Well, another one of my predictions fell flat. There’s nothing new about that. If I was good at it, then I’d be rich. The one I’m referring to now was my belief that Mayor Tremblay of Montreal would knuckle under to public outrage Friday and lift his order to have the firehouses clean off their Canadiens booster slogans (HERE).
Not only did I miss my guess, but Tremblay has dug in, despite the ridicule he’s getting from the voters. By Thursday evening at least 60 fire stations had put up the decorations in violation of the mayor’s orders. In one instance, two FF’s were caught in the act of painting their windows and were suspended. And Friday morning he had the cleaning crews out, starting to wash off the fingerpaints with pressure hoses.
The mayor keeps justifying his order by saying that the bay door windows must be clear for “security” reasons. They keep saying that the public must be able to see inside the fire halls at all times. I’ve no doubt that that’s their policy, but I sure don’t understand it. There are fire departments everywhere that have bay doors without windows. That’s always been the case.
So I am curious about what happened in the past that led to this policy and why do they still follow it? What makes them feel the citizens are less secure if they can’t peep through the windows and see whether or not the fire engine is inside?
Whatever the reason, this tug-of-war between city hall and the firefighters is just as much a part of the culture as their security phobia is and before long we’ll be hearing the next chapter of the story.
I need some coffee. Let’s get the equipment checked out while I start the pot.
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