Lately we’ve been bringing up topics here and there that usually end with:  “Talk with your citizens and let them know what you are doing,” or something similar to that.  It seems like the list keeps getting longer.  But if you keep putting it off, the list does get longer, and you’ve lost an opportunity.

Fire and rescue is a public service that is wholly dependent on the generosity of the people who receive it.  We rely on them, one way or another, to fund it and provide the people to operate it.  If we don’t point out to them where their resources are going and what the alternatives are if they refuse to provide them, then that will slip away.

I was reminded of this when I saw the results of Duxbury’s voting last week (HERE) where they nixed the funds to start planning replacements for their police and fire stations.  On the surface it looks like the FD was aggressive in pointing out their problems and even picturing them on their website.  But somehow it still hasn’t gotten through to the taxpayers.  That was evident at this same balloting when they readily approved the funds to overhaul the community swimming pool.  Now, up in Massachusetts, just how many days during the year is the pool usable?  If the weather is perfect every day without any thunderstorms, etc., probably 90 at the most.

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But since those swimmers will most likely go through life without ever seeing a house fire, let along experiencing one, the FD automatically drifts back in their mental priority list.  But, dang, all summer without a pool?  Noooo way.

Many of the people who are homeowners now are born and bred in the Yuppie movement.  And the primary characteristic that distinguishes that sub-section of their generation is a certain self-absorbtion that puts their own personal instant-gratification ahead of everything else.  Sometimes even to the detriment of their own children.

When they have to choose between healthy working conditions for their firefighters or a better “pool experience” for themselves, they’ll put themselves at #1 every time.  So we have to demonstrate that our ability to perform is important to them most of all.  Tomorrow we’ll talk about how we can do this.

But now, we need to get this equipment checked out.  I will go start our coffee.

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Los Angeles City L.O.D.D. 

I was away from Communications Central all of last evening, so I missed the initial reports coming out about the LODD in Los Angeles.  A powerful explosion at what appears to be an electrical vault caused fatal injuries to FF Brent Lovrien, age 35, and severe injuries to Eng. Anthony Guzman, 48.

From what little I have read so far, it seems to be one of those situations where there was no indication that this event would occur when it did.  One of those things where, as fate would have it, the FD arrived on the scene a little too soon.

Dave Statter was keeping up with it last night and he has a full set of reports and video links HERE to bring you up to speed on the story.  No doubt there will be plenty more later today.

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Everybody has experienced the strange occurrence of a thought or memory suddenly sailing in from nowhere.  You don’t have any idea why it arrived or why it was timed to yell out at you then.

That happened to me yesterday when the concept of the Crosley automobile charged up to the front row of my brain cells.  Most of you have probably never even heard of the Crosley until I just now mentioned it.  But Geezers like myself will have a recollection of it.

Powell Crosley, Jr. was one of those innovators who was constantly seeking ways to improve the affordability of products for the average consumer.  In the 1930′s he made radios that sold for only 10% of what other models cost.  And when people complained that they couldn’t hear any radio stations (because there were so few), Crosley built some stations, becoming the first radio network owned by one company, Crosley Broadcasting.  Home refrigerators was another of his products that brought progress into the American household at an affordable price.

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But his pride and joy was the Crosley automobile.  First put into production in 1939, the 2-door convertible was powered by a two-cylinder engine that got 50 miles-per-gallon and the total weight of the car was less than 1,000 lbs.  This was the first American compact car and it sold for $350.

After WWII, production resumed at the Cincinnati factory with some upgraded models but the focus was still on low-cost and efficiency.  The newer engine was a four-cylinder, 2-cycle engine made out of stamped sheet metal instead of cast iron.  When it was fully assembled, the entire engine weighed 133 lbs. 

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The car, while stylish, was always bare-bones in design.  The windows didn’t roll up or down, but were just slid open.  There were no interior ammenities like door panels.  The windshield wipers were hand cranked and the glove box was literally only large enough for a pair of gloves.

The post-war model was the first car ever to have disc brakes.  But the Crosleys, being cheaply made, wore out fast and instead of getting repaired they were usually just thrown away because buying a new one was so cheap.  Therefore you will see very few surviving Crosley cars.  The production line shut down forever in 1952 and the plant was sold to the General Tire and Rubber Corp.

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There is an active Crosley owners’ car club with over 1,000 members.  If you’re interested in reading more about this unique automobile, here are some links for you:

Wikipedia ENTRY.
A history of the Crosley car along with a large photo gallery HERE.
The Crosley Automobile Owners Club WEBSITE.

But before you get engrossed in all that, let’s get the equipment checked out.  I’ll go run the coffee maker.

Roughly every 9 to 11 years the normal economic cycle hits the bottom of its trip up and down the chart.  And this year we are at that point.  This is nothing new, nor is it surprising.  But how the various local governments handle the temporary fiscal squeeze is always interesting because it reveals the real abilities, and intentions, of the leaders.

And we all know that when it comes to city councils and county boards, the “ability” rating is often marked “poor.”  That’s one of the reasons that they hire city/county managers.  Not only do they administer the day-to-day operations of the government, but they also are charged with preparing a budget so that the heat for any failures to live up to glowing promises will fall on the manager and not the politician.

The city manager brotherhood knows this and they prepare for it through their constant seminars and training programs that teach them how to cut spending.  And it looks like part of this training instills in them the idea that fire departments (not so much the ambulance sector) are really over-rated and consume way too much money, leaving lots of lovely lumps of programs that can be chopped out of the next year’s budget.

Sometimes this passion grips them to the point that they start believing that they know better than anyone else, even the fire chief, how to run a fire department.  This folly has never been so blatant as it was last week when the city manager for Poway, California, (in San Diego County) had to admit that during the devastating wildfire last October he ordered the city’s fire units to abandon a neighborhood where they were holding off the encroaching fire and pull back to a distance to “rest.”  (see Firegeezer report HERE.)  As a result, 28 homes were destroyed.  Despite his attempts to keep it secret, the word got out last week and now he and the city council have to answer for it.  But those 28 homeowners are still without.

Taking another tack, the city manager of Wilmington, North Carolina, is considering closing down fire companies in order to cut labor and operational costs.  Having the available resources spread farther apart doesn’t look so bad on paper, so it’s an option.  Never mind the fact that whenever this is practiced it turns out to be a failure when the department can’t muster the resources to handle a bad day at the office.  Wilmington is a large enough city that having simultaneous fires is not that unusual.

Another juicy plum that looks good for picking is Wilmington’s minimum staffing of four per unit.  It’s one of the very few departments in the state that maintains the true minimum standards for safe and effective firefighting attacks.  But instead of hiring enough people to cover for daily gaps due to leave or vacancies, Wilmington has been relying on call-back overtime to fill the seats each day.  And you know what city managers think when they see that big overtime item on their monthly expenditure chart.  So they are considering plans to regress in fire protection by either taking needed units out of service or taking a chance on endangering both firefighters and citizens by reducing the minimum staffing.  This is a curious turn for a city that had a notable FF “close call” event just this past December (HERE). 

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Any accountant worth his salt will tell you that you don’t save money by getting rid of your assets.  And once they’re gone, you won’t see them again.

So while it’s obvious that the union locals in both Poway and Wilmington need to crank up their public relations activities and quickly get to the citizens with their side of the budget debate, not so obvious is the need for every FD to launch a campaign to educate their community on why they need the resources to do their job.  Chances are that your department isn’t operating with an excess of funds.  But when these periodic economic dips come along, we have to become aggressive and protect our “turf” before we get chopped.  Because once a resource is taken away, it almost never gets put back later.  When those funds return they are usually spent on more visible programs designed to get votes for re-election.

All right, I’ve gone too long….let’s get the equipment checked out now.  I’ll go start the coffee.

One more thing:  Thanks to the efforts of loyal reader R. Y., we have a transcribed newspaper article from the Wilmington Star News that isn’t online for reference.  It goes into detail of their upcoming battle.  To read it in full, just click on the Continue Reading link.  (more…)

I think I’ve got a fairly good grip on what happened with the so-called public service spectrum in the latest FCC auction of radio frequencies.

You’ll recall that the upper portion of the 700 MHz radio band is currently being used by the UHF television stations (channels 60 – 67).  But with the mandatory switchover to high-definition tv next February, that entire block on the spectrum, 745 MHz to 799 MHz, comes available.

The FCC parceled the frequencies into “blocks” to be auctioned off.  One of these, the D-block, was set aside for the creation of a nationwide fully-compatible public safety network.  Simply put, it would contain radio channels that every fire, rescue and police agency would have access to which would permit true mutual-aid communications.  Whoever won that block would be required to build out the network following those rules.

The minimum allowable bid for the D-block was $1.3 billion.  However, only one bid was placed on it for $472 million and that company went out of business before the auction closed last week.  This chart shows how the available spectrum was divided into blocks and what the outcome of them is:

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• The A blocks are less desirable because they are prone to interference.  They had already been sold off earlier.
• The B blocks contain 226 regional licenses scattered throughout the country.  AT&T won those frequencies.
• The C blocks hold 108 licenses and are more of a nationwide availability, rather than regional.  Verizon won the C block portion.
• The D block is the public safety section that was not sold.
• The red portion, channels 63 and 64, that are marked Public Safety have already been apportioned to existing licenses of public safety agencies currently using the 800 MHz band.  They are being switched down to the more favorable 700 MhZ band in order to free up their current space which will be used by Sprint.

Establishment of the public safety network is one of the projects mandated by the Sept. 11 Commission that was set up by Congress to improve homeland security.  The failure of the D-block to be sold has concerned the respective congressional committee and they plan to convene hearings to determine why the bid failed and what sort of fine-tuning it needs to become successful.  They want to get the spectrum sold and the network started by next February when the frequencies come available. (see C/Net news story HERE.)

Since I’m not a radio whiz, I could well have mis-stated something here, or even left something out.  So please don’t hesitate to correct me if you have anything to add.

All right, let’s get the equipment checked out.  I’ll get a fresh pot of coffee started.

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