MikesPhotos

On my old site: http://mikesphotos.us/index2.html

'nuff said.

Sigh. Let me give everyone some advice, the trick to making a GOOD mod is knowing what you're modding. Hoppah was able to create the LA Mod because there are so many great online resources detailing the LAFD from top to bottom. A place no one has ever heard of like Roseville, MN won't have that type of info available. You wont be able to find full walk around detail shots of the apparatus, info on the lights, color schemes, patterns, sirens used. You wont find info on the staffing and responses for the law enforcement, ems or fire. You're not going to find info on the particulars of each depts uniforms or tactics. There is just so much that goes into making a mod of a specific area vs just a general mod of any town usa. Its not just being able to put stickers on the side of a crown vic, ya know? But if you still want to put the time and effort in, your best source of info that I can find will be: http://www.cityofroseville.com/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1368 http://www.tcmfd.com/roseville/index.html http://www.cityofroseville.com/index.aspx?NID=934 its not much, certainly not enough to make a good mod with but it's a start. You basically have a single station Fire dept with 2 glorified storage lockers for the paid-call staff. The question is, can vollies in that county respond lights and sirens in their POV. Do you know? I don't. The medic units are not actually medic units but EMT-I's, and part of the fire department. There is no AMR in Ramsey County, just Alinas for all ALS and and transport. For PD, you'd have to look into the Roseville PD. I have no idea how close they work with Ramsey Co Sheriff or the MN Dept of Public Safety (State troopers). I'm curious what the pierce rescue unit is since I can find no mention of it anywhere. All in all, you have your work cut out for you. Good Luck! Oh and just so you know, the turnout coats for Roseville are beige with pink stripes. Yep, honestly.. .Pink.

There is an old saying that you can't build a model of the Taj Mahal unless you've seen the Taj Mahal. Having said that, I'm going to let ERFD step in and see if he can provide you with the information one needs to accomplish the lofty goals you've set for yourself before I answer the "need to fix" question.

*blinks* I might be misunderstanding Puppyboys intent, but I'm a little confused here. To the members/creators of the MN mod, how personally familiar are you with the department and the area? Was it chosen just because you liked the name? Are you familiar with how the EMS system works in Minnesota, and Roseville in particular? Do you know the staffing on the apparatus, and what the different colors on the helmets designate for that department? Also, you are aware that the MAA is a lobbying/political association and NOT an emergency response entity, right? Having spent over 6 years in the Twin Cities and with the MN DNR, I'm curious and confused about some of the things I'm reading in this thread and the direction the mod is going.

And.......Here I am! LAFD does indeed utilize portable monitors for incidents where a ground based heavy stream appliance is neccesary. Now, since I know many of you are budding firefighters and love the technical bits, here's a little introduction into portable monitors and their usage. On long duration fires, or incidents where heavy streams are neccesary and having a firefighter with a hose sitting there for long periods of time just isn't feasible or prudent, portable monitors can be placed for a deluge effect in defensive operations. A 4" line is connected to a gated wye which allows 2 2-1/2" lines to be connected to the monitors intake manifold. This gives you about 600gpm with a 2"tip attached to the monitor. Because of the large stream and force, they have to be stabilized and secured or they'll end up just flipping over. As for usage on forest/wildland fires, you'd NEVER utilize one for a plethora of reasons. The least which being the fact, just like in the game, forest/brush/wildland urban interface fires are quick moving and it takes too much time to set up, direct, stabilize, aim, and shoot. Second, at 600gpm, you're going to deplete your entire tank in 2 mins. Third off the top of my head is the fact that they are meant for single point deluge defenseive operations of a static target like an oil tank or commercial building, if you aim it at a tree, its out in seconds, and you then have to recrank it, re aim it, restabilize it for that direction and hit another tree. But the point you missed was Hoppahs excellent explanation why it will probably never see the light of day in the game. All throughout the board you already hear complaints about stability, bugs, crashes, and such. The wye in itself has flaws that cannot be overcome after many many hours of brainstorming, coding, and hard work on his part. The portable monitor would inherit those flaws since the logic behind connections, placement and use would be very similar scripting wise. Cool features are cool, but Hoppah has stressed above all else, he wants stability vs crashes. LAFD's Aerial ladders are not plumbed as many have noted and often you will just find someone up there with a standard hoseline as you can see in this pic during the Canyon Fire When that isn't enough, a ladder pipe assembly may be mounted on the end of the ladder which is basically attached to a 4" line connected to the pumper in the Light Force. This gives you a Master Stream of 1000gpm during ladder pipe operations. Now the Wagon Battery (deck gun to most of you) on an LAFD Engine can be equipped with various smoothbore and brush tips giving you from 250gpm to 1000gpm How does this compare to a Foam Tender? The front monitor is a hydro-chem nozzle for mixing with CAFS, Purple K, or other dry chem or foam that is needed. The rear monitor can be equipped with a variety of nozzles including a smooth bore tip which will flow 2000gpm! And since the ARFF rigs were mentioned, lets go to those next! LAFD Fire Station 80 at LAX Airport has 1 RIV (rapid intervention vehicle) and 3 Foam units. The RIV is a 1997 Oshkosh T-1500 with a 1500gpm pump, 700gpm roof turret, and 350gpm bumper turret much like the one pictured below from LAFD's Van Nuys Crash Rescue station. Foam 1 is an E-One Titan with a 2500gpm pump, 1200gpm hydro chem room turret, and 500gpm bumper turret. Foam 2 and Foam 3 are almost identical to each other and are 1988/1999 E-One Titans, but are equipped with Snozzles. The Snozzle has a 375gpm penetrator and a 1000 gpm Hydrochem turret. It is also equipped with a 500gpm bumper turret. Foam 4 is the ready reserve rig and is a 1979 Oshkosh M-15 with a 1600gpm Roof turret and a 315gpm bumper turret. So there you have it! Mike

There are Transit security officers who handle a very small portion of the light rail system, and the LASD has the contract for all of the buses and the entire mass transit system in LA County and LA City, including that covered by the security officers. The Security officers are simply PC832 private security guards. The deputies assigned to the Metro-Transit authority are all regular and reserve deputies that are the same as you'll find in East LA or Malibu or any where else.

LAPD just has holding cells within their stations, the jails are run by the sheriff's department. I dont shoot facilities, and rarely go downtown, but you can find all you can ever want to know by googling LA Twin Towers or visiting the sheriff's custody webpage and clicking on the various detention centers

There are small "Stop in/walk in" stations throughout the city that allow citizens to file non-emergency crime reports, speak to an officer, and get information on neighborhood watch and events. Usually there is just a citizen volunteer worker or two inside to help with the filling out of paperwork and answer questions. They are run by the division which is why some areas have them and others don't, but for the most part, they're becoming less prevalent due to cost and other budgetary needs. I know other places use their substations as small forewarding bases where you find 1 or 2 cars and officers assigned to it and such, but LAPD's are mostly just small walk in kiosk type places donated by community groups or stripmalls where people can pick up forms and papers with civilian volunteer workers inside.

They did test the impalas back around 2002-2004. Officers hated it, and when the newer version came out, officers said NO again. I haven't seen any of them still in existence. Pines Fire - San Diego, 2002 Canyon Fire - Soboba Indian Res - 2003

I had never heard of such a thing, and we usually get the test vehicles out at Clark Training center like we have with the Volvo S-70s and Chargers. I asked a few CHiPies out of West Valley, Sacramento, Riverside, Westminster, and Santa Clarita areas and no one had ever heard of the Lambo being tested. That with most of them being on the job since the 80's and 90's and a few of them involved in the testing/purchasing process. I can say with great certainty that it was probably just some kids fantasy after playing Need For Speed and wishing ya know? Now that's not to say an office somewhere doesn't have one for PR purposes, much like the LAPD hummer, the CHP boxter, and numerous other seized vehicles that become promotional equipment at events, but none of those are certified for operational use.

Those aren't anything new or special, look up "Commercial Chassis" pumpers and engines. Many smaller departments go with commercial chassis because they tend to be cheaper and use a standard semi-truck chassis to cut down on costs and maintenance. That's a horrible pic, but I beleive that's a Peterbilt commercial chassis for Engine 12. Here are some other peterbilts Eagan FD 1988 Peterbilt Wapello Iowa Emira E3 1994 Peterbilt Hastings Mn, 1993 Peterbilt Seymore E16 They've been around for a long time and many depts are still getting them to this day.

You would first have to read the tutorials on reskinning and scripting. After that, it would just be a simple case of skinning the appropriate model, giving it the proper scripts as well as the functions in the editor. Once you have the skinning done, i'm sure many will be more then willing to assist you with the other details. If you are requesting that they be added to the mod by Hoppah or the LA Mod team to do the work for you, please remember that Hoppah and others have expressly stated NO REQUESTS as they are focused on other things. --Addendum For those curious, the LASD Emergency Services Detail deputies are all trained as paramedics and rescue divers. 2 of them are assigned to Air Rescue 5, and others accompany the SEB Special Weapons Team on all operations to render aid to deputies and civilians during dangerous conditions. The ESD personnel are the pinnacle of the LASD's special units with the training, skills, and physical performance. Not everyone gets to join SEB, and very few ever make it to ESD.

I don't mean to be harsh or rude, but this is why people who actually are IN the business have no respect for whackers and the blinky light brigade. Time and time again, studies have shown that more lights are neither better nor more effective, and in many cases cause more accidents then they prevent. When you have vehicles striking GIANT bright red ladder trucks lit up like xmas trees with flares all around, and the fact that LAFD has already lost a few of its new ambulances in TC's with the new, supposedly much better, LED light packages, you soon start to realize why the general rule of thumb in all EVOC courses is LESS is MORE! Lights, and especially those freaking insane setups cause disorientation, fixation, and confusion amongst many drivers. At night, with the combination of multiple vehicles, the spatial and processing abilities becomes greatly reduced with the mixtures of light and shadow areas and causes many drivers to be unable to define which lanes are actually blocked and which areas are safer. Add into that equation the elements of speed, tiredness, and general stupidity of a populace at large and it becomes a giant mess. It's because of these things that the CHP went with the vision lightbars that have the options to just have 2 rotators oscillate (sweep) back and forth to the rear with the arrow bar. LAPD will usually just leave the steady burns on and either arrowbar set to flash or direction. It gives people something to focus on that clearly states be careful! Remember, response lighting in which you are actively trying to reach out and say HEY, you!!! Move over or STOP please.... is very very different from onscene/warning lighting which is designed to just say Please slow down and be careful. This is why we have the new zebra Hi-Viz striping on the rear of Fire and EMS vehicles. It's not a response issue, but a safety while on scene issue, or else you'd have the whole vehicle painted that way. Another thing to remember is that the vehicles and the people are not always in the same place on an incident. Even with something like a pop up sign board or the riseup bars you see in new york, it shows an incident is occuring but the people walking around all over are not visibile wearing dark blue/black/navy uniforms! CHP tan is much easier to see at night then LAPD navy, and some of the ambulance companies are darn near black color as well. With 5 cars stretched out along a road or a freeway, you have people spread out all over the place. The investigating officers especially due to their need to gather evidence and judge point of impact, speed, and all of the factors involved. Let me be real clear, I'm all for Hi Viz, but I just hate the vests. The vest were designed for highway workers who pick up stuff along the side of the road and engineers who build the roads. The PROPER and PRUDENT solution would have been to work with the leading councils and unions to develop a solution that meets law enforcement and fire needs. Perhaps build something into the PD uniform such as hidden panels that they can reach back and instantly display along their back, chest, and legs. And just increase the visibility of the standard turnout and brush gear to bring it up to whatever level they want without the need for an additional piece of gear that blocks access to the pockets and radios. Mike

No. On an unrelated note, LAPD still has not been given permission to acquire the old LAFD 412 that was retired recently. Since the big blue medium lift huey was taken out of service, LAPD SWAT has had no air support component and has relied on LASD Air 5 and their SEB team for any callup requiring it. Also LA County Coroners has had a job function change! This will make all of you blinkey light fans happy! The medical investigators are full fledged Peace Officers and their cars and the AV (antelope valley) special truck are now equipped with red lights and sirens. No more single amber light. Transport vans will remain amber. Back to swat, LAPD's SWAT rescue 4 lenco Bearcat is now outfitted as bassically a paramedic ambulance with downed officer/civilian retrieval its primary mission LA City fire's new agusta's are having some major teething pains. They were purchased WITHOUT a/c in the cabin, making their use as an airsquad tricky during this time of the year, the water tanks are only able to hold about 400gallons due to power issues, compared to the 1k of the other helos, and the air intakes do not have filters and they are unable to land on unimproved (dirt/field) surfaces like parks and school ball fields that make up a majority of the air ambulance and helispot areas. When the intakes are finally added, it should affect performance as well, which may make it unable to carry even the 400gallons. Talk about a real boondoggle. There is a lot of head scratching but no plans in place yet as to the future. FBI has a new Jet ranger patrolling the skies, all tricked out with red and blue flashing lights on the skids and everything. It's real slick looking and def. cost a pretty penny. DEA's been having issues with their air fleet with a majority of them ending up in the bone yard due to maintenance issues. They're flying a real real old MD500 now. LAPD's A-stars are now flying out of Van Nuys Airport as they are redoing the roof at Piper Tech. They did get approval for 4 more a-stars that will be painted in the black and white scheme. Current aircraft will remain in the blue an silver, so there will be a mix of the old white and blue, majority in blue and silver, and a handfull in black and white. As far as the new vests go, still no word on LASD getting them. LAPD and CHP are both going along the lines of: Do not wear unless EXTENDED (over 1 hr to 2 hrs) traffic control duty. They have all voiced complaints that the gear is unaccessible, and if a situation goes bad, they're a real bright visible target. So far the only use i've seen them get was the staples center/laker parade. Not even the MJ detail wore them. On a budget note, CALFIRE will be issuing IOUs not redeemable until October. As I understand it, the biggest hit will be Overhead personnel on fires, but furloughs and layoffs have begun for full time and seasonals. LAPD and CHP are still committed to the Ford CV at this time, the dodge charger is just not cutting it as a work horse and the reviews have been mostly against purchasing chargers for anything but admin duty. Coroners are pushing to get Expeditions or some sort of SUV to replace their crown vics. DEA was rolling around in ford tauri taurses tauranosaurs rex...anyway, thats what they've been given out here for the most part. Downey PD has a new mobile command SUV, LA city lifeguards are broke and having major funding problems, LACoFD is opening a handfull of new stations in the desert areas, and forming a new battalion too to split the load, and thats about all that comes to mind. Mike

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Medical Examiners (crown vics), Transport Vans, Investigators and others all have amber lights. Special operations units which respond to mass casualty incidents such as plane crashes, terrorist attacks and such have red lights. Mostly mass scale refrigeration, command, and decon units. I don't know what you saw, but I'd look again, it was probably amber.

The Fire Stations in the game represent an LA City Fire Department Task Force and a Satellite fire station. The LA *County* Fire Dept Heavy Squads respond from outside of the map and provide an extra ALS resource to a section of the map distant from both stations allowing for both extrication and ALS support while minimizing response time in those sections. In the game, as in the real world, you would NEVER find an LA County squad assigned to an LA City fire station.

LACoFD Station list with map The County of Los Angeles is over 4,000 square miles, with LACoFD responsible for around 2300 square miles of that territory. Compare that to LAFD's jurisdiction (which includes the city of San Fernando) which is just 471 square miles and you can see how vast the County of Los Angeles is. Because of the diversity that makes up Los Angeles and Southern California, it isn't just so cut and dry as to say the County handles the area outside the city limits like it would in other areas. Instead, the Consolidated Fire Protection District of Los Angeles County, which is LACoFD's *actual* name, covers all of the State Responsibility Area (SRA) land, the unincorporated parts of the county, and contracts with 60 local cities and communities to provide Fire, EMS, Air and Wildland services. And not just in LA County either!! LACoFD has recently been contracted to provide full services to the Orange County city of La Habra, much to the dismay of some OC board of supervisors. Because they are a Fire protection district and not a county fire dept, they are able to provide services beyond typical borders. As you can see from the map above, LA City is not a traditional city with traditional borders. Throughout its history it has incorporated into the city various smaller areas, communities and full fledged cities, such as San Pedro, Hollywood, and Harbor city. Because of this, within LA Cities borders and all around it, are various other cities and communities. Many of those non-LA City communites and cities have decided to contract with the County due to the high level of services offered at a great reduction of cost compared to other options. This means that pockets like West hollywood are County, yet Hollywood is City. Universal Studios, Marina Del Rey, Chatsworth Lake Manor and other places are County jurisdiction but are surrounded by LA City. Here is the latest list of the Cities served: Agoura Hills, Artesia, Avalon, Azusa, Baldwin Park, Bell, Bell Gardens, Bellflower, Bradbury, Calabasas, Carson, Cerritos, Claremont, Commerce, Covina, Cudahy, Diamond Bar, Duarte, El Monte , Gardena, Glendora, Hawaiian Gardens, Hawthorne, Hidden Hills, Huntington Park, Industry, Inglewood , Irwindale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Habra, La Mirada, La Puente, Lakewood, Lancaster, Lawndale, Lomita, Lynwood, Malibu, Maywood, Norwalk , Palmdale, Palos Verdes Estates, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Pomona , Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Rosemead, San Dimas, Santa Clarita , Signal Hill, South El Monte, South Gate, Temple City, Walnut, West Hollywood, Westlake Village, Whittier In addition to all of those, we also have the unincorporated areas of: Acton, Agoura, Agua Dulce, Alondra Park, Altadena, Antelope Acres, Athens, Avocado Heights, Baldwin Hills, Bassett, Big Mountain Ridge, Big Pines, Big Rock, Bouquet Canyon, Castaic, Castaic Junction, Charter Oak, Chatsworth Lake Manor, Citrus, Cornell, Del Aire, Del Sur, Del Valle, Desert View Highlands, East Compton, East La Mirada, East Los Angeles, East Pasadena, East San Gabriel, Florence-Graham, Gorman, Green Valley, Hacienda Heights, Juniper Hills, Kinneloa Mesa, La Crescenta-Montrose, Ladera Heights, Lake Hughes, Lake Los Angeles, Lennox, Leona Valley, Littlerock, Llano, Marina del Rey, Mayflower Village, North El Monte, Pearblossom, Quartz Hill, Rancho Dominguez, Rowland Heights, South San Gabriel, South San Jose Hills, South Whittier, Stevenson Ranch, Topanga, Universal City, Val Verde, Valinda, Valyermo, View Park-Windsor Hills, Vincent, Walnut Park, West Athens, West Carson, West Compton, West Puente Valley, West Whittier-Los Nietos, Westmont, Willowbrook Lots of areas, like Compton and Pasadena have their own fire departments, yet also have small areas which are served by LACoFD. The City of San Fernando is another special case with both LA City serving it and LACoFD FS 74. In other words, you just can't pigeon hole county responses in any fashion. LACoFD responds into the city mutual aid in areas such as Chatsworth, Hollywood, Marina Del Rey, Venice, and many others. They also respond into the city, along with the ANF, for all Wildland incidents since we have the hand crews and additional air assets that the city doesn't. And by mutual aid, I don't mean as an additional request, but as part of the first alarm assignment. FS8 in west hollywood responds into beverly hills and hollywood (LA City) on most structure fires, and in many areas, the freeway responses will get both a County and a City response so that both directions of the freeway are covered. Think of it like a quilt with different patches, all throughout are city, county, and other fire depts and after many years of lessons learned, trial and error, and proper planning, the citizens get the best service possible even if a weird looking vehicle shows up and the guys have patches that they might not have expected. Heck, a typical fire call in County 75s area gets a full alarm response from the County, City, and Ventura County Fire! 3 different agencies, 3 different patches, first come first serve. But in that area, they don't have "small" calls. When a fire breaks there, its either a large mansion or a canyon that'll burn for weeks straight to the ocean. The Sesnon, Topanga, and many others all started there and burnt straight to malibu. Thankfully, due to the efforts of the men at 75s, there have been thousands of other fires that were handled quickly and efficiently and never got a chance to make the news or get a name in the history books.

Both have been mentioned before on this board and search is your friend. But just for the lazy amongst you.. Task force = Light force with Engine attached for a total of 10 men. (fire station 1 in the game, ALS Engine + light force = taskforce) Bike Medics = Bicycle medics used for special events only like the LA marathon, probably used about 5 to 10 times a year if that. Its an OT special assignment.

I imagine there isnt much, except some random specialized equipment that I'm unaware of LA, and LA County especially, are pretty large places with a multitude of little differences from house to house and area to area. I wrote a guide to LA for MikeyPI and Hoppah at one point that detailed everything from the units, to the stations, to the uniforms and such from the federal level down to the local municipal units found in the greater metropolitan region. I think I might ressurect that, edit it for wide spread viewing and make a sort of FAQ out of it. Maybe start small and build it up again. But just off of memory, these are all of the units I can think of Chiefs EMS Captains Engines Trucks Light Forces Task Forces Rescue Ambulances Heavy Equipment Crew buses Heavy Rescue Brush Patrols Foam Water Tenders USAR HAZMAT Swift Water Rescue Aiport Rescue Firefighting (ARFF) Air Operations Bell and Augusta Helicopters and Sikorsky Contract helo Horses Boats and Divers Command Posts Rehab Volunteer Support units Bike Medics Prevention Recruitment Admin Staff Arson Inspectors Brush Clearance Unit Plug Buggies SAR K9 and I know i'm forgetting others. County is even bigger with even more toys over a larger area!

Just a quick note. Got to spend some time with the squadies at 89s today, and the disaster cache changes on the heavies is on hold until further word on the grant. Heavies and light squads will continue to carry extrication gear, including jaws and rams, and S89 at least, has a blower and chainsaw as well as other forceable entry tools

A Light Force is a fully staffed and equipped truck, with a 1 man pumper that tags along. The pumper, in this case best known as the BLS Engine, carries just the equipment a standard engine would carry. In other words, the extrication, forceable entry, and specialized truck gear is carried just on the truck. In various occasions, such as a large brush fire with a heavy commitment of resources, the light force can be split up and the engine upstaffed without any worries that any gear is extra or missing to function as a full time front line engine. During last years wild fires, most Light forces were split up this way with the 2-cars able to cover empty stations or respond to the fire without a decrease in coverage or service, as the truck stayed fully staffed and just ran solo. Thanks to all of the new paramedic toys and medications, not the least bit, the 12 lead monitor, the county paramedic squads are just running out of room for much more then that. I'll be down in the Malibu area this weekend and will hit up some squadies to see if they might be carrying extra gear due to their location. Covering Pacific Coast Highway from the city border to the Ventura county line, the only truck in BN5 is up at 125s and it can be an extended ETA over 30 mins trying to get through the canyons down to the coast. Seeing how many head on TC's and other issues they have, I would be shocked if they didn't find some way to keep their gear. But, we'll see by sunday.

Mcert is right as usual. The LACoFD uses over 40 (i'm guessing it was 45 or so for the contract) Ford Escape Hybrids, but they also recieved 6 F-350s for special duty and useage such as towing. I think its 1 or 2 per Section HQ, Zuma Beach, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, Hermosa Beach and 1 or 2 at Catalina island. Nissan got the contract in 1999, and before that was before my time. Of course you could always convert it over to an LA City lifeguard truck and use it around the lake on the deluxe map

Nope, did end up with a Coyote in my tent on a fire in Montana once. Let me rephrase... HIS tent. That is a stupid question. Google it.