First, many of the Volunteer State’s volunteers have yet to attain a measly 65 hours of training, even after being full-fledged firefighters for over five years!
Now, the state legislature is now mandating that these local heroes attend the fire training center in Bell Buckle, TN.
Then there’s this: the cost is about $1,500, and firefighters must take the course on their own time and at their own expense (their departments cannot/will not pay for it)!
“They (Tennessee state legislature) just keep handing these mandates down and sending me these books telling me what my guys are going to have to do,” Kimball Fire Chief Jeff Keef said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Chief Keef said 78 percent of Tennessee firefighters are volunteers. He fears that the mandate will force rural fire departments to close because their volunteers can’t afford the required training.
I understand that fear. Here’s another:
The astonishing number of sub-trained firefighters allowed to assume the liability and responsibility to perform the highly-skilled and potentially life-threatening duties without the most basic training and without the financial backing of their departments and their taxpayers.
How much does a firefighter’s funeral cost the taxpayers?
When I think of St. Patrick’s Day and the fire service, many things come to mind. One of those thoughts bubbling up to the surface brings a smile to my face every time. Indulge me with a re-post recognizing the value an experienced veteran with the right approach can bring to all of us, young and old.
With that perspective, I offer up a special note to third-generation firefighter retired Chicago Fire Department Deputy District Chief Eddie Enright who has over 38 years of duty having been assigned to engine, truck, and squad companies after serving his country in Vietnam. As he would say:
“Only 0 more days til St. Patrick’s Day”
* * * * *
Over the years, I’ve attended a boatload of fire training classes which emphasized leadership, training, and safety. Most were team-taught. A primary instructor would be there periodically, accompanied by a great group of “assisting instructors” who would each bring a certain level of expertise to the specific topic at hand.
There were lesson plans to be followed, objectives to be addressed and met, and the test to prove that learning had occurred. It’s a method of learning quite familiar with firefighters worldwide.
But sometimes, the Fire Gods might truly smile down upon you and bless you.
As you’re sitting in the classroom waiting for the course to begin, you wonder where all the instructors went. Just then, you hear guffaws of laughter just out of sight (probably damn near the coffee and doughnuts). What’s going on?
“Da Chief” is in the building.
Not necessarily the current department chief, but certainly a chief nonetheless.
He’s been around for decades and he’s seen it all. He rose up through the ranks and gained the respect from his peers the old-fashioned way. “Da Chief” earned it.
He knows how to handle the pick-head ax just as well as how to handle the politicians. He knows BS when he sees it and he doesn’t hesitate to call it out.
Just like Underdog, he is humble and loveable. He listens to everyone’s views and becomes E.F. Hutton: When “Da Chief” begins to speak- everyone listens.
Down to earth. Real.
When you are blessed with the presence of this special guy, drop everything you are doing and be near him. Hear what he has to say. Drink it all in.
Not only do you learn from his experience and wisdom, but, more importantly, from the way he relates to those around him. He does not condescend to the rookies; he gives no guff to those with whom he may disagree. He is compassionate and concerned. His smile is contagious and his love of the fire service is completely evident. He fills you with motivation and oozes tradition.
While reading this, do I have you thinking about someone you know that could be like “Da Chief”? If so, make it a point to get him to engage with you and your group. Buy him a beer after class.
It will be the best time you can spend in any fire service training session.
I saw this bumper sticker while speeding down the Northwest Tollway on my way home from O’Hare the other day. I knew I had to have one.
So I whipped out my iPhone and went to “store”.
I searched for, located, then downloaded the iPhone app that connects me directly with eBay. After logging in with my username and password “eastcoaster”, I simply typed in “h-a-n-g-_-u-p-_-a-n-d-_-d-r-i-v-e” in the search box.
As usual, I had to backspace a few times to get the correct term typed in, but I eventually persevered. Alas, too many results came up.
Blowing past Elmhurst Rd, I tried again, this time typing in “h-a-n-g-_-u-p-_-a-n-d-_-d-r-i-v-e–_-b-u-m-p-e-r-_-s-t-i-c-” before some jerk-off driving his wife’s mini-van while chatting away on his phone nearly cut me off before I could finish.
I quickly stashed my venti vanilla skim latte in its holder and simultaneously honked and waved with less fingers than my left hand contains, while clutching my iPhone in my right. What was this chucklehead thinking?
By the time I was ready to exit onto Barrington Road, I still hadn’t found what I was looking for on eBay. I was miffed until I realized how the trip down the tollway seemed to take no time at all. In fact, I couldn’t really remember driving it. What just happened for the last 20 minutes?
I decided to postpone my eBay search until I got home. It was time to pay some serious attention in case a deer decided to jump out in front of me. Gotta be extra alert out by me…
That’s one of my peeves, and I would bet many of you share it as well. It’s the self-important “distracted drivers” that piss me off as they try to multi-task while guiding a multi-ton vehicle hurtling down the road.
Losers.
The whole episode reminded me of a story I had seen in at NewYorkTimes.com, that addressed the increasing amount of gadgetry gradually accumulating in the cabs of emergency vehicles. In addition to the normal gauges, lights, dials, mirrors, radios, and sirens, more and more electronica is competing for our attention as we attempt to safely navigate our way through traffic as quickly and as safely as possible.
Like a litter of eleven puppies competing for six nipples, we’ve been inundated with computers, map routing and GPS devices, cell phones, and multiple radio frequencies- all looking for a spot in our collective cerebrums as we try to wrap our heads around pre-planning our first few steps upon arrival at the emergency scene.
I ask you this: How much is too much? When do WE cross the line and become just another distracted responder?
As the NYT article explains, there is no data currently being collected regarding accidents involving emergency responders distracted by TMI. But there are several anecdotes:
“Philip Macaluso, a New York paramedic, recalled a moment recently when he was rushing to the hospital while keying information into his dashboard computer. At the last second, he looked up from the control panel and slammed on his brakes to avoid a woman who stepped into the street.
In April 2008, an emergency medical technician in West Nyack, N.Y., looked at his GPS screen, swerved and hit a parked flatbed truck. The crash sheared off the side of the ambulance and left his partner, who was in the passenger seat, paralyzed.
In June 2007, a sheriff’s deputy in St. Clair County, Ill., was driving 35 miles per hour when a dispatcher radioed with an assignment. He entered the address into the mapping system and then looked up, too late to avoid hitting a sedan stopped in traffic. Its driver was seriously injured.”
Even my own friend and fellow podcaster Greg Friese was quoted in the article, citing his own experience in which he felt it necessary to demand the distracted driver of his ambulance to step away from his cell phone:
“My partner was checking baseball scores as he was driving a patient to the hospital. I looked through the passageway and said, ‘You’ve got to stop that right now,’ ” recalls Greg Friese, a paramedic in central Wisconsin, who was treating a patient in the back. Mr. Friese also develops online training programs for medics, E.M.T.’s, police officers and firefighters.
“We’re dealing with the carnage, which ranges from the trivial to the tragic, of distracted driving,” he said. “We should know better.”
Yes we should.
As we decide how to utilize the constant array of new technology, we need to address the amount of distraction we’re placing upon our responders. We need to recognize and accept that too much input may result in a decreased ability to process the information in a way that is useful. Worse yet, distracted emergency responders may bring increased civil and criminal liabilities upon our departments.
The last thing I need is another fire engine flying past me with a distracted driver while I’m trying to surf the web and revise my fantasy hockey roster.
I guess this is the type of egotistical and flippant response that is in order when accused with the rather serious charge of sexual harassment. Apparently, this is why we are supposed to believe that the allegations must be unfounded.
Just change the focus.
Then get out of Dodge for an “extended 30-day vacation.”
According to a report by the Chicago Sun Times, mayoral chief of staff Ray Orozco, a former fire commissioner himself, was described as livid about Brooks’ remarks. That leaves me wondering how the normally animated Mayor Richard Daley must have reacted.
When the mayor was repeatedly asked last week if Brooks still enjoys his confidence, Daley refused each time to say “yes”.
Oops.
Again, methinks Brooks is bestowed with enough confidence already.
From the exclusive report by staff reporters Fran Spielman and Frank Main, a payroll auditor for the Fire Department, Deidre Green, claims Brooks told her he “desired her in a sexual manner” and wanted to see her breasts, Green said. She claims that Brooks called her repeatedly and moved to lay her off when she refused his advances.
“He told me he liked me and to call him back, which I did,” she said.
But she said she didn’t like his attitude in later calls.
“He would say, ‘I am a breast man. I want a wild woman,’ ” Green claimed. “I said, ‘I don’t like this picture.’ He felt I was subordinate to him.”
If Brooks intended to help her professionally, he didn’t need to do it in late-night calls on his personal phone, Green said.
“Why would we talk at 11 o’clock at night? Why would I have his personal number? When things didn’t go his way, he got upset with me,” she said.
Green said they spoke a few more times on the phone before she confronted Brooks in the office, saying she heard he had a girlfriend.
“He said, ‘I saved your job.’ He said, ‘They want to get rid of you. I can hire you, and I can fire you, and you can sue to get your job back.’ “
The calls ended in October 2008, Green said, but she claims Brooks continued walking past her desk and making harassing comments.
As if that weren’t enough, also in hot water is the Commissioner of the Office of Compliance, Anthony Boswell, who is already serving a 30-day suspension for allegedly mishandling an intern’s sexual harassment claim against a 911 Center deputy. Boswell denies his guilt and is appealing the suspension.
Boswell, a friend of Brooks, is also accused by an unidentified source of trying to spike the investigation of Green’s claims, according to the Sun Times.
Methinks the self-professed well-endowed and God-blessed Brooks will have plenty of opportunity to fend off the women once the investigation by the city’s Office of Compliance has been completed and he finds his calendar wide open, unencumbered by the suffocation of the time constraints of any continued duties as fire commissioner.
Imagine meeting, for the first time, friends you have already known for a long time.
For months, I have collaborated with a very special east-coaster blogger. You may have heard of him. He is Rhett Fleitz, editor of Fire Critic. He was born out on the east coast just two years before I battled my first red devil, yet Rhett has been one of the first of many who extended their hand in helping me develop the fledgling FireDaily presence since it’s inception late last year.
This east-coaster and I have since partnered up to produce iTunes most rapidly growing podcast called Firefighter Netcast. If you haven’t heard it yet, the voluminous set of shows (3) are still available for download there and at our website.
The east-coaster and I had emailed, telephoned, skyped, and instant messaged hundreds of times. Even our kids have met online and become friends.
But not until this east-coaster strolled into town under the cover of darkness at 1am last Friday morning had I actually met him in person. But it was like I knew him for a long time. And I did.
The next morning, my east-coaster friend and I set out to network with similar friends, those with whom we had been in almost daily contact, yet whom we had never met. Rather than try to recount each individual meeting again, you can find a mostly-accurate description of each meeting over at my east-coaster friend’s post entitled “EMS Today in Retrospect, Thanks for the Memories and Meeting Everyone in Person”. He refers to me as Chris Farley (you know, the guy who lives in a van down by the river), and to himself as David Spade.
Hmm- Tommy Boy, eh? Who’s you favorite baseball team, Rhett?
The Yankees?
From moment one, the ball busting started and never stopped. I don’t think It never will
Here’s a video from Dave Statter that captures the evening
Great personalities I met for the first time in no particular order:
Mark Brady (@PGFDPIO) the PIO for PG County, Md., always in the news like it or not
PLEASE, if I forgot you, let me know. I want to make this list complete. There is a fog I am trying to penetrate!
Taking nothing away from any of the others I met, I had the honor and privilege to have Mike Ward introduce me to the one and only FireGeezer, Bill Schumm (@FireGeezer). Bill made the 90-minute trek out to the convention center on Saturday to meet up with all of his fellow bloggers in attendance. Damn if I didn’t forget my FireGeezer mug for the signatures from these two greats. They promised another opportunity this summer in Chicago, and I eagerly await that special occasion. True to form, FireGeezer took no time in blogging about our meet-up.
Special and sincere thanks to everyone involved in making the meet-up possible. So much was done and planned and paid for to make it possible for us to all come together.
Dave Iannone and Chris Hebert and their staff at FireEMSblogs.com led the charge from start to finish, in addition to their duties at the busy JEMS booth during the EMS Today conference.
Mike Ward (FossilMedic over at FireGeezer.com) has long been associated with George Washington University’s Emergency Health Services Program, who generously sponsored the Meet-up at Uno’s in Baltimore along with JEMS and FireEMSBlogs.com, graciously ensuring we were satiated with food, drink and merriment Friday night.
Chris Kaiser was instrumental in the planning stages as well. You all kicked ass in making this such a memorable event.
So much more happened on the trip that was funny, funnier, downright damn funny, and friggin’ hilarious. Much cannot and should not be shared, if for no other reason than to guarantee future similar escapades in the future.
That’s what happens when friends get together- even those who have known each other for a long while, yet have only met for the first time.
I understand that fear. Here’s another:
I quickly stashed my venti vanilla skim latte in its holder and simultaneously honked and waved with less fingers than my left hand contains, while clutching my iPhone in my right. What was this chucklehead thinking?
As we decide how to utilize the constant array of new technology, we need to address the amount of distraction we’re placing upon our responders. We need to recognize and accept that too much input may result in a decreased ability to process the information in a way that is useful. Worse yet, distracted emergency responders may bring increased civil and criminal liabilities upon our departments.
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