FossilMedic ruminates:

Digital vs. Reality:  The False Facade of Websites

A group of us live-in volunteers spent a Thanksgiving weekend driving from Prince George’s County Station 12 to buff FDNY in the early 1970s. After 36 hours in the Bronx, and visiting a couple of houses, I knew how the largest and most complex fire department operated. The reality was that I still knew little about FDNY, except what Dennis Smith wrote about in Report from Engine 82.

My expert information source was the New York Daily News. One of the Sackroom members had a monthly bulletin from The Fire Bell Club. He also had a cousin on the job.

The depth and accuracy of today’s internet-based reality, based on fire company websites, digital pictures/videos, personal blogs and online forums, is just as flawed and incomplete as my understanding of FDNY after one buff trip.

I will admit that the new stuff is fantastic. German based www.rescue911.de has 247 video clips of FDNY rigs responding. Most of them are high quality and shot recently by Dirk Steunhardt, but there is no content. True eye candy.

You can blame this digital unreality on the success of Dave Iannone and Chris Herbert. A decade ago, these PG volunteers were running “The Metro DC Fire/Rescue Wire” and the Hyattsville VFD website as part of their fledgling Coolwriter digital publishing company.

The original Hyattsville site was one of the most sophisticated for its day.  Besides getting Iannone and Herbert an opportunity to create Firehouse.com, it was the start of the explosion of fire company websites, blogs, myspace and social networks. Thirty of the thirty-seven volunteer companies in Prince George’s County run a web site, as well as the Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association, Fire Commission, IAFF Local 1619 and the county fire/rescue department.

This has made PGFD a destination for young males wanting to battle the red devil. I remember a meeting I had with a high school senior and his mom when I was running the fire science program. This quiet and diminutive suburban Virginia child wanted to be a firefighter. His “research,” mostly web surfing, lead him to believe that the best place to go was in one of the most violent pockets of poverty in PG, where they average more first due shootings than extrications.

Most of the full-time fire science students were trying to get full time firefighter jobs. They had been out of high school for a couple of years and they already were hometown volunteers. About a half-dozen went to PG volunteer companies to get more experience. I vicariously enjoyed their Tuesday morning updates.

I could not see this quiet and naïve high school senior having a good outcome in PG. I told them that this is not safe decision. I encouraged that they both visit the fire station before even considering a ride-a-long.

I was reminded of the difference between what is posted on a web site and what actually happens when reading about the experience of a 17 year old Pennsylvania child who had his grandmother’s permission to travel to PG and become a live-in volunteer firefighter. This link goes to a detailed news report posted in STATter911: http://www.wusa9.com/news/columnist/blogs/2007/10/more-details-on-teen-burned-inside-md.html

I have also read a description by an older student-firefighter who left a VFD because of over-the-top hazing. He described the type of behavior that is usually found in a transcript when a fraternity is losing their charter or is a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit.

Fire company websites are just as complete as used car or travel websites. They paint a compelling but incomplete picture. For me, just using the internet resulted in a stay at a hotel in the middle of the San Francisco tenderloin district last year. [ http://firegeezer.com/2007/07/31/busiest-engine-means-most-patients-encountered/#more-68 ] The hotel website said that it was in the theatre district. When I arrived the building next door proclaimed LIVE! NUDE! GIRLS!

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