Future of the Canandaigua Fire Department

I'm a long time volunteer in my town which is a 100% volunteer FD. However. I think what the City of Canandaigua is proposing is very off base. They are putting the residents in harms way and they need to be held accountable. Larger FD's such as Canandaigua depend on the career staff to respond promptly when first called by residents. The volunteers are there to back them up by responding with an additional engine or sometimes it's just a matter of standing by in the fire station in case of a second call. It's the volunteers supplementing the paid staff and not the paid staff supplementing the volunteers as some Canandaigua politicians would wish the residents to believe. The volunteers still have an important role in the fire service but in some fire departments like Canandaigua their job have evolved into one more of a supporting role. Surrounding fire districts also do not deserve to be burdened by being called into the City of Canandaigua more often due to their negligent plan to decrease paid staffing. A fire dept is a necessity and yes many career firefighters get paid well for what they do. There is a reason for that! All firefighters in the area both career and volunteer need to stand united and support the career staff which is in the best interest of public safety for the residents of Canandaigua.

Some day sir, some day, there will be a time and place when you/or one of your family members, or perhaps a friend that you know, will need a TIMELY, PROFESSIONAL, DEDICATED response to an incident.
Someone has stated in another post post..."you pay for what you get". Canandaigua has the tax base..it has the shops, it has the Dr.'s cottages to protect. It has tourists. I challenge YOU, volly firefighters....protect your family...protect your friends...DO NOT risk your life OR your benefits from your REAL employer to provide a service to a community that looks toward the volunteer fire service to plug gaps in their own fiscal mismanagement.
Obviously, Mr Paine is HAPPY with the proper emergency response to his home. Wait, Mr. Paine...wait. When your sitting in your crumpled car at an accident...and you have to wait for the volly's to show up 30 minutes later to TRY and cut your behind out....Your hanging out of your window of your burning house at 3 AM, your kids are still inside, WAITING for the volly's to show up...

Youtube a house fire, Mr. Paine. Youtube a car accident.......

Sleep tight.........

I don't even live near...but I care....

OOOOPS...

To that dope Canadaguia Hiker ( who wanks it from his computer SAFELY in Niagra Falls......Note to you...they WILL not lay off any workers at the KY Jelly plant...so your 27 year membership order will NOT be interrupted. Jeeezus...I just hope it doesn't catch Fire....

To Mr. Paine from what I have been reading you do not want the volunteer system to work.My guess is that you are a paid firefighter or you know one.I come from a paid and volunteer fire family and live in the Village of Newark.Newark is almost the same size as the City of Canadaigua our ISO rating the last time I looked was the same and we are all volunteer. We have 40 very active volunteers that respond with 3 engines ,1 tower ladder and a heavy rescue. We have done this since 1990 without the paid staff.Our average response time to get a truck on the road is 2 minutes or less.The City can do this without putting the people at risk. Proud PAST CHIEF OF NEWARK VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT.

Doug Velte wrote:

To Mr. Paine from what I have been reading you do not want the volunteer system to work.My guess is that you are a paid firefighter or you know one.I come from a paid and volunteer fire family and live in the Village of Newark.Newark is almost the same size as the City of Canadaigua our ISO rating the last time I looked was the same and we are all volunteer. We have 40 very active volunteers that respond with 3 engines ,1 tower ladder and a heavy rescue. We have done this since 1990 without the paid staff.Our average response time to get a truck on the road is 2 minutes or less.The City can do this without putting the people at risk. Proud PAST CHIEF OF NEWARK VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT.

You think honestly the City of Canandaigua could put an engine on the road in 2 minutes with all volunteers? Really? Than might be possible in Newark. But Canandaigua is a different situation. A different animal. In my volunteer FD we have the first engine on the road in about 4 minutes. Sometimes 3 and sometimes 6. Just depends on the time of day. But to average 2 minutes in Canandaigua is impossible with just volunteers.

Hey Velte,

The ONLY way anyone could have an engine on the road in 2 minutes is if the vollys are camping out at the firehouse. And suppose you DO get your first engine out, do you have a FULL complement of QUALIFIED firefighters ??? Highly doubtful....

Volunteers are a DYING breed...you pay for what you get....that's for sure.....

Lot'sa cellars saved in Newark I bet...

Fire at the VA ...how many meatwhippers put that out ???? none....

There is a very interseting article in the Sunday Edition of The Daily Messenger "U " section concerning the City of Canandaigua budget for 2010.
The portion of the article on page 4B where Mr. James Terwilliger in my opinion shows justification for the cost reduction needed to balance the budget for next year makes a lot of sense. If those of you who still have doubts about what must be done you should find a 5TH grader and have them explain things to you. I still feel the Finance Committee and City Council have done a great job.

Hiker,

Hope you fall down a ravine and wait for those volunteers to "maybe" show up to rescue your pathetic life. You are a disgrace and probably want everything free, like fire protection....

thomASS Paine wrote:

Hiker,
Hope you fall down a ravine and wait for those volunteers to "maybe" show up to rescue your pathetic life. You are a disgrace and probably want everything free, like fire protection....

And I hope you lose your job, and have to go back to working like the rest of us ... lucky if you get a week vacation, little to no benifits, and the only retirement you get is what you pay into.

Your union is what has made you too expensive.
for the most part, you get paid TOO well just to sit around.

Too many Canandaigua Police Officers. I know we're a much larger town than Faiport, but they do a good job of keeping just 7 police officers.

There's A LOT more than that in Canandaigua. And all they do is sit in the Pudgies' parking lot and catch people going 37 in a 30 mph zone.

Tom wrote:

Too many Canandaigua Police Officers. I know we're a much larger town than Faiport, but they do a good job of keeping just 7 police officers.
There's A LOT more than that in Canandaigua. And all they do is sit in the Pudgies' parking lot and catch people going 37 in a 30 mph zone.

Cops generate income for the town, they would never sacrifice that sacred cash cow ... plus, they have a better union!

Ha Ha,

Dinkus, I DO not work for CFD. I do, however, support them while the bean counters re-prioritize their monies !!!
You really think cops are a revenue generator ??? How, by fleecing citizens going 3 miles over the speed limit ??? Too bad firefighters can't arbitrarily go out into public and start writing " revenue generating " tickets for stupid things. Would you be happy then? They could then write YOU a ticket for imitating an educated person.Wow...retard...

ASS Paine wrote:

Ha Ha,
Dinkus, I DO not work for CFD. I do, however, support them while the bean counters re-prioritize their monies !!!
You really think cops are a revenue generator ??? How, by fleecing citizens going 3 miles over the speed limit ??? Too bad firefighters can't arbitrarily go out into public and start writing " revenue generating " tickets for stupid things. Would you be happy then? They could then write YOU a ticket for imitating an educated person.Wow...retard...

Who the hell cares where you work ...
Yes, I do think the cops Fleece the people. If you think otherwise, you are the retard. Fire department show up at vehicle rollover, pull you out and send you to the ER ... the cops show up and write tickets, check for DUI, and generally ruin your life.
If had to get rid of eithr of the two ... the cops would be it.

Speak for yourself, Sir. I come from a very rural department in Yates County and we can have our station emptied in under 2 minutes. I understand that up in Rochester and other cities with stop lights, you have more traffic to battle to get to the station. However, I would not go as far to say that it is impossible for volunteers to empty their station in 2 minutes.
Stay safe.
It's really sad to see us bickering over this situation. Some of us are losing sight over the common goal that we have in the fire service.

Firefighter wrote:

<quoted text>
You think honestly the City of Canandaigua could put an engine on the road in 2 minutes with all volunteers? Really? Than might be possible in Newark. But Canandaigua is a different situation. A different animal. In my volunteer FD we have the first engine on the road in about 4 minutes. Sometimes 3 and sometimes 6. Just depends on the time of day. But to average 2 minutes in Canandaigua is impossible with just volunteers.

Eric wrote:

Speak for yourself, Sir. I come from a very rural department in Yates County and we can have our station emptied in under 2 minutes. I understand that up in Rochester and other cities with stop lights, you have more traffic to battle to get to the station. However, I would not go as far to say that it is impossible for volunteers to empty their station in 2 minutes.
Stay safe.
It's really sad to see us bickering over this situation. Some of us are losing sight over the common goal that we have in the fire service.
<quoted text>

That could be true in Yates County. Would would also be willing to bet you get as many calls in a year that the Canandaigua Fire Dept gets in a month. You are comparing apples and oranges and as a member of a 100% volunteer FD in my town that responds to over 800 calls a year I support the paid staff of the Canadaigua Fire Dept. People that think they will have all this equipment on the road there in 2 mins with volunteers are sadly ignorant to the situation. The more the pager goes off the more the volunteers get burned out. They need to keep the paid staff they have and develop a plan to attract more volunteers to help the paid staff when they can. The realistic plan should be the volunteers supplementing the paid staff. Not the paid staff supplementing the volunteers as the reckless politicians would wish everyone to believe. Every town is different and I'm the first to defend the volunteers but in this case the plan that is in the best interest of public safety is to keep the paid firefighters they have.