Report: Firefighters Arrive Later to Scene

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=716&e=7&u=/ap/20050130/ap_on_re_us/fire_response

~snip~

Nationwide, only 35 percent of departments were able to meet the six-minute goal in 2002, compared to 75 percent in 1986, when alarm times first began to be collected.


"Fire protection in America is a myth," said Vincent Dunn, a retired New York City Deputy fire chief and author of books on fire safety.


"These two subjects are the dirty little secrets of the fire service: The response times outside the center cities are too great, and the personnel responding, inside and outside the center cities, are too few. No one wants to talk about that."

~snip~

The Globe calculated, using U.S. Census data, that spending for fires went from an average of 6.1 percent of municipal spending in 1987 to 5.7 percent in 2003. In Massachusetts, 800 paid firefighters have been lost since Sept. 2001 through layoffs and attrition.

[DELUSIONAL]

1. Cutting back firehouses and not having enough fire personnel

will certainly affect the turn out times.

Not having enough fire stations -- so that fewer fire fighters have to come a greater distance -- and then horrors if a second fire breaks out someplace in the district -- another crew from further away has to go to that fire. . . .

The fire protection budget seems like an easy cut for the politicians -- because it might seem like these resources aren't being used effectively.

The snip at the bottom says it all -- decrease in spending from 6.1 to 5.7 (not even keeping up with inflation and Government mandated upgrades in equipment and protective, safety & communication gear). Plus the loss of personnel.

[leftchick]

2. bushco** has gutted first responder spending..

but we are all "safer" now... :puke:

[JanMichael]

3. We had to dial 911 a few months ago

for an accident on the street--(did not involve us--woke us up)-

We can SEE the police department from our bedroom window-

It took about 9 minutes for anyone to respond at about 1:45AM.

As an ex-paramedic, I was shocked by the response time, AND by the stupid questions the dispatcher asked me-