Does your fire station have a “resident manager?”  It has been my observation that just about every firehouse does have one.  I’m not talking about someone who literally lives in the station, even though there are many volunteer houses that have live-in members.  But they’re not the guy I’m referring to.  I am thinking about the member who has been there as long, or longer, than anybody else and knows everything about the station, the equipment, and the first-due territory.

Are you starting to understand who I’m talking about?  The resident manager (my term for him) is just about always an engineer (driver, chauffer, technician), but sometimes he’s a Firefighter I.  They usually never bother taking promotional exams because they are very happy where they are and their ambitions lie in other directions.  Just as often as not, the res. mgr. grew up in the part of town where the station is located and has seen all the changes in the area and knows most of the shopkeepers by name.

He can tell you the names of most of the firemen and
all of the horses in the picture.  Chances are his uncle
ran that store next door.

He has a proprietary attitude toward his station, always being involved in any changes or repairs to the building.  When the contractor comes in, he knows where the old, hidden wiring or water pipes are, for example, and can direct him to where all the related shutoffs are located.  He usually knows who the last tradesman was that worked on it, or installed it.  If you want to know where a piece of equipment that hasn’t been on the apparatus for five years is being kept, you know who can get it.  In fact, there isn’t anything about the apparatus that he isn’t aware of.  Is there something due for an adjustment or inspection in the next month?  He knows.  How about the gear ratio in the rear-end housing?  He knows that, too.

When it’s time to start planning the annual station picnic, he’s right there.  He already has all the contacts for the picnic spot, who gives us the best deal or donation for hot dogs and soda’s, and who to call to get the permit.  All the paperwork for last year’s picnic is in his locker.  Just about always he is the engine driver and what a blessing to a captain that is!  He knows every street and alleyway not just in the first-due, but the second- and third-due territories, too.  As soon as the alarm comes in, he knows where the nearest hydrant is going to be.  He knows the layout of nearly every building in the territory because he has been there before.  In fact, on his days off he will go look around inside a shop where he hasn’t been in a while, just to see what’s going on.  This is HIS territory and nothing happens without him knowing about it.

Somewhere way back, he ended up on the same shift as the station commander where he became an indispensable part of the chain of command.  On rare occasions, they get  transferred out in a suprise shuffling of firefighters around the battalion.  But it only takes them a few weeks to wangle their way back somehow, either by swapping spots or getting a revision to the transfer order.  But the resident manager always comes back and is always there for you.  So let’s raise our GeezerCups in a toast:  “To the Resident Manager!”

Now let’s get the check sheets that he’s probably designed and get this equipment checked out.  I need to get some more coffee started.  See you back in the day room.

Every now and then I mention that most fire and ambulance departments really need to do a better job of educating the citizens on why it’s crucial to adequately fund our departments.  Politicians are constantly trying to whack the police and fire agencies in order to keep non-essential departments running.  City Hall never gets its staffing reduced.  Nor do the offices initiate “rolling brownouts” as a means to supposedly save money.

Seattle, Washington, just settled on next year’s budget after using a lot of shuffling and fee-raising to close a $64 million shortfall.  A lot of money, for sure.  The fire department is getting overtime for battalion chiefs reduced by lowering the on-duty minimum by one and assigning the shift deputy chief the duties of the missing B.C. until he comes back from vacation.  The mayor is one of those Granola-bar-for-lunch people who don’t quite understand why public safety is so important.  The city has let its police department sink way below its authorized strength and the residents are screaming for more.

The fire department came oh, so close to having every engine co. reduced from 4 FF’s to 3.  But in June there was a tragic fire that killed 5 people and hizzoner suddenly saw the Light.  The light of re-election, that is.  Following the afore mentioned fire, he issued a press release that said in part, “The tragedy in Fremont this past weekend gave us a concrete example of the importance of protecting our public safety budget; in light of that event, I am not proposing any reductions to the Fire Department, giving us an opportunity to fully review the safety implications of any potential reductions.”  That was a mighty fast 180.  But he is only reflective of his constituents.  That’s why they chose him for the job.

We met him about that same time last June when we published THIS STORY about him parking his toy car in front of a fire hydrant while he attended a P.R. event in town.

If you want to know how the Seattle residents think, here is a good source to check out.  The mayor keeps a city hall webpage set aside to take residents’ suggestions on how they would like to see the city government make life better for them.  The page stays active, so the compilation just keeps growing.  I don’t have the patience to look through all of them, but a scan of random pages turned up no – zero – suggestions to upgrade the fire department.  Instead there are things like this:

• Plant edible perennials in our city parks.  With food security and global warming issues at the top of policy lists, we should use every park in the city to demonstrate edible perennials and as a source of local, easily maintained food.
• Create hundreds of jobs.  Build more sidewalks and a network of grade-separated bike paths.
• Set aside park beach areas for European-style, clothing-optional recreation.
• Create a lid (sic) over I-5.  It should contain a large open park with features such tennis courts, baseball fields and other related recreational facillities (sic).

Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle, site of
future baseball parks and tennis courts.

The people who read these suggestions can vote on their favorites so that the city council can see which are the most popular.  One suggestion that has only drawn about 50 votes is this one:  Get old people to ride bikes.  Old people really need more exercise. Along with a nutrient dense diet, exercise is a great way for them to stay healthy. And save the planet!  Yes, this is Seattle, after all.  I don’t know how keeping old people healthy saves the planet, but if someone would explain to me what in the h— a nutrient dense diet is, I might understand.

You will notice while you are scrolling through the 1,200+ suggestions that almost all of them require significant expenditures of money.  This is a city that is running mult-million-dollar shortfalls every year.  These people just don’t “get it.”  I did see one suggestion proposing “rolling brownouts” for all the branch libraries.  But it only got one vote, and that was probably her husband.

Hey, it’s Sunday.  You probably have time to look through the list and pick out some of your favorites.  CLICK HERE to go to the mayor’s Ideas for Seattle webpage and have fun.  The suggestions are listed with top vote-getters first (the top one as I’m writing this is 4,689 votes) and the decline down to the  1-vote tries.  Tell you what let’s do:  Pick your favorite and post it in the Comments and we’ll have our own listing of great ideas.  I’ll kick it off by posting one of my favorites.

Before we do that, we had better get this equipment checked out.  I need to get the coffee started, and we’ll need plenty to work our way through this list of great ideas.

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Sunday Photo Art

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