Fire fighters?
UPDATE 8-17-08
In another recent Spokane fire a door and window shop called "The Ugly Duck" was burned. The fire began in some debris behind the building. Fire "fighters" arrived and dawdled. They failed to protect the property.
Ugly Duck owner John Davis says $2 million in inventory was lost in the fire. He claims the Spokane fire department didn't do it's job to save his assets. Read media story here.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
At 5:30 AM, today, the Spokane Fire Department got an alarm from a downtown building with a small fire in the basement. Fire “fighters” were on scene before 6:00 AM, and it was called a 3 alarm fire. The building occupies a large portion of a city block and has several businesses on the ground floor including a fancy restaurant and a photography business. Several condominiums were under construction on upper floors.
When they arrived the fire “fighters” found that there was a fire in one corner of the basement. Smoke and flames billowed out of a lower back basement window. Partitions in the basement confined the flames to one corner. One of the fire “fighters” told a news reporter, “We couldn't go into the basement because there was a fire.” So they began spraying some water into the lower back window. They told reporters that they were trying to cover the (concrete) basement floor with water to put out the fire before going into the building. That “attack” amounted to doing nothing at all. The concrete floor wasn't on fire anyway. Covering it with water didn't do anything to stop the fire. Watching live TV coverage at about 6:30 AM, Bob opined that the entire building would be lost before the “fighters” were done.
Then they went into the street level of the building and began cutting holes in the floor. They told reporters, “We couldn't go into the basement so we had to attack the fire from above.” Big mistake. As soon as the holes were cut in the floor above the fire, a chimney effect was created which rapidly spread and augmented the fire. One fire “fighter” fell down one of their holes in the floor. He was rescued with minor injuries. Heat and flames rapidly followed the smoke up through the holes onto the street level and out the front of the building.
With the street floor now on fire the fire “fighters” retreated to the middle o f the street and set up a few automatic water nozzles aimed at the building. One could watch them milling about, having more coffee, and scratching their collective asses as the flames continued to consume the building.
By 8:00 AM the fire had burned through 3 more floors and flames were seen above the roof. TV idiots continue to use nonsense verbs and phrases like “attacking the fire” to talk about the fire “fighters.” Any fool could tell that the “fighters” had done no attack on the fire at all. There action was to stand back and put on a show with their expensive equipment while they watched it burn to the ground.
As this article is written it is now 9:30 AM. The building has been burring for 4 hours. Flames and smoke continue to come out the roof. Bricks on the front of the building are beginning to crumble away and fall off the building from the heat. It is an older brick structure building. Fire “fighters” continue to stand back and spray water at the building which was, is and will be ineffective.
At 5:30 AM, when fire “fighters” first arrived, the fire was small and confined to a portion of the basement. An aggressive attack by two or three hose crews would have made short work of the fire and confined damage to the small portion of the basement. Instead of attacking the fire their decision mode is to avoid any possible danger even if it means failing to do the jobs they brag about performing. The “brave” fire “fighters” now decide to stand back and watch it burn rather than send any hose crews into the building to attack the fire. It does no good to spray water on the outside of the building or thorough one basement window, but none of them are put at risk while standing back across the street drinking coffee.
Read media report of fire
Bob has to wonder how much of the new decision mode of fire”fighters” is driven by the inclusion of females in the formerly men's domain of firemen. We observe that the same department that “fought” an apartment fire two years ago for 36 hours while it spread slowly from a single unit to the next to the next until an entire city block of apartments were burned. The Spokane fire department continues to demonstrate that it does not have the will to do the job for which it takes millions of our tax dollars every year. They are not paid to stand back and watch buildings burn. They are not paid to cut holes in floors to allow small fires to rapidly spread through the entire building.
The building is a total loss. The bricks and mortar are heat damaged and no longer safe structurally. The TV idiots continue to heap praise on the parade of incompetent do-nothings who protected themselves first while allowing a small fire to destroy the entire building. Even some men with buckets would have been as effective, maybe more effective.
It reminds me of the comment Bob once heard from some wag about a volunteer fire department in another town, “They've never lost a foundation.”
In another recent Spokane fire a door and window shop called "The Ugly Duck" was burned. The fire began in some debris behind the building. Fire "fighters" arrived and dawdled. They failed to protect the property.
Ugly Duck owner John Davis says $2 million in inventory was lost in the fire. He claims the Spokane fire department didn't do it's job to save his assets. Read media story here.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
At 5:30 AM, today, the Spokane Fire Department got an alarm from a downtown building with a small fire in the basement. Fire “fighters” were on scene before 6:00 AM, and it was called a 3 alarm fire. The building occupies a large portion of a city block and has several businesses on the ground floor including a fancy restaurant and a photography business. Several condominiums were under construction on upper floors.
When they arrived the fire “fighters” found that there was a fire in one corner of the basement. Smoke and flames billowed out of a lower back basement window. Partitions in the basement confined the flames to one corner. One of the fire “fighters” told a news reporter, “We couldn't go into the basement because there was a fire.” So they began spraying some water into the lower back window. They told reporters that they were trying to cover the (concrete) basement floor with water to put out the fire before going into the building. That “attack” amounted to doing nothing at all. The concrete floor wasn't on fire anyway. Covering it with water didn't do anything to stop the fire. Watching live TV coverage at about 6:30 AM, Bob opined that the entire building would be lost before the “fighters” were done.
Then they went into the street level of the building and began cutting holes in the floor. They told reporters, “We couldn't go into the basement so we had to attack the fire from above.” Big mistake. As soon as the holes were cut in the floor above the fire, a chimney effect was created which rapidly spread and augmented the fire. One fire “fighter” fell down one of their holes in the floor. He was rescued with minor injuries. Heat and flames rapidly followed the smoke up through the holes onto the street level and out the front of the building.
With the street floor now on fire the fire “fighters” retreated to the middle o f the street and set up a few automatic water nozzles aimed at the building. One could watch them milling about, having more coffee, and scratching their collective asses as the flames continued to consume the building.
By 8:00 AM the fire had burned through 3 more floors and flames were seen above the roof. TV idiots continue to use nonsense verbs and phrases like “attacking the fire” to talk about the fire “fighters.” Any fool could tell that the “fighters” had done no attack on the fire at all. There action was to stand back and put on a show with their expensive equipment while they watched it burn to the ground.
As this article is written it is now 9:30 AM. The building has been burring for 4 hours. Flames and smoke continue to come out the roof. Bricks on the front of the building are beginning to crumble away and fall off the building from the heat. It is an older brick structure building. Fire “fighters” continue to stand back and spray water at the building which was, is and will be ineffective.
At 5:30 AM, when fire “fighters” first arrived, the fire was small and confined to a portion of the basement. An aggressive attack by two or three hose crews would have made short work of the fire and confined damage to the small portion of the basement. Instead of attacking the fire their decision mode is to avoid any possible danger even if it means failing to do the jobs they brag about performing. The “brave” fire “fighters” now decide to stand back and watch it burn rather than send any hose crews into the building to attack the fire. It does no good to spray water on the outside of the building or thorough one basement window, but none of them are put at risk while standing back across the street drinking coffee.
Read media report of fire
Bob has to wonder how much of the new decision mode of fire”fighters” is driven by the inclusion of females in the formerly men's domain of firemen. We observe that the same department that “fought” an apartment fire two years ago for 36 hours while it spread slowly from a single unit to the next to the next until an entire city block of apartments were burned. The Spokane fire department continues to demonstrate that it does not have the will to do the job for which it takes millions of our tax dollars every year. They are not paid to stand back and watch buildings burn. They are not paid to cut holes in floors to allow small fires to rapidly spread through the entire building.
The building is a total loss. The bricks and mortar are heat damaged and no longer safe structurally. The TV idiots continue to heap praise on the parade of incompetent do-nothings who protected themselves first while allowing a small fire to destroy the entire building. Even some men with buckets would have been as effective, maybe more effective.
It reminds me of the comment Bob once heard from some wag about a volunteer fire department in another town, “They've never lost a foundation.”
posted by Bob | Thursday, July 24, 2008
6 Comments:
I live close to one of the bigger of the fires burning in California a few weeks ago. The normal wind pattern for this time of the year, and the one that was predicted for several days at the height of the fire, would have blown it straight through town. Those winds never came, and 1,000 or so homes were saved by pure, dumb luck.
There were over 2,000 fires burning in the state at the time, and the news was a constant stream of complaints about the lack of manpower. So, when our local fire started getting out of hand, I tried to volunteer to help. I had firefighting training a few years ago, when I was in the Conservation Corps. (who, incidentally was already there, along with a few hundred entirely untrained prisoners) I'm also a certified EMT. But even with more training than most of the people already there, they turned me down. "Fighting fires is OUR job, not yours." I was told that if I really wanted to do something, I could volunteer for the Red Cross. Fighting the fire was just "too dangerous" for "the public."
For those of you not familiar with fighting western wildfires, most people on the lines never get anywhere near the flames. 90%+ of the work is clearing brush, well ahead of the flames. You don't put it out, you just cut off the fuel. Little more dangerous, if at all, than basic trail work, which I've done professionally in the past.
So, that's what America has become. A skilled, able bodied man, is permitted only to help comfort the victims AFTER their homes burn. Had I instead tried to save those homes from the fire, I would have been arrested, as a few other men were.
SomE meN juSt wanT to waTch the wOrld burn Ahaheheah
Perhaps they're paid by the hour.
Or perhaps this particular group just isn't very good at their job.
"Had I instead tried to save those homes from the fire, I would have been arrested, as a few other men were."
Yep. Don't do what your told and they kidnap you and lock you up.
It's a free cuntry!
Might aswell watch it burn. No loss.
Sounds like fire "fighters" are not actually taught to fight fires. But I sure as hell bet they are all fully-qualified experts in diversity awareness, gender equality and sensitivity training.
"But I sure as hell bet they are all fully-qualified experts in diversity awareness, gender equality and sensitivity training."
And there you have it, you can say the same exact thing about our military, not even sure how we win any battles anymore? Not even sure how this nations still standing under its current policies of PC insanity?
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