521 replies to this topic

[Newfoundking]

Ok actually saw this rig's twin pumper in action last night..turns out it is green, blue, orange and red. My questions still stands as this is way out of the normal for any of the local departments.

These lights are not emergency lights. They actually serve the purpose of indicator lights on water status or something similar. I do believe the LA Mod as truck with these lights, and they are not lit because there is no real way to put pump/tank status in game. Because these are only status lights, they are not restricted by emergency light laws.

I have a question i've been wondering (And many others that i can't think of ATM, lol), on US Engines, do the drivers manually switch the sirens/activate horns etc, for example when an engine's normal horn is sounded a few times.

I mean, they don't really manually 'honk' the horn over and over, do they? Here's a video of Austin EMS going over the top on wails and yelps:
I understand he might be responding to a cardiac arrest or equiv., but shouldn't he be concentrating on other things than 'playing' with his sirens? Sure, change them to unusual tones to get people's attention, but not a whole array of them, lol!

yea they do its coming to an intersection lights arnt as visble during the day so doing that makes them noticed they do that everywere its so they dont go through the lights and get side swiped on the way to a call does that help?

What MetPolice said is true, but only partly. I've been driving my personal vehicle on the roads a few times, music up as I do, and I'll have an emergency vehicle behind me, lights going, and I won't hear them until they're upon me, or possibly even then, it might take an airhorn or something like changing sirens for my brain to pick up on a change in background noise and respond accordingly. The need for airhorn is it's generally louder and we're conditioned to respond to that sound as something of a warning, and with the infrequency of that sound in the background, it'll stick out to us more as an alert than a siren that's been in the background for a while.

In regards to lights, put as many or as little as you want on it, unless I'm checking my rearviews, or it's pitch black out and you've got the only lights, I won't notice you if you aren't in front of me, and you're relying on visibles only. Just imagine what it's like for big rig drivers, and the like, with only side mirrors.

It may seem like a lot to be changing sirens and that, but it's really not that hard. I know of very few drivers who use two hands all the time driving, and the ones that do are either elderly, or extremely new. First responders driving tend to be neither. If you rest your hand on the siren controls, which is usually in a comfortable place to do so, you can flick the knob easily, changing sirens, and a simple finger tap, usually to the left of the knob allows you to use airhorn. In practice, it's a lot easier than you'd think! If you have a console in the middle, it's super easy (we have them on all but ONE, it's great)

[MCERT1]

I have a question i've been wondering (And many others that i can't think of ATM, lol), on US Engines, do the drivers manually switch the sirens/activate horns etc, for example when an engine's normal horn is sounded a few times.

I mean, they don't really manually 'honk' the horn over and over, do they? I understand he might be responding to a cardiac arrest or equiv., but shouldn't he be concentrating on other things than 'playing' with his sirens? Sure, change them to unusual tones to get people's attention, but not a whole array of them, lol!

Most times the person in the captain's seat ( passenger seat ) manipulates the sirens. Sometimes I can even tell who's riding in the county EMs units based on the siren patterns.

[n00bingtarget]

When I was a Volunteer Firefighter / EMT, it depended on how many people were in the rig. 1 unit I drove frequently was a pickup truck we had a front mounted 750 GPM pump that we used to fill our tankers or pump water to the engine direct if close enough (no regular hydrants, we were RURAL). If I was by my self (yep, fun to run and setup by self but you do what you had to) I had to run the lights & sirens while driving. Same thing when I was driving the ambulance, if I didn't have an extra person, they were all in the back, I had to run the lights/sirens by self. If I had another person up front, I'd concentrate on driving and let them do the sirens. They also could help look for other vehicles and WILD LIFE (like I said - RURAL).

When I was a Paid-On-Call Firefighter later in life, then we always had at least 2 people in the front, so the driver drove and the person in the "officer" position ran lights/sirens/air horns/radio/computer.

[dispatch]

what would this be used for LOL WFT OH my god a NYPD ice cream truck NO WAY
take a look

http://farm1.static....388add9.jpg?v=0

Its been 4 years since you posted this.
Assuming you're still interested in finding the answer, im an Lt. in the NYPD patrol bureau and here's your answer.

NYPD does not and will never have ice cream trucks! Complete waste of useful money.
Mr. Softee is the biggest seller of ice cream trucks in NYC. The colours come in blue and white by default, making you think it's NYPD.

In the picture it looks like an NYPD cruiser and 2 ESU trucks are parked next to the ice cream truck or the ice cream truck is parked at the police station.

I can see why you think its an NYPD ice cream truck because of the colors but it's not


Hope I helped,
Lt. Anon, Patrol Bureau NYPD.

[matte31]

It may have been asked before but i'll give it a shot anyway.
How does the volounter fire dept. work in US?
Is it always personel available to callout from they're homes/work or does the trucks sometimes not respond due to lack of personel?
Is the nearest full time / paid fire dept. alarmed even though there is a fire in an area where a volounter dept is located?
Does the volounter fire dept have restrictions on SCBA, hazmat and diving?

I know that some of the questions answers may differ from place to place, but based on your own experiance how does it work?
Thanks in advance

[MCERT1]

It may have been asked before but i'll give it a shot anyway.
How does the volounter fire dept. work in US?
Is it always personel available to callout from they're homes/work or does the trucks sometimes not respond due to lack of personel?
Is the nearest full time / paid fire dept. alarmed even though there is a fire in an area where a volounter dept is located?
Does the volounter fire dept have restrictions on SCBA, hazmat and diving?

I know that some of the questions answers may differ from place to place, but based on your own experiance how does it work?
Thanks in advance

Volunteer fire departments vary a lot from place to place.

Some are entirely unmanned, and members will respond from home or work to the fire station to pick up vehicles. Others will have a small number of paid personnel such as chiefs, paramedics, and even just people to drive the fire trucks. Other ones also have members that work for the local community that are essentially paid firefighters because they are always allowed to go to calls and are available during the day. Depending on the size of the stations, normally they are setup to encourage members to spend extra time there with big social areas and often times have dormitory rooms for members to sleep there. Some departments will do rotations where members are expected to sleep at the station once every few nights.

Unfortunately, a lot of the time volunteer departments are not able to respond a fire truck or ambulance. Usually it depends on the time of day and type of call. Many employers do not like releasing volunteer firefighters to go to an emergency, unless it's something very large. Additionally, members don't like to go to non-emergency calls (mainly ambulance). Unfortunately a lot of agencies in my current area have had to stop providing ambulance service because they cannot get members to respond to ambulance calls.

When volunteer fire departments do not respond, it is handled uniquely by where it occurred. Usually, it is a method similar to the one I will describe. In my dispatch center, when a call comes in we alert for the necessary fire departments. After 5 minutes have passed, and there are firetrucks needed that have not responded, we will re-alert the fire departments. After 8 minutes, if they still have not responded in the trucks, we will ask an incident commander (if one is on scene) or just automatically alert for the closest additional fire department. The method is similar most places, but there are variations in the time frame for when additional alerts are placed.

In areas where there are paid and volunteer fire departments, they often still have very specific jurisdictional boundaries. This is not always the case though, some places, the volunteer fire departments are essentially support agencies for the paid fire department. Responses will vary significantly by area, but in general, both agencies will respond together. That also depends on the nature of the emergency, sometimes they may only send the paid or volunteer department. In my immediate area, the nearest paid fire department is 35 miles away, so we do not call for them unless it's a very, very big fire. We do however have paid EMS units for the county. Both the paid crews and the volunteer ambulances will be alerted for calls. The reason is that our paid ambulances are ALS units with a paramedic on board, and our volunteer units are usually not.

There are specific restrictions on what volunteer firefighters can do, but it is all based on training. If a volunteer has not taken their basic firefighter instruction courses, they cannot use SCBA. Hazmat, diving, and water rescue also have the same restrictions, but once you are trained in how to do them, you can. It also depends greatly on what equipment the volunteer department has. Many do not have diving equipment, or hazmat equipment due to cost, and a lack of trained members. In many places several volunteer fire departments will join together to form these specialized units.

Hope this helps.

[matte31]

Wow.
I didn't expect an answer like that, this is why i love this forum.
Yes your information was very helpfull and easy to understand.
Thank you MCERT1.

[MCERT1]

No problem

If you have any more questions, or want more info feel free to ask

[Handsup!]

Hi, quick question, hoping someone from Devon or Devon and Cornwall constabulary can answer this, why do your panda cars and general patrol vehicles have rear reds on static when patrolling?

Thanks-Hanndsup

[Sheildings]

Hello, I'm new here, You may not know me, Anyways, I'm Sheildings, I used the LA Mod by Hoppah for Emergency 4, It's pretty damn good, I wanted to ask a question since I got Emergency 2013, Is it moddable? I've looked through some topics, But they're pretty old and I've heard of no mods for it. Any idea?

[Handsup!]

This is the wrong place, haha

Anyhow, the answer is no, Emergency 2012 and 13 have no mods at all. You can't mod it unfortunately, sorry!

[Ace]

Scenario question. (Police)

You and a fellow officer are on patrol when you see a car matching the description of a suspects car. You chase the car into a sidestreet. The suspect gets out with a pistol and shoots your partner several times. Do you go chasing after the suspect or attend to your partners wounds?

I'm thiking it depends how wanted the suspect is or how bad your partners injured, or if your partner tells you to go after him. Is there a concrete answer to this?

[999madtom]

Scenario question. (Police)

You and a fellow officer are on patrol when you see a car matching the description of a suspects car. You chase the car into a sidestreet. The suspect gets out with a pistol and shoots your partner several times. Do you go chasing after the suspect or attend to your partners wounds?

I'm thiking it depends how wanted the suspect is or how bad your partners injured, or if your partner tells you to go after him. Is there a concrete answer to this?

If it was me I would return a few shots then press my emergency button and treat my partner

[Handsup!]

If it was me I would return a few shots then press my emergency button and treat my partner

 

Me too. I think treating the partner is lots more important than letting the suspect who could be potentially captured by other officers.

 

I'm going on the same basis of calling off pursuits as no matter how reckless he is driving/how wanted he is (Up to a certain point probably) if it's gonna end in tears than the safe option is to hold back and potentially save lives.

[theparanoid]

It may have been asked before but i'll give it a shot anyway.
How does the volounter fire dept. work in US?
Is it always personel available to callout from they're homes/work or does the trucks sometimes not respond due to lack of personel?
Is the nearest full time / paid fire dept. alarmed even though there is a fire in an area where a volounter dept is located?
Does the volounter fire dept have restrictions on SCBA, hazmat and diving?

I know that some of the questions answers may differ from place to place, but based on your own experiance how does it work?
Thanks in advance

In the county I live we have exactly two paid departments.  One for steel mill the other for county seat.  All the rest are volunteer.  Most are full volunteer with no tax dollars.  So in addition to fight fire there doing fund raisers to get enough money to buy gear, trucks etc.

 

One if mixed.  The township owns the equipment, vehicles and station and volunteers staff it. But regard to respond.  

 

 

they way they handle it with dipatch is they normal alarm say three company for structure fire still alarm.   This gives the man power and equipment.  

[Fred03]

In my county we have no paid departments, they are all volunteer. We are dispatched  to the calls in our area and once on scene the highest ranking officer who responds (not everyone always responds, last fire we had 7 total firefighters) can call and request mutual aid from the next town over and the county dispatch tones them to respond to our location.

When the tones sound over our radios some firefighters respond to the station where their gear is and respond in the trucks, some who live outside of town and far from the station just keep their gear in their vehicles and respond to the scene of the fire.

[Ace]

(Police)

if you get dispatched to a noise complaint and the person who's causing the disturbance insists on knowing who the complainee is, are you allowed to tell them? What if the person causing the disturbance won't cooperate until you tell them who reported the person. Are you allowed to arrest the person causing the noise disturbance?

I think you never should/not allowed to tell people who called or reported something because it might put them in danger.

[Ace]

(Police)

What's the cops role in a minor car accident? Do they have to get both drivers information and witness statements and that's all? When can the police leave a minor accident scene (clear)?

[EmergencyFan97]

The role of the police in a minor traffic accident is to redirect traffic or move the vehicles out of traffic if possible, collect the information of both drivers and their witness statements, and determine who is at-fault.  They can clear the scene once these duties have been performed.

[Handsup!]

As for your first question i'm pretty sure you have to follow something a bit like Patient Confidentiality in hospitals etc. This would make sense as if a murderer asked who called the police you know the caller will have a hit on him.

 

Quick tip: Edit posts rather than make two