In October 1973 a fire began during the day in the northern Boston suburb of Chelsea, Massachusetts. It broke out in a decrepit area of the central part of the city that was mostly vacant industrial buildings, many of them stuffed with abandoned stock and materials that had been left there 25 years before. The mid-afternoon blaze ripped through the heart of the city and became known as the 1973 Chelsea Conflagration.
The fire roared through the old 2- and 3-story wood-framed buildings chasing everybody from its path. The Chelsea FD was overtaxed from the beginning and mutual aid calls were sent immediately. Within hours there were more than 2,000 firefighters and units from 67 fire departments fighting to save the entire city that was literally threatened with extinction.
When the fire was finally completely extinguished one week later, more than 300 buildings and a swath of Chelsea’s commercial district covering an area ½-mile wide and 1-½ miles long was oblierated.
The next year I attended one of those seminars where fire officers from around the country give lectures on various firefighting topics, and the Chelsea Fire Chief Herbert Fothergill presented a gripping first-hand account, with movies and news reels, of that disastrous and exhausting week. The entire audience was spellbound because we were hearing and seeing things that we never knew about. But the main thing that made such an impression on me that I never forgot it, was Chief Fothergill’s explanation of the true reason that the area was lost and was never publicly admitted by the city officials.
The water mains throughout the entire city center were more than 100 years old and had never been cleaned out or replaced. What were 6-inch mains had so much buildup on the interior linings that they were effectively 1-inch to 3-inch pipes. There was literally no fire flow available for a major burn. The chief had been lobbying for years and years to have the mains replaced, but the city government was so corrupt that money was never spent on things that could not be seen, only on visible projects that would enhance the politicians’ chances to be re-elected.
I bring this up this morning because Chelsea was immediately brought to mind when I saw the summary report on the Boston FD ladder truck crash last year that killed Fire Lieutenant Kevin Kelley and destroyed the truck. An Internal Board of Inquiry released its report on the accident yesterday and its conclusions sound so familiar to anybody who has to work or live in a city run by machine politics. While it isn’t said so publicly, it certainly appears that the practice of avoiding expenditures on “things that aren’t visible” is rolling right along. The summary of 15 causal findings disclosed in the Board of Inquiry’s final report include:
- Lack of adequate funding for preventive maintenance.
- No employee assigned the specific responsibility of overseeing a preventive maintenance program.
- Insufficient manpower in the Maintenance Division.
- No certified mechanics to perform major repairs.
- Installation of improper parts by outside vendors dating back to January 15, 1999.
It goes further. You can read the entire summary HERE. But you can see how this relates to a long-standing practice of under-funding the hidden needs of the city. The entire 127-page report can be downloaded HERE in .pdf file, but be aware that it’s about 140 Mg’s, so be ready for that.
WFXT-TV Ch. 25 talks a little more about the report:
While the reports that have been issued on this accident rightly point out these failures of the administration and the budget planners, what they don’t say is that this could very well be the result of ignoring vital expenditures because it is so easy to line out budget items that the pubic doesn’t know about and never misses…..until it all comes back to hit you hard.
I don’t know what the answer is, politicians being what they are. But somewhere, sometime, the citizens will have to wake up and demand more responsible actions of their local governments.
Now we have to assert our own responsibility and get this equipment checked out (properly). I’ll get the coffee started.
Also on FireGeezer…
- Morning Lineup – October 30 – October 30, 2011
