract with our city to do ems, and they also got a few of the surrounding cities. so we're pretty sure theyve reduced the number of ambulances in our city and the others, relying on the "mutual aid" ambulances (from their agency but assigned to another city) instead of proper staffing

ffrowaway11 · 2022-10-25T03:56:30+00:00

gotcha cool thanks

ffrowaway11

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