Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Safety Meeting Time Change!

Today's meeting has been changed to 3:00pm per Capt Andes "The change is due to budget meetings going on in the evening...I know this will be a problem for some, but if you can make it I would love to see you there."

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Richmond Retirees Get Together!

Retirees get together will be at Cobblestones on March 10th at 6pm. All are invited retirees and new people, $12.00 in advance and $15.00 at the door, dinner and golden beverages included .

Friday, February 24, 2012

Public Safety Meeting

There will be another public safety committee meeting on Tuesday the 28th @ 5:00pm located @ 1202 West Graham Road, Richmond, VA. Please come out and show we are still behind Capt. Andes!!!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Taxpayers and City Council PLEASE Help Richmond Firefighters Save $15 MILLION of YOUR money!!!!!!

Your Fire Chief has already begun the process of renewing the "Total Quint Concept" despite the desperate pleas from members in his leadership team and all of the Firefighters and officers in the field.  His past Operations Chief and his current Operations Chief are against continuing on this path of fiscal irresponsibility as is the Apparatus Committee.  The Fire Chief has ignored their ideas and pleas to consider other response plans that are less expensive, more effective, and can decrease response times.  He has been quoted by the previous Operations Chief as saying "I will not be the Chief who goes away from the Quint Concept".  Your Fire Chief has been the Appointed Authority for approx. 7 years and the lack of planning for our fleet replacement is atrocious.  He has told the department that he is staying with the Quints and that he has ordered a $600,000 Rescue Engine to "experiment with".  This is a direct quote from a town hall meeting.  If you ask him today he will tell you that he is now waiting for the Fitch study (which costs well over $100,000) to tell him what to do with his department and his fleet/response model.  I'm not a taxpayer in the city, but if I were I would be furious that he needs a study to make a decision that any competent Fire Chief can make and should make.
 
So the bottom line is this.....the Firefighters want to save $15 million by getting rid of the Quint Concept.  Here it is in layman terms:
 
    -Right now the Chief's plan is to continue with the Quint concept which deploys a dual fleet.  This means that every fire station in the City gets a $500,000     Engine     and     a million dollar Quint (this apparatus has a ladder on top).  this is based on the new apparatus that we have already started to receive and     these figures     are     actually lower than the actual cost.  7 rigs are here and 3 others     are being built. (not counting the Rescue trucks).
 
    -There is only one crew of four firefighters to run these trucks.  If it is an EMS call, Vehicle accident, Car fire, or other misc. call we take the engine,     leaving     the     1 million dollar ladder/Quint in the station unmanned.  If the call is for a fire, alarm, gas leak, or odor of smoke we take the Quint, leaving the 1/2     million dollar     engine unmanned.
 
    -do the math, that is 1.5 million per station, 20 stations, for total of $30 million.
    
    -Recommendations to the Fire Chief have been plentifull and include senarios that would abandon the dual fleet concept and go to a modified or hybrid style     Quint     concept where we would have 10 Quints and 10 Engines thus cutting the fleet to 20 trucks.  In this senario alone we would save $15 MILLION. 
 
    -Now just to add insult to injury lets look at the savings in maintenance costs and tools and equipment.  I would make a conservative guess that we can save at     least 3 to 5 million by going to a "single" fleet model.  It is not rocket science......maintenance, fuel, SCBA, EMS equipment, tools, hose, etc. for 40 peices of     apparatus is less expensive than for 20.  This brings the total of what we can save up to approx 20 MILLION.
 
It is happening as we speak.  An apparatus update came out last week and it said "we are planning the purchase of the next batch of trucks soon after July 1st".  We need your help NOW to stop this reckless spending.  Please help us hold the Fire Chief accountable for this mis-allocation of funds.  The economy is down, no raises, our career development is frozen, everyone is pinching pennies to make ends meet and he is poised to waste up to 20 MILLION. Help us to help save the citizens of richmond thier hard earn money!!!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Time and time again


Once again the voice of the "end user" has gone unheard.  I know certain people get on here and defend the decisions and ideas from 201 so here is another one for you.  Since 1998 one of the main complaints has been the size of the current Quint as it relates to the streets of the City of Richmond.  Certain people of authority who reside in a corner office, shared in this concern/complaint and for some reason seem to have forgotten that.  We have identified streets we cannot turn on to or exit from, as well as areas that have limited access due to overall vehicle size (in case you ask if we have let 201 know).  The decision was made to jump on to Suffolk Virginia's contract with Pierce, thus minimizing the time needed to get new trucks on the road. As usual this was because as with everything, it was left until the last minute. It is a direct result of a lack of planning.  For those of you who do not understand what this means, when you jump onto a contract you do not have to have a bidding process.  
However you may only change a certain percentage of the original localities specifications.   This would be ok if RVA was in any way similar to Suffolk, however as we all know there are few similarities.  Over the past weeks several vehicles have arrived from the initial purchase.  As we were already aware, the trucks share a similar look and size to the current fleet.  
Now again I know EVERYONE has concerns regarding the size and will have to wait another 10 years till we can look for some progress and change but it gets better.  Keep in mind a lot of money is currently being spent to aid in lowering our above national average accident rate (Which you are to blame for).  Problem is how many of those accidents were below 25 mph?  Could these accidents be a result of the size of the truck?
  Well since we "know nothing" and "don't understand how things work", and all we do is "complain", can someone please explain the theory in purchasing the same size truck but with a larger turning radius?  Companies have begun training on their apparatus and have reported that the turning radius of the 105' quints is far worse than the truck it will replace. 
 When will this end?  When will the firefighters in the field finally get an advocate instead of an enemy?  Correct me if I'm wrong but are we not the ones operating the trucks?  Is it not obvious that there is a very large lack of knowledge on how to manage and run anything?  There is an old saying,  "Repeating the same mistake over and over again is the definition of insanity"  

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Union Meeting 2/16

Union meeting is scheduled for 2/16 @ 7pm. All that can attend are encouraged to do so.

Mike Watson

It is with great sadness we have to announce the passing of FF. Mike Watson. Details will follow.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012