re: Fire fighting needs to be rethunk

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Houses aren't made of wood anymore. We use fire retardant gypsum board, and other resistant construction materials....add smoke detectors and fire fighters on call are overkill.

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Die in a fire.

As someone fimiliar with fire fighting, volunteer training needs to be revamped. Also basic knowledge of fire behavior should be a must for all levels of emergency response. I've seen some truly dumb things done by "fire fighters" that could have had bad results because they didn't know basically fire behavior.

I know how it works. You can call the police department to respond to an accident without dialing 911.

Fire stations are some of the most over staffed public buildings there is. If they actually only responded to fires they wouldn't have shite to do. That's why they show up at every traffic accident and medical call. They need to justify those taxes they collect.

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Because they've been told to do so since grade school.

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Exactly, because it's easier to tell a little kid to simply dial 911 for anything.

However...as adults, it needs to be said that 911 is an emergency number. It's not for a fender bender. It's not because the neighbor is playing his music too loud. It's if you are in a serious situation and it's an emergency. Being in a little fender bender wreck is not an emergency. A seriously bad wreck where there could possibly be injuries, yeah...call 911.

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They started going to EMS calls because they can respond quicker

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Correct

We have an EMS / Fire Station around the corner from my office.
Twice we have had to call 911 for medical emergencies.
Both times the fire dept was there well before EMS, the 2nd time the fire dept pulled up as I was hanging up with the 911 operator.

There are a couple of you on here who have wives that have gotten a train run on them by some firemen.

Sorry bout your little dick, bro.

It makes sense to have a few distribution points for police, EMS and firefighters so that they can quickly respond to emergencies.

Does each station need a chief? Why not have one chief for the Parish, one administrative office, and distribute calls to individual stations for a response?

St. Tammany Parish has 13 fire districts, and the Covington Fire Department, and each one has a chief. I wonder how much salary/benefits each chief draws.

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Also every firehouse in New Orleans is open to the public

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So are the ones in L.A. On Christmas Eve this year we took homemade cookies to our local fire house and police station for the guys who were away from their families that night.

Thank you

Oh yeah, and when the schizophrenic down the street is off his meds and becomes violent, the fire dept is much closer and gets to him sooner. They bring an EMT with them. The police are there for security and the ambulance takes him away to the hospital.

Personally, I'm fine with my taxes going to that. Much better than some of the bullshite programs I support.

Your thinking is flawed. Firefighters don’t just put wet stuff on hot stuff. There is prevention, pre planning, maintenance of equipment, inspections, education....the list goes on and on....These guys don’t just sit around for 24 hrs firing off knuckle children waiting on structure fires. Only a very small portion of their time is spent actually fighting working fires but training and preparation are the lions share of their duties. If you want to find ways to save money, start with your elected officials and your government’s wasteful spending not those men and women who train all their lives to save you or your kids in the worst hour you’ll experience in your life. 15 min of fire fighting is equivalent to 8hr work day cardio wise. You cannot do without your fire dept....you are going to pay for fire protection and be protected or you going to pay the insurance company without protection, you choose!