We have talked and commented more than once over the past couple of years about the degradation of the minimum personal standards that are required of new fire/rescue members, both paid and volunteer. This relaxing of the quality level needed to enter into the emergency services trickles down to where it affects everybody.
I’ll never forget an instance that happened to me waaaay back when I was first hired as a paid firefighter. I had gone into a department store and selected a stereo system that I wanted to purchase on credit. Back then many stores financed their own credit sales because it is a profitable sideline. But I was poor and just starting out in a new job, not a good “risk” by any standard. But after I filled out my application and started worrying about whether it would “go through,” the salesman took a look at it and told me, “Oh, you’re a fireman. No problem,” and proceeded to complete the sales contract without hesitation. And I walked out with my new stereo system.
That episode had an impact on me right at that moment, though. It was then that I realized that not only had I just gone up several rungs on the ladder of respect, but that I also was now burdened with a level of unquestioned trust that is not handed out easily. And I would see more examples of the public’s trust in me many more times over the years, and not just in credit applications either. Fast-forward to what we’ve been seeing and reporting on recently. We’ve seen a bizarre situation in a small city in Georgia where the fire department permitted a jail trusty to participate as a volunteer firefighter without even running a basic background check on him, even though he was a convict. You saw what that got them.
And just yesterday we told about a firefighter who was caught with a portable meth lab in his car. Just click on the “Crime” category in our sidebar of topics and you’ll see a long string of more such events including a rash of embezzlements. Granted, there has been a cultural shift in the past couple of decades where now some criminal activity is acceptable to some people and only lightly punished within the legal system. Our standards of conduct are constantly being lowered. And in some places these lower standards are being passed along to the basic membership/employment minimums. We are dangerously close to losing that level of trust that we have enjoyed since the beginnings of fire departments. I suspect that in some places it is already gone. It is time to work at getting it back, even if it means refusing to accept a new member in a department that is struggling to fill spots. And taking another look at the people that are already there. Trust me.
Now let’s get this equipment checked out. I’ll go start the coffee and see how the Sunday breakfast is coming along.
This week’s Sunday photo art was contributed by Emmanuel Tisson.
He is a firefighter in Vaugneray, France and took this shot
at a brush fire this past July in Valsonne.
