א שיינע ארטיקל אין רעקארד איבער די קעטסקיל הצלה
Monticello firefighters alerted to Hatzalah-impostor problem
By Heather Yakin
Times Herald-Record
hyakin@th-record.com
Monticello – Already this summer, at a car wreck on Route 17, the impostors showed up.
The men responding at emergency scenes claim to be members of Catskill Hatzalah, the volunteer ambulance corps that sends from 250 to 300 emergency medical technicians and 11 ambulances to Sullivan County each summer.
"There are a lot of people who come to calls who are not Hatzalah personnel. They get in our way, and they get in your way," said Yedidyah Langsam, a coordinator with Catskill Hatzalah.
He met yesterday with Monticello firefighters at the Monticello fire station. This was their seventh annual meeting, a tradition established to lay out the groundwork for cooperation.
Langsam encouraged the firefighters to move impostors off the scene and not to be shy about it.
The firefighters said they've been reluctant to be too forceful because they don't want to offend the Orthodox community.
Every summer, tens of thousands of people from Boro Park in Brooklyn, Monsey in Rockland County and other points southeast flock to the Sullivan County Catskills.
For the past 24 years, Catskill Hatzalah has come, too, with ambulances and EMTs. Catskill Hatzalah is affiliated with Chevrah Hatzolah of New York City, the largest volunteer ambulance service in the world. They're staffed by Orthodox Jews – by people just like the folks who flock here for the summer.
On the occasions when there has been a problem, it's been with other people, said Carl Houman, Monticello's director of fire services.
"Whenever we've gotten to a call when they're truly Hatzalah, there's never a problem," he added.
Fire Chief Glenn Somers brought up a summer 2004 incident where a small boy was hit by a truck at a Joyland Road camp. The county E-911 center was trying to dispatch a helicopter, and at the same time Hatzalah was trying to do the same. The result was confusion.
This year, Langsam said, only 911 will launch choppers.
Langsam explained that all Hatzalah members carry photo ID cards with holographic stickers. Their cars are all equipped with medical equipment based on the member's level of certification, and each bears both a Hatzalah sticker with an expiration date and a Department of Health ambulance registration.
And all Hatzalah members are required to wear a bright yellow emergency vest at any scene. If the guy isn't wearing a vest, Langsam told the firefighters, tell him to go home.
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/07/14/meet14.htm
By Heather Yakin
Times Herald-Record
hyakin@th-record.com
Monticello – Already this summer, at a car wreck on Route 17, the impostors showed up.
The men responding at emergency scenes claim to be members of Catskill Hatzalah, the volunteer ambulance corps that sends from 250 to 300 emergency medical technicians and 11 ambulances to Sullivan County each summer.
"There are a lot of people who come to calls who are not Hatzalah personnel. They get in our way, and they get in your way," said Yedidyah Langsam, a coordinator with Catskill Hatzalah.
He met yesterday with Monticello firefighters at the Monticello fire station. This was their seventh annual meeting, a tradition established to lay out the groundwork for cooperation.
Langsam encouraged the firefighters to move impostors off the scene and not to be shy about it.
The firefighters said they've been reluctant to be too forceful because they don't want to offend the Orthodox community.
Every summer, tens of thousands of people from Boro Park in Brooklyn, Monsey in Rockland County and other points southeast flock to the Sullivan County Catskills.
For the past 24 years, Catskill Hatzalah has come, too, with ambulances and EMTs. Catskill Hatzalah is affiliated with Chevrah Hatzolah of New York City, the largest volunteer ambulance service in the world. They're staffed by Orthodox Jews – by people just like the folks who flock here for the summer.
On the occasions when there has been a problem, it's been with other people, said Carl Houman, Monticello's director of fire services.
"Whenever we've gotten to a call when they're truly Hatzalah, there's never a problem," he added.
Fire Chief Glenn Somers brought up a summer 2004 incident where a small boy was hit by a truck at a Joyland Road camp. The county E-911 center was trying to dispatch a helicopter, and at the same time Hatzalah was trying to do the same. The result was confusion.
This year, Langsam said, only 911 will launch choppers.
Langsam explained that all Hatzalah members carry photo ID cards with holographic stickers. Their cars are all equipped with medical equipment based on the member's level of certification, and each bears both a Hatzalah sticker with an expiration date and a Department of Health ambulance registration.
And all Hatzalah members are required to wear a bright yellow emergency vest at any scene. If the guy isn't wearing a vest, Langsam told the firefighters, tell him to go home.
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/07/14/meet14.htm