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Fire department in hot seat
City officials are contemplating major changes to Coatesville's Fire Department.
“There are numerous organizational issues,” affecting the department, City Manager Harry Walker reported during last week’s City Council meeting.This comes two weeks after it was revealed department’s overtime expenses already have surpassed the budget estimate for the entire year.
Labels: fire department
posted by Daily Local at
10:59 AM
6 Comments:
So whats the breaking news? The volleys and career don't get along? The volleys have once again taken life saving equipment off the apparatus to protest something the career members did? The career want better trained officers? The volleys want more rent for the buildings? The career are requesting more firefighters during the day shift?
Give us news thats not 20-30 years old and that has been going on because of council members present and in the past to weak to say enough bickering and lets provide a service to the taxpayers.
It will never be perfect, no department is, but their are departments all across the US that have tried and finally split the departments to be surprised and find service can be improved.
Here is an idea, combine the fd with the building inspection department, then make the police public safety (police and fire)responders. Police most of the time and when the fire call comes in, they respond in the police vehicles, put on their fire gear and serve as firefighters.
The police chief then can be a firefighter/chief officer as PA for the most part does not require the responder to be more than a basic firefighter to hold office.
Bet the younger pd force would go for it and the mature force members can be grandfathered and not become a public safety responder.
Instant full-time force for both departments.
Google- public safety responders and see how many departments utilize this option North Myrtle Beach is one for those of you that vacation in that area.
Just food for thought.
check out the Police Departments overtime also. The whole problem is months of mismanagement from the top. Good for the current fire and police officers that hung in there through all of the nonsense to keep the city safe. At least they were able to make better money through overtime while everyone above flounders and wonders what the problem is
In this situation, anyway, Coatesville's not unique and not even very remarkable. A local city's expenses for fire overtime came under scrutiny. I forget the total, but one example cited was of a lieutenant whose salary of 53,000 last year was less than his ot payment of 58,000. Other officers were pulling down about 30k in ot.
Corinthians 13:11:
11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
to the quoter of Corinthinas:
Do you have a point? Would you care to share what it is?
Blasts from the past……
In the 70’s (anyway) between say 6 am and 6 pm most all company alarms in the city were answered by three pieces of apparatus each with one driver and except for that occasional line officer, why may – on occasion – have been allowed to leave his job, which was the compliment of responders, at least for the insipient stage of a fire, anyway.
In one instance, the Washies driver pulled around back of the firehouse, parked his engine on Harmony street and crawled into the livingroom of a smoke filled dwelling and pulled out one of the residents who was (I believe) unconscious in his easy chair.
Another instance it was a driver of Ladder 43 – when the truck was actually based in the West End who pulled into the rear of the fire building (on Diamond St) – stretched a supply line back to the hydrant on Third Avenue, connected both ends of the hose – placed the ladder into pump gear, lowered the outriggers and raised the main ladder – scaled the ladder to the second floor of the building and made entry.
These were the “heroes” that I developed under.
It was on a dark evening in the West End, when “we” transported the wounded gentleman (in the cervical spine area) with the Medics to Lancaster General and then beat feet back to the city so that we could take the ladder out to assist Coatesville PD with lighting and with searching roofs for shell casings. Could you see this happening today?
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