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KayCee City Manager Wants To Lay Off Firefighters, Use Savings To Give Other City Employees Raises

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Pencil Pushers Have Gone 3 Years Without a Raise

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, CITY MANAGER Troy Schulte presented his proposed budget to the City Council members on Tuesday.  His $1.3 billion proposal includes a lot of cutbacks in several city services, but the one measure that has raised eyebrows is his suggestion to lay off 105 firefighters.  He told the Kansas City Star, as Kansas City’s economy remains stubbornly sluggish, firefighters should no longer be untouchable. "We have to make strategic reductions in public safety," he said.

City Manager Schulte  (K.C. Star)

In a most absurd justification, he is also quoted by the Star:

His budget letter to (Mayor) James recommended reducing the Fire Department by 105 positions because fire calls have dropped by more than 60 percent in the past 10 years. He said he believes the reductions can be made without jeopardizing public safety.

So there you have it.  The number of firefighters and fire stations is to be determined by how many fires you get, not what you need when get a fire.  By his logic, all the firehouses will then be clustered around the high-activity neighborhoods leaving those slow residential areas to stand in the front yard and watch as their rare house fires consume all they own.  As for the airport… well, a hot-line phone box will do.  How often does a plane crash out there, anyway?

But as the late Ron Popeil used to say, Wait, there's more!  Again from The Star:

Those personnel cuts would help free up about $7.6 million — money that could go toward raises for other city employees. Many of them haven’t had a pay increase in three years.

No raise in three years, but at least they'll still have a job.  This is budgetary Russian roulette.

Note:   He earmarked $5 million for police raises and the balance for other management-level employees.

The City Council at its regular session today  (Wednesday) publicly reviewed the proposed budget.  The Local had exactly 105 firefighters in the council chambers this morning making their presence obvious.  KSHB-TV Ch. 41 had their video crew there too, and filed this report earlier today:

 

Local 42 President Mike Cambiano believes that this just might be some sort of dance and preening on the part othe city manager leading up to contract negotiations with the FF's that begin in April.  In addition, the fire chief was never consulted by the city manager on these proposed reductions.

Later this afternoon, following the above video report, Fire Chief Smokey Dyer addressed the Council.  The Star reported this afternoon:

Dyer told the city council’s Public Safety Committee that Chicago, Memphis, Louisville, Dallas and Houston are among major U.S. cities that require at least four firefighters per pumper, in compliance with national fire protection standards. That staffing allows two people in the first pumper on the scene to begin spraying water on a fire, while two others can begin attacking the fire within a building and rescuing any victims.

Chief Dyer  (KCUR)

Kansas City began increasing its firefighting ranks and staffed up its pumpers ten years ago to meet that standard. But City Manager Troy Schulte has recommended cutting 105 firefighters, saying the city has far fewer fires now and can save $7.5 million without compromising public safety.

Such a reduction would force deployment changes and reductions to the pumpers, Dyer said.

Mayor James will present his response to Schulte's plan tomorrow.  However one councilman didn't wait to voice his opinion:

Committee Chair John Sharp said the city made a conscious decision in 2001 to beef up its pumper staffing and he opposes any change. He said the fire department has to accept cuts like all other departments, but not this way.

“I can’t imagine a worse way to make cuts in the budget,” he said.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/08/3417307/fire-officials-warn-cutbacks-could.html#storylink=cpy

The City Council will approve whatever budget is decided on in late March for the fiscal year that begins on May 1.

Read the earlier referenced story from the Kansas City Star HERE.
Read a more in-depth report on the city manager's plans HERE.

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Posted by on February 8, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, commentary, current events, Funding & Staffing, Videos • Tagged: , ,

What Are Your Own Expectations?

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What Are Your Expectations?

I served as fire chief of the Fairfax County, Virginia, Fire and Rescue Department from August 1991 to January 1999. I recently spent a few moments going through a few old articles and directives I drafted during my tenure. This article was published in our department newsletter and I believe it has value as much today as it did in August 1992.

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Every successful manager ensures that the people who are a part of the organization are aware of what is expected of them. Each employee must understand their specific role and responsibilities in their position in the organism.

I believe that firefighters through the chain of command to the chief of our department must possess the desire and drive to do their absolute best to serve our citizens. Ours is an honorable profession. There is no greater privilege than to have the opportunity to have a positive effect in another person's life when they are in personal peril. Senior officers, who are visible to both the public and our political leaders, are expected to be ethical, moral and possess both leadership and extraordinary communication skills. However, to the customers we serve, the company officer or E.M.T. who answers a call for assistance in their personal time of need they are the fire and rescue department, not the chief or a member of senior staff.

I do not know the Postmaster General. To me the post office is the man who delivers mail to my home and occasionally stops to talk to me or a member of my family. This just a small example of how all of us play an important role in our organization.

I think the most appropriate place to begin my list of expectations for the members of or department is to begin with my own position as chief. The following is a list of expectations that I have developed for the position of chief of our department:

  • Maintain and improve the knowledge and skills necessary to perform the position of chief.
  • Be approachable and available to members of the organization, the citizens we serve and to others outside the organization.
  • Ensure that the members of the organization are provided with safe, healthy, and efficient facilities and equipment.
  • Ensure that members are treated in a fair and equitable manner and provided a non-hostile work environment.
  • Set a good example for others to follow.
  • Be a good citizen.
  • Represent the organization in a professional manner to the governing body.
  • Ensure that the governing body is cognizant of the needs and value of the services we provide.
  • Plan and prepare the organization for the future.
  • Ensure that our citizens are receiving appropriate, cost effective services.
  • Provide decisive, timely, sound and well formulated decisions and direction.
  • Allow others in the organization to reach their potential through delegation, equal opportunity and trust in them.
  • Recognize that every member in the organization is important and the role they play is vital to the over all success of the department.

These expectations were separate from my job description, although some may be found there. Included in these expectations are core values that I believe are required to ensure that we have a viable, responsive, and proactive department of which we can all be proud.

Glenn A. Gaines
Deputy U. S. Fire Administrator

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Posted by on January 3, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Chief's Point of View, commentary • Tagged:

Where We Stand, What We Stand For

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The American Fire Service
Where We Stand – What We Stand For

The Fire Service has always been looked upon as the pinnacle of service to society. In this country it began when Ben Franklin set the fire service in motion after a huge fire in Philadelphia in 1736, Ben created a fire brigade called The Union Fire Company with 30 volunteers.

Some famous Americans who served as volunteer firefighters were: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Benedict Arnold, James Buchanan, Millard Fillmore and yes, Doctor Kirby Kiefer. Accordingly, the fire service has been and continues to be held in very high regard by our citizens.

Firefighter Ben Franklin

However, in the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001 and in the recent economic downturn, the fire service faces pressures that could not have been imagined in years past.  "Well the fire chief said he needs it, so we better provide it for him," just doesn’t work today.  In today’s environment, what we do, what we are comfortable doing, and everything we say we need, is questioned by political leaders, budget staff and the citizens we serve.

But we have great leverage. Our business address is located in our customers’ neighborhood. No other public service enjoys such a unique opportunity to become a part of the fabric of the community.  No other public sector service has a better opportunity to garner citizen support than the local fire station.

Local fire and EMS personnel are always among the first to respond to events and the last to leave. Occasionally they are asked to perform during a period when they and their families are also victims of the disasters. We consider it a failure if we arrive 6 minutes after we receive the call for help. No other government service offers this unique line of business and high performance standard.  We are, in fact, critical infrastructure and the tip of the spear for homeland security.

The Fire Service is, and will continue to be, on the front line and depended upon every day by our citizens. We are depended upon when citizen’s lives or their personal property are in peril from fire, accidents, life threatening health conditions or major disasters. Firefighters must perform at maximum efficiency at these critical times. We know they cannot afford to fail. Honestly, citizens have no one else to turn to in these circumstances.  "Please hurry my house is on fire," is a call that no other agency -local, state or Federal – can answer; not in the way we do.

I am reminded of the grandfather providing some sound advice to his granddaughter. It goes something like this: "Listen honey, if you are ever lost or need help in a strange place, go to a firehouse, the firefighters well help you."  We cannot allow that respect, that confidence, that trust to erode. It is our responsibility to protect our good standing. We do indeed stand on the shoulders of the giants of our profession. If nothing else we owe it to them to continue to insist on high professional, ethical and moral standards. And maintain zero tolerance for those who violate these values.

Youngest Witnesses

But under these economic times, the Fire Service will be asked to operate with reduced resources while maintaining the same high level of service. A daunting undertaking.  We should not, however, believe that citizens will expect less from us because we have less to protect them. It is up to us, as a profession, to find ways to ensure our safety and the safety of our citizens now and into the future.

There is an old axiom that seems to be especially appropriate for today’s business and public service leaders. "Ask for what you need, but do the best with what you have."  I would add that we must identify, quantify, justify and communicate the true impact of reductions in financial, human and material resources on our communities so that our political leaders can make informed decisions based on sound, rational facts.  It is also incumbent upon the American fire service to enhance our efforts as advocates for life, health, fire prevention and mitigation with public outreach and code enforcement every day.

It is right to be out front in selling the value of preventing tragedies that may befall families. It is the purest demonstration that we care for our citizens as a profession and we have simple solutions to ensure their health and safety. It is in fact good business to demonstrate a proactive approach to fire and life safety.  We must think more critically, work more efficiently and demonstrate that we are indeed partners in seeking opportunities to reduce the cost of public sector services, while maintaining a high degree of care and service.

So I encourage you to continue your desire to:

· Learn something you do not know;
· Seek out big problems, for that is where big opportunities live;
· Do something good that has never been done before; and
· Do something good successfully no one else has been successful in doing.

May God bless the American Firefighters and keep you safe. And May God bless the United States of America.

Glenn A. Gaines
Deputy U. S. Fire Administrator

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Posted by on December 27, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Chief's Point of View, commentary

Who Needs Captains?

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Or Any Other Supervisors?

ONE OF OUR READERS SENT A CURIOUS EMAIL the other day and asked me to share it with you because he is looking  for some feedback on it.  He asks:

 I have been looking on the internet everywhere for information regarding the pros and cons of a single rank structure department. I am unable to find anything. My department is looking at going to this type of rank structure and I am not real excited about it. Currently we have Lt. and Capt. and I would prefer that we keep it that way. I was wondering if you had any information regarding this subject or if you would be willing to post something to your site so that I could get people's opinions. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Personally I have never heard of such a thing, have you?  My first thought was to wonder what this department thinks supervisors are supposed to do, and how can they function effectively without layers of responsibility.  My guess is that they are looking for a gimmick to reduce wages as a budget-cutter, but that would lead to new problems eventually.

Let's look at the basic reason for having supervisors in the first place.  As soon as you have at least two people assigned to perform a task, one of them has to be a decision-maker and be responsible for the outcome of the work.  And with responsibility comes the expectation of greater rewards (wages) for having more than the people who are only doing the work.  If you have several groups of people, each with a leader, doing several separate tasks, then the group leaders need to have somebody responsible for their work.  A division leader, if you will. 

Now just how many supervisors do you need?  The short but not definitive answer is, it depends on what you are doing, and  that brings us to the managerial concept known as "span of control."  In other words, how many people can one supervisor effectively supervise is determined by what kind of work is being accomplished.  A supervisor over an office typing pool can watch over and make assignments for 20 or more typists clacking out emails and letters.  On the other hand, a bomb disposal squad might need a super for every two technicians who are a breath away from cashing it all in.

It is an axiom of managerial theory that in the fire department the span of control is five subordinates.  Taking in to account just about all of the things that need to be done in firefighting tasks, one officer can be expected to oversee and be responsible for about five firefighters.  So each engine company has an officer who makes more money than the firefighters, because he has more responsibility on his shoulders plus the added work of preparing reports on their actions, etc.  Now if you add a ladder co. in your station, the size of your workforce increases to 8 or more, beyond the accepted span of control.  So the solution is to assign another officer to lead the ladder crew.  Now you have two work groups and two leaders.  Who is responsible for them?  The normal practice is to give one of the officers that additional responsibility of overseeing the other officer and we do that my giving one of them higher wages and a higher-level title, such as "captain." 

Has the captain's span of control jumped to eight firefighters?  No, he over sees the other three on his engine and the ladder officer for a total of four.  And the progression goes on up depending on the size of the department.  Somebody has to be in charge of the station captains, such as a battalion or deputy chief.  And in a properly organized department there will be one of those chief officers overseeing 5 or 6 stations.  Key words here are "properly organized."  There are probably some loopy city/county managers out there who want to re-invent the wheel and change our span of control to 10 or more, but that will lead to a real mess, both on the fireground and in the firehouse.

You probably already know all of that, but are not used to thinking about it in those terms.  It brings me back to this request for information about a so-called single-rank structure.  Just how can that work efficiently?  An officer will not be responsible for another who is of equal rank and pay, not without conflicts and consequences.   So I'm tossing this out to you now: 

Do any of you have any experience with a single-rank structure department?  Or heard of such a thing?  Even if you haven't, tell us your opinion on this concept by either sharing in the Comments or send us an email.  I am curious also.

Update:  A point of clarification is needed.  This refers to a single rank above firefighter.  Mostly firefighters with just one rank above that.

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Posted by on December 20, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, commentary • Tagged: ,

Penny Wise and Pound Foolish – A Commentary

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Only the Taxpayers Are Being Fooled on This One

The Braun Ambulance company (a manufacturer) has this photo of Volusia County, Florida's new rigs on their Facebook page:

Yes, those are fire engine-ambulances. They have 500gpm pumps and 300-gallon tanks. Oh, and CAFS, of course. Because what would a "forward thinking" fire department Public Protection Fire Service be without CAFS. The "forward thinking" quote is from the company rep defending these apparatus from Facebook commenters who aren't so easily duped as the public whose services are being being cut in half. Like any good stooge, he says the citizens will face no reduction in service.

This is simply not true. That the citizens will receive the same level of service is not true. That the apparatus are just as capable as any other ambulance or Class A pumper is not true. That these monstrosities show some special attention to the future is not true. These are nothing but gimmicks used by the penny-wise and pound foolish administrators of a local government abdicating its duty to provide for the public safety. I suppose it is true that these apparatus make for a more efficient use of resources than having separate ambulances and pumpers. There will be no lazy parasitic firemen lounging around waiting for a fire in this Public Protection department. There will also be no firefighters making aggressive and fast interior attacks (300 gallons is a lot less water than I have to work with on my quint!) or addressing your rescue or fire needs when your neighbor has a sniffle. Of course, we've recently been told that forward-thinking fire people shouldn't be making interior attacks anyway, so I guess this might be fine.

Don't get me wrong about EMS. I am 100% in favor of fire-based EMS and believe that we need to step up our EMS provision so it's as important as firefighting. But that means that I believe we should raise both to a level of excellence, not eliminate any semblance of respect for the exigencies of both. If fire protection matters and EMS matters then these apparatus represent a monstrous falsehood perpetrated against a public that is not getting what it thinks it is paying for.

And don't get me wrong about this question either: Why do we have fire services?

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Braun Ambulance Co. WEBSITE.
Volusia County Fire Services WEBSITE.

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Posted by on November 30, 2011 • Filed under: ambulances, apparatus, commentary, FireHat • Tagged:

Stay Out? Not Me! – Commentary

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Can Firefighting Be a Risk-Free Activity?

Someone from the USFA is pushing the end of interior firefighting. We all know there are winds blowing that way but it is a little bracing to see it stated so bluntly. You can sneer at the fact that he was talking to the Volunteer Chief Officers Section of the IAFC but that is really not the point. There is a battle for the soul of the fire service being fought between those who think any LODD is one too many and those who think that, in general, firefighters must die for the fire service to do what it should. Specifically, protecting lives and property.

I happen to be among the latter. I don't want to die, I don't want anyone on my crew or in my department to die, and I don't want any firefighter to die. And I will do everything I can to prepare and be very good at my job in the interest of preventing a LODD. But I know that property and lives are important and protecting those properly will require firefighters to do things that have a likelihood of causing so many injuries per thousand fires and so many fatalities per thousand fires. There is just no way around that.

The USFA official's statement that buildings are disposable is correct in the abstract but irrelevant in the specific. If you work in an affluent suburb then perhaps the buildings are more disposable than you might at first think. Insurance, savings, and tight social networks cushion any blows suffered by homeowners and residents. But in other areas the people have no safety net, no insurance, no savings, and live paycheck to paycheck. Losing houses and business in some areas is nothing short of catastrophic. It is both disrespectful and incorrect to say that those buildings and the property in them are disposable. The lives in them (which cannot be saved by exterior firefighting) are certainly not disposable.

So I say, stand up for property and for interior firefighting and saving lives, property, and livelihoods. If we decide these things are disposable then why do we exist?

………. Patrick Mahoney

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Posted by on November 15, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, FireHat • Tagged: ,

Take A Number ….. (Commentary)

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….. And Wait For Your Number To Be Called.

You may have seen this article about how neighborhood fire stations are to become health clinics in one California county. I guess a fire department in my county is a trendsetter then because they opened a new station last year with clinic space in it, but for a slightly different reason. It's a place the affluent of the community can come have their vitals checked in comfort by a friendly fireman. That department only makes five or six calls a day, protects one of the busiest stretches of interstate in the country, a couple of major petrochemical research labs, a hospital, and about half a dozen highrises. It's true that they don't have many fires, being an affluent bedroom community, but I guess that means they don't need to train on any of that other stuff or even be too terribly ready to respond.

Scott County Public Health Service

As usual, this is part of a trend that attempts to maintain relevance by broadening services. I think the real way to maintain relevance is not to broaden services, but to deepen them. We need to be better at the things we legitimately do and quit pretending like no one goes to fires anymore. We have plenty of emergency functions that most departments didn't have 30 years ago and we have plenty of action in the totality of them to warrant maintaining focus on emergency response. There is nothing we should be doing that should ever take precedence over emergency response. Except for emergency response, nothing should take priority over preparedness.

Too many people in the fire service act like every town was the South Bronx once upon a time and that now the firefighters are just barely holding down the wool over the eyes of the citizenry. Stop saying we just don't go to fires anymore! We do still go to fires, in many places we go to a lot more, and besides that, we go to rescues, hazmat calls, and major medical emergencies. The fire service seems to wallow in self-defeating rhetoric that the public will misperceive and absorb when making decisions about supporting their local fire departments. If you say things that downplay the importance of emergency response then you should not be surprised when your officers, city bureaucrats, and public opinion leaders favor things that have nothing to do with emergency response and your funding and strategic vision shift accordingly.

………. Patrick Mahoney

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Posted by on October 18, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, FireHat • Tagged:

Save Money – Play Football (Commentary)

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Keeping Millionaires Happy

The Minneapolis Fire Department has a manpower/revenue problem that is resulting in gimmickry and layoffs. Will the taxpayers be on the hook for a brand-new $600+ million football stadium? That is the question before the citizens of Minnesota. There is some pushback but it looks like some pols will give it their best shot.

One recent proposal  (AP)

Is there any good reason this is not a civil rights issue? I'd like to see this sort of reverse Robin Hood-ing generate as many comments on as many websites and blogs as some guy not wearing an air pack on a car fire does.

………. Patrick Mahoney

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Note:  Thursday night the Minneapolis City Council addresses (once again) a plan to shrink the fire department.  KSTP-TV reports on tonight's scheduled hearing:

 

Recent Firegeezer reports on Minneapolis smoke and mirrors HERE and HERE.

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Posted by on October 6, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, FireHat, Videos • Tagged: , , ,

Is Your Mission Statement Any Good?

2 comments

Does Anybody Bother to Read the Thing?

Admiral Jonathan Greenert recently took over as chief of naval operations on September 23rd. Immediately thereafter he released his "sailing directions" for the Navy. I encourage you to go read this document (it's short). It's kind of like a mission statement, vision statement, or whatever other kind of touchy-feely management tool that people like to spend time writing so it can be put in a frame and ignored forevermore. The difference is that this one is plainly written, says something meaningful, and is formatted so as to actually be useful.

Have you ever seen one of these management tools that is actionable? And, if so, one that is actually used? I would venture to say they're almost always a pro forma attempt at management guidance that really has no bearing on the troops in the field. We could use a different kind of statement, one that is written in plain language (as opposed to management jargon du jour), is actionable, means something, and is actually used in decision making. Admiral Greenert has offered what looks like something that fits that bill for his organization.

I think this would be useful in a fire department. The chief can use it to let people know what his expectations are, the organization can use it as guidance in setting short-term priorities, and individual members can use it for modeling purposes. The document can be an opportunity to set or reset norms for our whole organization. If you were the chief, what would you write? Under guiding principles, is emergency response your primary mission or is prevention or even something else? Does your list mean anything to the guys in the field? Can it be understood at every level? This is a good daydreaming exercise for those who wonder what they'd do if they were chief.

………. Patrick Mahoney

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Posted by on October 4, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, commentary, FireHat • Tagged: , ,

Department of Race – A Commentary

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When The Aborigines Aren't

Alabama State Legislature image

Scott Beason, Alabama’s powerful state senator and chairman of their rules committee, has issued a mea culpa over his remarks concerning Blacks which were picked up on an FBI surveillance tape as part of the ubiquitous corruption cases that seem to plague any place where gambling is permissible. Beason was working for the FBI so he presumably knew he was being taped. Press reports indicate that the tape was played during a trial and Senator Beason has been confronted with his inflammatory remarks. Here they are:

"That's y'all's Indians," one Republican said.

"They're aborigines, but they're not Indians," Beason replied. (NYT)

His use of the term "aborigines" as an apparent stand-in for African-Americans is resulting in calls for him to step down from his leadership position, at least. The press has also called the term "racially charged."

Perhaps Scott Beason was assuming that all aborigines are black, since some are, including in Australia. Of course, aboriginal people are defined as the earliest known populations of a region, thus they may be of many other races, as they are in Canada and elsewhere.

Ironically, Native Americans (as in: "That's y'all's Indians") are American aborigines. Blacks are not only not originally from America, but were brought here forcefully and in bondage. They are the least aboriginal of peoples. Could they have gotten it more wrong?

A further irony is that in popular culture, aboriginal people, both Native Americans and Australians, are venerated for their wisdom and unique cultural folkways as in the Australian "walkabout." Thus, if the term was employed in a negative connotation, it backfired.

epress.anu.edu.au

It is true that racism properly turns on intent, but if this qualifies, it’s only by the skin of its (aboriginal) teeth. This is far more a case of ignorance run riot. Were he to be stripped of his leadership position it should be for the far more compelling reason of a desperately low IQ. (Though admittedly, if a low IQ becomes a bar to elective office, many chairs will be empty.)

In the end, the concern with the "head on a platter" approach to all charges of racism is that we will inevitably lose our sense of moral outrage at those acts of racial hatred that are truly borne of malice and premeditation.

That would be a tragedy.

………. Eric Lamar

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Posted by on September 29, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, Eric Lamar

Campaign 2012 – A Commentary

8 comments

Religiosity

To this day, people continue to find Jackie Kennedy Onassis an irresistible icon with her refined bearing and regal features. It’s no surprise then that the recent release of hours of interviews she conducted in 1964 with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., are creating such a stir. She was just 34 at the time so her opinions were hardly leavened with the wisdom of years but they are never-the-less interesting and sometimes telling. My favorite is her admission that President Kennedy went to Catholic Mass without fail, not because he was especially devoted but rather because as she said, "he wasn’t quite sure, but if it was that way, he wanted to have that on his side." She chalked it up to JFK’s being superstitious. When in doubt, be devout.

John Kennedy was in good company where a certain amount of religious ambivalence is concerned. George Washington much preferred to stay at home on Mount Vernon Sundays. He was also known for his characterization of God as "Divine Providence", the belief that God was more likely to be simply directing things from above as opposed to being overly interested in our earthly expressions of piety. Washington, like Thomas Jefferson, was famously tolerant of other faiths and religions, believed in religious liberty and avoided discussing his religious views in public.

"Lincoln" by Alexander Gardner

Jefferson, when writing about Washington’s ability to avoid revealing his religious views, referred to him as "The Old Fox" and "cunning." It’s hard not to conclude that Jefferson was writing admiringly. Washington’s religious slipperiness was a conscious act, a sort of 18th century Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. Abraham Lincoln was similarly circumspect about public expressions of devotion. Lincoln’s law partner and friend, William Herndon, said that his beliefs were grounded in universal law and evolution. Lincoln had apparently concluded that the acceptance of evolution was not a bar to a belief in a supreme being.

As a Republican, Lincoln wouldn’t make the cut today. These days’ leaders of all stripes feel compelled to associate themselves with Christian symbolism and the more fundamental, the better. Presidents and presidential candidates yammer on about God, prayer, faith and church as if the failure to do so makes them less qualified to lead. More than one Republican candidate for the presidency is quite comfortable with the repudiation of evolution as the explanation for earthly and human development.

At least two issues are worrying. The first is, of course, the apparent need to inject one’s religion into government. The other is the inclination for some candidates to disregard widely respected scientific conclusions in deference to the literal interpretation of religious texts. I’m all for faith, but logic has a place, too. Do we really want national leaders who actually believe that the world was created over the course of 6 days a couple of thousand years ago?

If Abraham Lincoln, who rose to the presidency after the equivalent of one year of formal education, could intellectually reconcile evolution with the existence of God, what are we to think of the current presidential aspirants and their bloated resumes?

Not much.

………. Eric Lamar

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Posted by on September 27, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, Eric Lamar • Tagged:

We’re So Naughty

3 comments

 

Sex and Firefighting

 

 

My colleague Firegeezer ran a story HERE yesterday about two LAFD engine crews purportedly assisting in the filming of sexually explicit media by leaving their rig unattended so that "stars" could use them as a prop. The NBC affiliate played a portion of the film where a woman exposed herself to strangers as LAFD crew members seemed to watch, innocently enough, with the engine in the background.

The news story is being pitched as another example of the "firefighters act unprofessionally" genre, (yawn), complete with an on-camera interview with an outraged LAFD fire official. Much more interesting is the choice of material and set, as well as the overall subject of sexual desire and firefighting.

Just what makes a fire engine sexual, anyway?

Well, let’s go beyond the propriety of having the rig do "double duty" as a porn prop and dwell on the fascinating "why" of it. Some thoughts come to mind.

- First, fire is implicitly sexual. After all, an especially lusty sexual object or act is "hot", as in, "you’re HOT." In fact, some arsonists derive sexual pleasure from fire-setting and many are those who suggest that the line between starting them and putting them out is thinner than we would like to think.

- More practically, it was a cheap way for firefighters to ogle some female flesh (though the eventual cost may be exorbitant.) And, perhaps they stored those images up for later use…or not so later. (Is that against the rules, too?)

- It obviously provided a visual backdrop, a fire engine, that people associate with excitement, danger, risk, and thrills—things, that coincidentally and at least in the abstract, makes sex better.

- Finally, it was OUTDOORS, another curious enhancer of sexual desire what with the chance of getting caught with your pants down, literally. For many, sexual activity is all about the specter of getting caught—it heightens the experience. Since risk is essential to firefighting, images of firefighting could elevate sexual tension by implying risk visually.

The firefighters failed the creativity test, though, at least in the footage I saw, by failing to have the "star" dress up in turnout gear, which is of course, a huge turn-on. Who, after all, doesn’t like a good costume as part of the fun? (And what firefighter hasn’t been asked (at least once) to dress up for bedtime?)

Of course, costumes pave the way for a little "role play" where participants are allowed, encouraged even, to exchange their everyday personas for their alter egos where they can cast-off or take-on power as part of the fulfillment of sexual desire in a fantasy environment. Many assume that sex is about power but equally so it is apparently about the giving up of it as in the recent NYT story of a police officer who "put on adult diapers, women’s dresses or ladies tights and masturbated while he forced his wife to watch." (Watching should be strictly voluntary.)

Perhaps the real problem with the LAFD scenario is the selfish choice of female stars offering up their forbidden treasure in our profession where women are constantly harassed and more as they just try to do their jobs. I wonder if the crew from E-263 thought about having some hunky, ripped dude with 6-pack abs get up there and show off the package?

Examiner.com

 Like I said, watching would be strictly voluntary. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) 

………. Eric Lamar

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Posted by on September 23, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, Eric Lamar

The Other Anniversary – A Commentary

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10/07/11

Bakhat Kahn, a local carpenter in the Lower Dir District of Pakistan, was killed in a motor vehicle accident a little over a week ago. One official described him as "an ordinary soul", even so, there were some 200 people attending his funeral a few days later. During the service a bearded man ran out of a nearby field, into the crowd of mourners and detonated explosives strapped to his body. In the midst of remembering one man’s life and death, at least 26 died and fifty more were injured.

Bombing aftermath  (New York Times / Reuters)

Newspaper reports indicate that the Lower Dir is a refuge for pro-Taliban forces from Afghanistan. Kahn, a member of the anti-Taliban Mashwani Tribe which spreads across both Pakistan and Afghanistan, seems to have simply been a target of opportunity to wreak additional havoc and to further destabilize a war-torn environment.

We have long since learned that the Afghan/Pakistan border is a demarcation without distinction. Friend and foe alike cross and re-cross at will and with impunity. This is a place where the term "lawless" utterly fails to describe reality: a setting where funeral mourners are targets for terrorists.

October 7, 2011, will mark the 10th anniversary of the start of the war in Afghanistan. We went there with the stated aims of destroying Al Qaeda, removing the Taliban and to "create a viable democratic state."

Today, there are over 130,000 coalition troops serving there. Since the war began some 1750 have been killed and another 10,000 injured. Thousands more bear the invisible scars of battle that will be felt everyday for a lifetime. Suicides are an all too common occurrence among returning troops.

Ten years is a good, if long time to pause and re-evaluate any human endeavor. It seems that military operations combined with covert activities, including the extensive (and increasing) use of drones have both destabilized and then decimated Al Qaeda. Though drones are no panacea, they allow the opportunity to put into place a dual surveillance and strike capability that has thinned the ranks of their leadership. It has the added and immeasurable benefit of requiring fewer troops on the ground.

Our other war aims, destroying the Taliban and forging a democratic state, are proving absurd. Afghanistan is the home of a millennial culture of tribalism where the idea of pledging fidelity to a nation-state is beyond alien. Over time the Afghan tribes have shown their thorough disdain for countries that arrive within their borders with the notion of instituting their various ideologies. The British failed with colonialism, the USSR failed with communism and we are close behind with democracy. Afghans are more likely to cleverly "use the usurper" to further short term gains than to bend to the will of any regime or system of government.

After ten years of blood, toil and misery our attempt at democratic nation-building is best exemplified by the insanity of a place where it’s not even safe to mourn the dead.

It’s time to bring the troops home—we have done what we can do.

………. Eric Lamar

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Posted by on September 22, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, Eric Lamar • Tagged:

Calgary City Council Sells Out Its Own Citizens

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Homebuilders Association "Pleased"

DESPITE EXTENSIVE EDUCATION AND LOBBYING by the Calgary, Alberta, Fire Chief Bruce Burrell and others, the Calgary city council's special committee decided to drop the proposed legislation that would mandate sprinklers in new, single-family homes.

Calgary City Council  (CBC)

The Calgary Herald reports:

The decision was made following meetings between the housebuilding industry and a city council committee.

Carol Oxtoby, president of the Canadian Home Builders' Association-Calgary Region, was pleased with the decision. The industry supports customer choice and encourages its builders to offer sprinklers as an option," she says. "It also believes the new Alberta Building Code has increased protection against the spread of fire and it would be premature to layer another set of fire protection measures – in this case, in the form of sprinklers – while we are still evaluating the additional protection offered by these changes over the past two years.

"But if a homeowner is not comfortable, they have the choice to improve that by installing sprinkler systems."

The meek city council then announced that their recommendation is to continue to educate homeowners on the benefits of fire sprinklers while allowing them to make a choice.  Whereupon Firegeezer exclaimed,  "They don't HAVE a choice, you dunderheads.  Who buys their house before it is built?"

Read the announcement in the Calgary Herald HERE.

Thanks to Mark D.

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Posted by on September 19, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, current events, Fire Rescue Topics, health & safety, News • Tagged: , , ,

9/11 Commemoration … Firegeezer is Looking In From the Outside.

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Fairfax County firefighters lower the flag over the Pentagon
as soldiers salute.  (Washington Post photo)

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There's something significant about 10-year anniversaries, but I'm not sure what it is. Anyway, everybody seems to be in agreement that it's enough to lead to this being the major milestone for the recognition of the tragic events of the horrible day of September 11 ten years ago when our country was attacked by a hijacked air force and two of the three bombers found their targets.

The terrible, gruesome results at the World Trade Center in New York City are beyond description. As the first firefighters on the scene were met with not just "smoke showing," but also a steady rain of falling bodies. When the nightmare was over, we had lost 343 firefighters, 60 police officers, 15 EMT's, and one bomb-sniffing dog. The magnitude of that loss was recognized immediately by firefighters everywhere because we could transfer those numbers to our own departments. Relatively few FD's even have as many as 343 firefighters total, and of the few large departments, only a handful have that many on duty each day. Yes, we could feel it because those were some of US that "bought the ranch" that day.

Of the nearly 3,000 other victims, all of them left behind families and friends without a moment's notice and the collective grief was nationwide. But many people wonder why the fire and police seem to generate so much more sympathy than the innocent office workers who also perished. It's because the average citizen doesn't comprehend the cohesiveness that firefighters and police officers have worldwide. We don't call each other Brothers and Sisters for nothing…. we are FAMILY. And while most of the other victims left perhaps a dozen total of their family members behind, each one of the police and firefighters left more than half a million of their family behind.

That's why it was so outrageous when New York's insane Mayor Bloomberg packed the seating assignments for today's Ground Zero commemoration (without once mentioning the word of God) with political appointees and selected representatives of this and that. Yes, there were some relatives of the WTC victims there, but the mayor said that unfortunately there would be no room for any firefighters or police officers. No room. Sorry. Maybe later.

Some have pointed out that ten years ago there was plenty of room for 418 first-reponders, and they weren't invited back then, either. On that one day when all the Federal goverment agencies who are supposed to protect us failed, (FBI, CIA, INS), the only agencies that worked were the local fire and police departments. But the mayor can't find enough room for them today. Plenty of room for the Federal bigwigs, though.

A couple of weeks after "the day" when the story of flight 93 came into the public, the rallying cry for the entire country emulated the brave passengers and Todd Beamer whose last words were, "Let's Roll!" Military units mobilized and a grateful populace echoed the slogan. Let's Roll! But in the New York City Hall, the slogan has become, "Let's Roll Over!" For shame.

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Posted by on September 11, 2011 • Filed under: commentary • Tagged:

Al Mullins Remembers 911 – Part 2

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Note:  This is the conclusion of a 2-part posting.  Read Part One HERE before continuing with this entry.

Remembering that day, September 11th…

No day in modern history holds as much pain for the American people as September 11th. Granted, December 7, 1941 is as FDR proclaimed a date that will live in infamy! But 9/11, well that is our Pearl Harbor and that is the day we will always remember and those of us who know what happened that day and are part of the fraternity of firefighters who charge up those stairwells will forever carry that scare. The FDNY is one of the best fire departments in the world and I was fortunate to know a couple of those guys who put on their gear that day for the last time. Terry Hatton for one was a real character; I met Terry when he was a firefighter at Rescue 2 in Brooklyn in 1988. His legacy and work in the FDNY was impressive and will live on……… Thank God for people like that…

Back to my recollections, I left off at the barbershop where my twins and I had just witnessed the first collapse and all I wanted to do was get home because I knew that I was going to work that day. I settled with the girls and guys who cut our hair that day and headed home, all the time keeping a wary eye on the sky. Got the boys home and my wife had gone and gotten my daughter so the entire family was at home… However, nothing, the recall never happened so I was stuck watching all the activity in New York and Arlington. I went to bed early because I felt that the next day might be interesting.

September 12th was a carbon copy of September 11th and I headed in to work early, earlier than my usual 0630 I think I actually got in to work at 0600 and relieved the B shifters. Looked up at our staffing and was thinking about what the day would be like. Working at Fire Station 23 in West Annandale I felt like we would be well out of the activity that day and really I was Ok with that, with the bulk of the fires taken care of I felt that any work at the Pentagon would be tough. If you have never found a burned up person I think you are lucky and I hope you never do because it is ugly, in many ways. Being a firefighter getting burned is that one thing you are always looking to avoid, yeah we get the occasional hands, face, ear and neck burns, but the really bad burns those are tough to behold and truly tough to get through and God Bless the brothers and sisters who have to go through that pain. Back to the story! Yes I would have been happy to answer local calls and other "minor" incidents that day but at 0645 I get a call from the battalion chief telling me that our engine was part of a task force going to Arlington to assist with the operations at the Pentagon.

Take another look at the crew, not a bad collection and one that would do a good job when we got there. Let the guys know what was going on got some extra stuff (gloves, hoods, etc) to ensure we had enough to last us through the day and headed to Fire Station 8 in Annandale to get placed into a task force for the Pentagon. As we were getting out of 8, the department’s behavioral specialist was there and he was letting us know we were heading to something that might be a little tough to see and to take and that he would be available when we got back. We mounted up and then proceeded out of the parking lot. The one thing I really remember is that we had a weird mix of units but when I looked at a lot of the drivers and officers, I saw people I had known for years and who were good firefighters and that really gave me a bit of comfort. So here, we are a procession of units responding in a solemn column down Columbia Pike to the Pentagon.

Cresting the hill and coming down to the Pentagon was surreal, movies are great and we have such a grasp on verbal communications today that I thought I would be ready for what I was about to see. As we got closer, the real magnitude of the scene unfolded before us and we knew that it was going to be a long day. The fires in the roof spaces had started up again and the smoke coming out of the building was impressive. As the units got to the staging area all of the officers were directed to report to the fire operations "command post" so I hooked up with the other OIC’s and we headed over there. The ICP was right in front of the collapsed section of the building and I could feel the pressure of the building. Not sure of the dynamics there, but I really felt a pressure being that close to the collapsed part of the building.

We get our marching orders and I am assigned to the roof division on side David of the fire to "stop" the roof fires. Evidently there was something important up there because we were told that we would stop the fire, I am good with that give me a task and set me to work… The task was further enhanced when we were placed under the leadership of Battalion Chief John Gleske. John Gleske and I went to recruit school together and had studied together with Mike Godbout, Jerry Roussillon, and Boots Elmore for almost every promotional exam since then. In addition, I have said and still feel that John Gleske is one of the most competent and schooled tactical fire officers I have ever worked with…. Yeah I did beat him in a couple of those promotional tests, but yeah he is better. Now I am good, I am working with a tough crew and I have an excellent fireground officer to watch over us, not too shabby.

Really, there isn’t much to tell here, a lot of tough work. The area we worked on had a slate roof and we had to tear off the slate, pull up the wood (I think there were 1×6 inch boards supporting the slate) and get to the fire. Not easy but not impossible, but it is time and labor taxing and since I had already entered my 40’s I was working hard and feeling it. A couple of really weird things did happen while we were working on the roof. The first thing was that we were on the D-Ring, there are five rings at the Pentagon and the D ring is the second to last one before you get to the courtyard. I only had my crew at first so we were working pretty good while other crews were stretching a line to where we were at. As the crew and I were basically tearing off the roof a propane bottle below us blew up, that caused us a little excitement. I looked around at the other crews especially at the E Ring and saw Captain Tyrone Harrington (maybe a bit better that John Gleske, that speaks volumes) and he looked over at me waved and laughed. We went right back to work and with all the help we finally got we actually put the fire out, but it was tough work.

As the fire goes out and we are cleaning up and doing some overhaul work we are all sitting up on the roof and just thinking and talking about what happened and about what we knew was the loss of hundreds of firefighters in New York. Suddenly my portable radio went into the "Oh Shit" mode, the evacuation tone was going off. I looked at the other guys and really couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Then the message came in that an unidentified plane had been spotted and was coming towards the Pentagon. The Combat Air Patrol was 5 minutes away and the unknown plane was two minutes away. The radio message was to evacuate the building as quickly as possible. Ok, based on what had happened yesterday I am heading for the spot where we left our ladder truck. We jog over to that spot and to our amazement there is no ladder truck. The crew had a blown gasket and the ladder was actually set down next to the truck. Well the language was a little colorful and we all decided to just look and see if we could spot the plane, I actually had a halligan in my hands and was trying to decide if I could get the pilot before he got me, yeah I know sounds good but I am really a terrible shot so I know who would have won…..

Well that is about it, we really worked hard up there and yes when I was told that we were going that morning that really didn’t make my day. Would I change it? Not on my life. I have been a firefighter for over 30 years and pride myself on having done a good job. While my part may have been small that day I was proud to have been there and proud to have worked with my brothers as we fought the fires at the Pentagon!

………. Al Mullins

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Posted by on September 11, 2011 • Filed under: Al Mullins, commentary • Tagged:

Fireball Feels the 9/11 Spirit Across the Ocean

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Writing about 9/11 is never easy. I guess that everyone remembers where he or she was the 11th september 2001. How could we forget? Many numbers come on my mind when we talk about 9/11:

343 firefighters died that day.

8.48AM: American Airlines flight 11 crashed into north tower of world trade center

9.06AM: United flight 175 crashed into south tower of world trade center

9.43AM: American flight 77 crashed into Pentagon

10.10AM: United flight 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

More than 3,000 thousand people died that day. But numbers are not just numbers. We must not forget that beyond each number there is a human being who died or tried to save another, it is important to put faces on names.

Personally, I can give some names: Battalion Chief J Pfeifer, James Hanlon (ladder 1; engine 7), Jules and Gedeon Naudet….those people are still alive but they help me to remember the fallen. But today is a day to remember and pray, so let us pray together and have a moment of silence for all the victims. May God with his blessing hand help us to be able to pray stronger and to believe in His everlasting Love. I will never forget what happened on 9/11/2001. For the families of the victims, life will never be the same. I also discovered on 9/11 that Evil exists but also that United the USA stands.

Today, Sunday the 11th September, 2011, ten years later we must not forget the firefighters/paramedics who got sick after working at ground zero.For them each day is a fight against different diseases and against complicated situations, such as the lack of money for their treatments ……

9/11 is related to the word "heroism,"the 343 fallen firefighters who were inside the towers and who tried to rescue people, who gave us a lesson of humility. Who would accept to trade their own life against another? These 343 Men did it. "That is part of the job" as many firefighters said. On this day of remembrance, why do we not we accept to let hope come inside our hearts and make us better towards our fellow humans? 9/11 is a day of commemoration but also a day to make us closer.

………. Laurence Delorme, Vaugneray, France

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Posted by on September 11, 2011 • Filed under: commentary • Tagged: ,

Engineer Sam Tells About a Local Observance That is Special

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Every year at this time 9/11 is memorialized in some fashion, which as it should be. On the first anniversary there were a great many observances, and again on the fifth. This year, the tenth, there seems to be many more than in past years. One of our local fire companies, Hartsville Fire Co. (Bucks Co., Pa. Station 93) has held a memorial every year without fail. They set out 343 American flags in their station lawn and invite the public to stop by and reflect on the events. That evening, they hold a service which includes the reading of all of the names of the firefighters whose lives were lost.

But they do something additional that is very special in the local area. Across the country, whether directly as a result of 9/11, many firefighters joined one of the branches of the Service. Some of them have since lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two of them were members in local departments.

One was John Kulick, a volunteer Assistant Chief in Hatboro, Pa., just across the line in Montgomery County from Hartsville. John was also a career firefighter in Whitpain Township, also in Montgomery Co. He and my son Randy served together for a time in Hatboro and were particularly close friends. The other was Tristan Smith, a young Lieutenant in my department, Bryn Athyn Fire Co. in Montgomery Co. Tristan was the nephew of then Chief Kris Smith.  John and Tristan were serving as enlisted men in the U.S. Army and both were killed in action in Iraq in separate incidents, locations and times.

In addition to all of the FDNY members lost, Hartsville Fire Co. makes it a point to memorialize John and Tristan each year as part of their observance. Additional flags are placed for each of them, and their names are read as well.

Earlier this year, Hartsville Fire Co. received a piece of steel from the twin towers, to be used as part of a permanent display at their firehouse. There will be a wall which will have the names of all the firefighters lost. Included in the display will be two plaques, one for John Kulick and one for Tristan Smith.

The memorial is to be dedicated at 6 PM on September 11, 2011

………. Sam Yardumian

Posted by on September 11, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, Engineer's Desk • Tagged: , , , , , ,

My 9/11 Story – A Ringside Seat to That Terrible Day …. by Steve Marshall

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In September of 2001, I was working as a photographer and editor in the news department of an ABC affiliate TV station. My normal shift ran from 10 pm to 8 am. and my primary job was to edit together the hundreds of the various elements that make up a 90 minute morning news show.

I had gotten into bed a little late on the morning of September 11th, having worked overnight and then covered a small news story before trying to get some sleep. My teenage son was home sick that day, or else I would have slept through the whole attack. He woke me up right after the first plane hit and I went right back to sleep. He was back at my door soon afterward, telling me that a second plane had hit the other tower.

Of course at that point it was obvious that this was far more than an errant plane flying into a building. I got up and watched the first 20 minutes of TV coverage and called my News Director to see if additional help was needed to cover the local angle of the story. He told me that all news personnel were being recalled to work EXCEPT the night-side staff. They were to stay home and try to get some sleep because it was going to be a long night ahead of them.

By now, the attack at the Pentagon was making headlines, although for some strange reason, one network kept saying the attack was a car bomb at the State Department even though we could plainly see it was the Pentagon.

I tried to go back to sleep but it wasn't going to happen. Finally at 6pm I headed for the station, prepared for total chaos. What I found at the station was un-nerving. It was eerily quiet as everyone was standing around watching the story unfold on TV. The Network had taken over with a Level 1 Break-In shortly after the attack and local news was sidelined for the most part. We would be given a 10 minute time slot for a local report and that was all for the 11 pm show…and the morning show was canceled altogether. No one knew how long the Network would remain at Level 1 and in control of our airtime.

My first assignment was to head to our local airport and try to catch some interviews with passengers from a commercial airliner that had been forced to land while en route to another city. By the time we got to the airport, the passengers had been bused to a hotel for the night but the pilot was still there. Even hours after the fact, the pilot was still white as a ghost, obviously terribly shaken up. He told me he had been told via radio to sit his plane down RIGHT NOW at the nearest airport. He asked for clarification, and was told to sit his craft down right away or risk being shot down, as the entire continental United States had been declared a "no fly zone" and was given no other info. He said that the only thing that he could figure that would cause such an order was a nuclear attack on the US and when he landed, he was sure that was exactly what had happened. He actually was somewhat relieved to find out it was only a terrorist attack. We returned to the TV station for further assignment, driving through totally deserted streets, as America hunkered down in front of their TVs and waited for the next blow.

Back at the station, my instructions from the News Director were clear. I would babysit a set of 6 videotape recorders that were constantly receiving live satellite feeds from all over the world, but especially from New York. I was to review all of the video coming in for "suitability". In other words, I was to eyeball every foot of that footage we are now all so familiar with and decide what would make air and what was simply too graphic. I would be archiving the entire event as it happened, fed live from Ground Zero, Shanksville and the Pentagon.

WJET-TV newsroom

As the night wore on, more and more footage was turning up, not only of the attacks, but of the

collapses, the rescue efforts, and the reactions of the Nation.

There exists far far more graphic video footage of the attacks than you could possibly imagine. Most will likely never make air due to the shear emotional power of it.

In my opinion, the most disturbing footage came in from Afghanistan. The locals were dancing in the streets in celebration over the attacks. Right then and there, I decided it was probably a good thing that I had not been the President that day, because I sure as heck would have blown that country back into the stone age.

Late in the evening, our Live Truck and news crew that had sped to Shanksville to cover the Flight 93 crash, returned, totally exhausted. They tossed me their videotape and went home. For the most part, all we could see of the Flight 93 crash, was the now-familiar smoking impact crater, but it was enough to tell the story. It would be weeks before the true story of Flight 93 would come out.

In the early hours of the 12th, the station's General Manager came into the newsroom and pinned up a memo from the Network. It was a very sternly worded order listing about 20 different video clips that were banned from airing on the network. They were the most graphic of the footage. The list included the shots of bodies falling from the towers, close ups of live victims standing in the windows waiting for rescue before the collapse and a number of other shots that were way beyond anything we would even consider airing in our conservative small market. The order included a threat that any station airing any of these clips would be in danger of losing their network affiliation.

The "powers that be" in New York had spoken. The 9/11 attack was being sanitized for Main Street America.

I would continue to archive the footage for the next 7 days. Every foot of the video that ABC, CNN and FOX had fed to the affiliates via satellite, was safely hidden away on tape. At my station, I am the only one that has ever seen all of it.

For the most part, as I watch the replays in the run-up to the 10th anniversary, I can tell you who shot what clip, where it come from and when it was shot. It's burned into my mind. I hope someday the worst of it will be forgotten in the fog of years gone by.

…….. Steve Marshall

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Posted by on September 11, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, Gnome Report • Tagged: , , ,

Shock … followed by purposeful action

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A brilliant and terrible Tuesday morning

Fourteen months into retirement I am teaching a Fire Officer II class at the Reagan National Airport fire station. The classroom is also their kitchen. The kitchen has a television.

The acting battalion chief steps in, apologizes for the interruption, and turns the television on. 

Good Morning America (ABC) is covering the breaking news of a plane that has hit the World Trade Center.

As the news camera focuses on the entry hole, many of the experienced air-crash-rescue guys are speculating on what type of plane hit the tower and the issues facing FDNY.

After a dozen minutes I try to restart the class. Agree to leave the television on with the sound turned down. I get one or two sentences out when we see the second plane hitting the tower.

Class over!

You do not need a Formal Announcement to Mobilize

As FDNY Firefighter James Hanlon (Ladder 1) points out in the opening of the Naudet Brothers documentary 9|11:

… there were days we would go to the Trade Center five times in a single shift. My point is, we knew those towers as well as anybody. But nobody, nobody, expected September 11th.

When the civilian editors of Fire-Rescue Magazine and Journal of EMS were vetting my article, Attack on the Pentagon: The Initial Fire and EMS Response (April 2002 issue), they struggled with the concept that hundreds of emergency responders initiated action without receiving a formal notification.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Fire Department never expected a 757 to be used as an assault weapon against the Pentagon. When the second plane struck in New York, the dozen off-duty members attending the Fire Officer class joined the 16 on-duty members preparing for the unknown.

They were not alone.

Most of the senior staff and urban search and rescue commanders in my department started purposeful action when they heard of the second plane in New York City. The information came through radio and television, informal digital networks and word-of-mouth.

Rapidly deploying 72 USAR members and 75 tons of equipment

It takes dedicated action by dozens of staff, support and non-USAR firefighters to make a deployment happen.

A point of pride is the ability to assemble the team well within the response deadline for domestic and international response. A deployment represents an administrative five alarm event.

A small role I had while assigned as a company officer at the Fire and Rescue Academy was to respond from home to get the facility unlocked on evenings, weekends and holidays. The Academy, with six classrooms and a large training bay, is the point of staging and assembly for the team.

Far from high tech. The tasks included moving apparatus out of the bay, properly configuring the "quad" – a large space with movable walls to create smaller class spaces, and powering up the facility.

Have to do Something

Ten years ago I also had a part-time job as a civilian Fire Instructor III at the Fire and Rescue Academy.

American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon shortly after I left the airport.

I was stunned. What could I do? No fire gear in the car, not in uniform, my "retired" fire department ID card did not provide KardKey access to headquarters or communications.

Headed for the Academy. Maybe they are assembling a fire crew with Engine 407.  I was at the Academy in 1982 when we loaded up a Suburban with EMS gear and responded in near-blizzard conditions to the Air Florida 90 crash at the 14th Street bridge.

Not this time. All of the on-duty uniformed staff are away, either responding to the Pentagon or the anticipated USAR deployment. None of the remaining staff experienced a USAR deployment. 

I looked up in time to see the South Tower collapse on live TV. 

Purposeful Action – Setting the Academy for USAR deployment

No more wondering what to do.

Without asking for authorization, started moving academy apparatus out of the high bay building and up the hill. Configured the quad. Tried to set up the communications equipment, but no one had the key to the cabinet.

Before the 11 am official federal mobilization notice, the academy was ready …

… and I was on my way home, satisfied that I did something worthwhile in reaction to the unthinkable.

An Inherent Orientation to Action

Emergency service folks are hard-wired to take action.

To validate the impact of our Citizen CPR program we tried to identify the background of every person who performed CPR prior to the arrival of the department. More than half of the citizen responders were off-duty or former police, fire, ems and health care staff. 

The same orientation that motivated Jeff Simpson, a Dumfries-Triangle Rescue Squad volunteer EMT who was near the World Trade Center. 

From the National EMS Memorial:

"I have no doubt whatsoever that, while I was stricken with disbelief and inaction, Jeff was figuring how he could help.

It was clear in the few minutes we were in the plaza that thousands of people had and would continue to be injured. There were many police, fire and EMS squads arriving at the scene and it was toward these and the injured that Jeff was headed the last time I saw him.

Frankly, there was no other reason for him to go towards the World Trade Center. His hotel, work site and safety were in the opposite direction.

With the second plane hitting the tower, Jeff would have been thinking about the increased number of casualties. I believe Jeff was caught in the collapse of the towers.

I do not know if he was inside the towers or working at one of the triage stations that had been set up close to the towers. In either case, he was doing what he was trained to do and spent his final hours helping the victims," stated Joseph T. Finnegan.

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

Earlier 9/11 essays:

2011: Remembering 41 EMS responders who died at WTC, including a hero from Prince William County, Virginia

2010: A Terrible and Brilliant Blue Sky Morning

2008: Reprint "The Anger Never Dies"

Posted by on September 11, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, aircraft, Command & Leadership, commentary, communications, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, In the Line of Duty, Line of Duty, Major Incidents, Mass Casualty Incident, Rescues, Response times, Special Operations, Technology & Communications, Training & Development, Urban Commander • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Al Mullins Remembers 9/11

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Remembering That Day …. September 11, 2001

I barely remember the day that JFK was assassinated. I remember my Mom watching the news on the old black and white television and her crying, but that is about it. Fast forward to September 11, 2001, well yes I remember it like it was yesterday. How can you forget that day, and how we have changed in that time?

Like everyone else on the East Coast, we woke to a pristine fall day, clear blue skies light humidity and a gorgeous day. Our daughter was in kindergarten so getting up and getting her out to the bus was the big activity that morning, that and the fact that I had a couple of errands to run that day with our twin boys. After walking my daughter up to the bus stop and seeing her off, I headed back down the street to get my boys and head out on my errands. Twin boys are very cool, everyday that I spend with them is just amazing and this day started that way.

Our first stop was at the bank, I had to drop something off at my bank (well before online banking) so I grabbed the guys took them out of their car seats and headed into the bank to take care of the transaction. As soon as I did that, I was headed to our favorite barbershop to get everyone a haircut, but as I was walking out of the bank, a woman who was walking in stopped and told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Now she did not have to fill in the rest since I naturally knew where they were and what they were. In fact, I am a native New Yorker and as a young boy, I watched the WTC or twin towers being built. I lived up in the Catskills, but had relatives in New York so we would often come down to visit.

I heard her say that the WTC had been hit by a plane and my love of anything FDNY (Fire Department of New York) reminded me that something like this had happened before in New York. A Mitchell B-25 (Twenty Seconds over Tokyo or the twin-engine bombers in the movie Pearl Harbor for the younger crowd) flying to Floyd Bennett Field had gotten lost in the fog and had crashed into the Empire State Building. I looked up again at the sky and I just thought that some wayward general aviation plane had really messed up; I did not even consider a terrorist attack. I really dismissed what she had said and drove over to the barbershop.

Stopped the car got the boys out of their car seats and walked in to the barbershop where I stopped dead in my tracks. The 55-inch rear projection high definition television in the barbershop was showing pictures from the WTC and I really knew right then that this was not a general aviation plane or a mistake. I also knew that every firefighter in New York was going to this fire. If I was at the firehouse and this came in, I would have done the same thing. Yes I know and you know that this is wrong, but back then… yeah I was going.

This was like no fire I had ever seen in my life, First Interstate Bank and Meridian fires in LA and Philly paled in comparison (and they were both huge fires). I also knew this was going to be the toughest fire these guys would ever have to handle, especially since all the elevators were out and those guys had to walk. I have had to go up 10 and 20 story buildings with full gear and equipment on and know that was tough, but almost 100 floors OMG!

Then as I was watching the second plane hit, I could not believe it now I started to get nervous since one was bad, but two was worse and I thought that two would not be the end of it. Shortly after (at least what seemed to be shortly after) the second plane hit the twin towers I called TROT (Technical Rescue Operations Team) central. Fire Station 18 in Fairfax County is really TROT central and as a former shift member there, I knew the number by heart. The driver on the shift answered the phone and I asked him if they had seen the news and were being geared up, as I was talking to him the third plane hit the Pentagon and FS18 actually were toned out on the response… I said a quick good bye and was a little worried, since I knew all of those characters and was concerned for their well being.

Now I turned back to the TV and saw a humongous cloud of dust in New York, and my blood turned to ice water. I knew what had just happened and I knew that many firefighters had just died. As a former member of the TROT group in Fairfax County I had gone up to Baltimore in the late 1980’s to work with the folks from Montgomery County in a drill at the Francis Scott Key Medical Center. The medical center was dropping one of their 14 story buildings and we were going to work on it after it fell. As a young sergeant on the rescue, I was really forward to getting an opportunity to get some good experience on this structure. Battalion Chief Mike Tammillow and Captain Chuck Jarrell, two of the more senior members of the team were kind enough to give me a video camera and put me in position to catch the falling of the building. I grabbed the camera got as close as the security folks would let me and started filming, it was really a great vantage point and I got to see and hear the entire demolition of the building from a close vantage point. Now remember that dust? I had no clue about the dust in the late 80’s, heck I was still listening to Journey… So I am filming the building coming down and watching the dust come towards the camera and not really appreciating what was going to happen next when I couldn’t breathe anymore…. I know how the people on the ground felt that day and I knew the significance of the dust.

(To be continued tomorrow…)

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Posted by on September 10, 2011 • Filed under: Al Mullins, commentary • Tagged:

9/11 Thoughts of Eric Lamar

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343

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Ten years after, the number continues to defy believability in its astounding size.

Never before had the profession of firefighting experienced such an extraordinary cataclysm. It was beyond the realm of imagination, contemplation or nightmare.

Today that same sentiment or feeling remains. It is true that life has gone on and they say that the Fire Department has been re-built but the stunning magnitude of the loss will stay with us always, immune to the passage of time.

Those numbers, three-four-three, define the before and after of our profession, a gigantic breach eluding comprehension.

In our minds and indeed in the minds of most Americans, firefighting has always been associated with a degree of selfless service which extends beyond the notions of job, work and profession. Those 343, in their collective sacrifice, transcended the expectations of mortals, even of the heroic men.

On this tenth anniversary we can struggle to do them justice by remembering their individual uniqueness while at the same we will forever marvel at their sense of duty and commitment on a day that both defined our greatest loss as well as the bravery and courage of firefighters, for all time.

………. Eric Lamar

(Note:  This is the third entry of Eric's 9/11 trilogy.  You can read the first two HERE and HERE.)

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Posted by on September 10, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, Eric Lamar • Tagged:

9/11 Remembrances of Patrick Mahoney

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I've been struggling with what to write for this group 9/11 discussion. Should I take the easy route and write about where I was and what I was doing that day? Should I take the contrarian (pageview-bait) route and rail against the appropriation of 9/11 in the fire service outside the FDNY? Should I bitch about the cheapening of 9/11? I don't know. All of those things are easily said and just as easily dismissed as so much noise.

What I would like to do instead is tell you about my friend Ash (that's short for Ashley, but he is a he). Ash has been a volly fireman in Connecticut and Texas for probably around 20 years. He's a white collar investment type and has lived in San Francisco, Australia, Connecticut, Texas, and maybe a few other places. This is the sort of guy who wears Brooks Brothers and windsurfs. But he's also a good fireman and drives a truck and hunts. He has a great labrador named Bucky, too. He is one of those guys you want to hang out with and who has an interest in people. He's a good guy.

Ash's brother, Robert, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald in one of the towers and, like so many with that company, he died on 9/11. I haven't seen Ash since maybe 2003 but every year around 9/11 you can see the outpouring of love for him on Facebook. Despite not seeing him and rarely talking to him for these many years, I still hold him as a friend. I know he misses and loves his brother; indeed, I know he is sad. Like many, many thousands of others, Ash lost someone who was not a firefighter but was no less keenly missed.

I think the fire service has tended over these ten years to claim 9/11 as its own. We would all do well to remember Ash and his brother.

………. Patrick Mahoney

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Posted by on September 10, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, FireHat • Tagged: ,

9/11 in Memory and Memorial

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I traveled to New York last week to see War Horse, a play about the First World War as seen through the eyes of Joey, a horse, sold by his owner into army service. Joey serves with utterly useless distinction in the British Calvary on the fields of France before being captured by the Germans. 　In a way, it is a memorial to the marathon of horrors we call war, absent the granite and marble.

Michael Morpurgo

Being in New York on the eve of the tenth anniversary of September 2011 and seeing a play about the senseless losses of World War I makes me wonder how the terrorist attacks will become part of our collective American Experience, as all great events must with the passage of time.

Today, we know it as a date, as in December 7th, its emotional and historic predecessor. We employ the short-hand form of the three digits of its month and day, 9/11. 　Those two numbers, nine-eleven, conjure up the jarring images of a sunny and peaceful day which ends with the deaths of thousands in a whirlwind of billowing dust. 　But, will our understanding of the event stop there?

The slogan for 9/11, or at least one of them, is "Never Forget" but surely that is inevitable to a degree, as those that witnessed it first-hand and those that felt the loss the greatest grow up, and grow old. 　Time does heal all wounds mostly by obscuring anguish in a fog of distant and hazy memories though even the densest fog will occasionally lift revealing the stark landscapes of our lives, with all our valleys and peaks. For better or worse, the inescapable fact is that life (and death) goes on.

We attempt to stave off that fading into nothingness by creating monuments and memorials to honor loss and sacrifice. 　It is our tradition to create touchstones, literally, where the past becomes real again, if only for an instant. 　It is a wonder that a memorial, of any type, can be transformed in our minds into a moment that represents a distant time and place. 　I could know no one killed during the First World War and I have never been to a battlefield cemetery in Europe but I can conjure up a powerful vision, none the less, and in that moment the soldiers live, yet.

World War I Memorial.org

It is a case of mind over matter, or rather at the end of the day, it is the mind that matters. 　Perhaps the real value of memorials is that they allow those who can't remember, because they were yet unborn, to connect with an act or event and to make it both real and relevant.　But great memorials crumble too, and unless the event lives on in our collective consciousness it is destined to disappear over time.

Our remembering now and our desire to memorialize for the future could ultimately be about the need to seek meaning in the most chaotic and inexplicable of events. Memorials may, in a way, allow us to place a kind of metaphysical bookmark, so we can return as we need, to ponder again the "why" of such an occurrence. 　In that context, memorials, concrete or otherwise, are crucial.

The "why" of 9/11 remains elusive or even unknowable, left for understanding gained through time and patience, perhaps.　

If time does soften the blow, hopefully it will not prevent those who perished from being remembered as they were; many of them did extraordinary things.　

If we struggle we will see them in our minds as real people first and foremost, before they were swept up in the arm's of history as a three-digit code.

Crystal Inks

……….Eric Lamar

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Posted by on September 9, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, Eric Lamar • Tagged:

9/11: Cause and Effect?

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Strategic Interest and Ideology

This coming week we pause to reflect upon the losses of September 11, 2001, and to honor all those killed or injured that day, as well as the families and friends they left behind. It is also fitting that we should remember the many soldiers killed or wounded in the intervening decade as they fought those identified as being responsible: Al Qaeda and their sympathizers.

Khaama.com

Ten years after, we continue to assess responsibility for 9/11 and while Al Qaeda is certainly responsible for the act, the true picture may be more complicated and less precise.

It is accepted and perhaps even inevitable that countries, both democratic and otherwise, will engage in all manner of unseemly alliances as they attempt to protect their strategic interests. These alliances can be uncivil, undemocratic and potentially damaging, but we engage in them none-the-less. That fact, coupled with our very short memory, allows us to repeat our mistakes while engaging in an assessment of responsibility that is often incomplete and sometimes just plain incorrect. (We denied sanctuary to Jews being murdered by the Nazis during World War II and then immediately provided sanctuary to Nazis to aid in the fight against Communism—so much for humanitarianism or the punishment of war crimes.)

Osama bin Laden once served in a strategic alliance with the US as the Afghans fought the Communists over control of their country. We were happy to train, equip and assist bin Laden and his compatriots as it dove-tailed nicely with our needs. Bin Laden was a terrorist then but happily, he was OUR terrorist as he shot down Hind helicopters and plotted the eventual defeat of the Soviets. His was a successful endeavor.

Wired.com

He moved on to more militant religious causes and was furious with one of the world’s least democratic countries, Saudi Arabia, when they invited US troops on to their soil in support of the First Gulf War. America was happy to cozy up to a repressive and tyrannical Saudi government if it secured our supply of oil. It was the presence of the US military in an Islamic country that fanned his hatred of America. We don’t need to like Al Qaeda, we can even hate them if we want, but we need to understand their motivations, whether or not we agree with them.

To paraphrase Britain’s Lord Palmerston, "Nations have no permanent friends, they only have permanent interests." Palmerston is, of course, correct and that fact leads to all sorts of moral and ethical ambiguity where today’s friends are tomorrow’s bitter and deadly enemies. There may not be room for either ethics or morality in foreign policy but that fact alone pre-disposes us to acts of terror and aggression as we selfishly ally ourselves based solely on our interests.

Just days ago the New York Times reported that Libyan documents had been found linking the CIA to Qaddafi and his famously repressive regime. The recovered papers suggest that the US shipped terrorism suspects to Colonel Qaddafi for interrogation. Perhaps in so doing we were only protecting our strategic interests but we should hardly be surprised about future reprisals when we find ourselves in league with Qaddafi, a man whom President Obama said, "had lost the legitimacy to lead." One wonders how the President defines "legitimacy."

The world is a complicated place, indeed.

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Posted by on September 7, 2011 • Filed under: commentary, Eric Lamar • Tagged: