Interesting article over at the MJM site on the need for a new fire truck. The discussion that follows the article is pretty interesting and I gotta tell you that the way things work in that department is just worlds different than what most folks are used to. First of all, everything is hideously expensive. In this particular example, we’re applying for a grant that would pay for 90% of the cost of a new tower. Our tower is 15 years old. Yes, we have saved some money towards new equipment but Why wouldn’t we apply?
!! Inside baseball warning !! What follows get at least a little dry….
As for the rest of it, I can tell you that gaining an understanding of how Fire and Rescue works is never as easy as asking a single simple question. You cannot take your understanding of your workaday world and apply it there. If your car breaks, you can have it to the shop in 30 minutes and turned around in a day. That kind of service just isn’t available for million dollar equipment only ~3 of which are in the entire county! Replacement parts are sometimes machined from scratch. That don’t happen at Jiffy Lube. It’s expensive and it doesn’t happen fast.
I can tell you first hand that it takes a lot of time to understand how Fire and Rescue works in Manassas and any understanding you might gain is complicated by the fact that the same service works differently in almost every jurisdiction. To add more fuel to the fire, there are also local regulations and SOP’s, State requirements and then an amalgam of best practices from several other sources – all of which are championed by different groups.
The one question that I read on that thread that I thought deserved an answer was the fund raising question. Historically, Fire Departments have raised much of their own money. Localities would help pay for some big ticket items but the rest was up to the volunteers. In urban areas, this formula doesn’t always work so well: people are busy and seem willing to pay for career staffing. Manassas is at least sub-urban and the 100% volunteer solution has been supplemented over the years with career staffing. At some point in the recent past, the VFD decided that they would not require volunteers to participate in fund raising if they were going to run calls.
This was done in order to attract more volunteers which seems like a good strategy to me….
June 20, 2009 at 1:44 pm
To write a letter in support of the grant:
Assistant Administrator of Grant Programs W. Ross Ashley III
Department of Homeland Security
800 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20472-3620
Thanks for the link to the article, Andy. I used to do writing for FEMA and there’s a much bigger picture that fire officials see and we don’t even think (or want to think) about.
I have been really impressed at the things Chief Wood has been tackling almost immediately after taking on the job, especially the interest in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) which would education citizens in the neighborhoods to be ready to serve if needed, though that training also needs to be funded.
It’s not that this stuff hasn’t been planned for or thought of by city officials, I’m sure, but it’s like what you’re doing with Manassas Next or Kisha’s doing with Neighborhood Services. Creative solutions and getting a public dialogue going around it and some positive action resulting.
I would love to see the community rally around this grant for the truck. It’s not hard to write a letter and put a 44 cent stamp on it in support of it. And the truck really is a homeland security thing, since we are so close to Washington, DC.
June 20, 2009 at 8:00 pm
The things that bothered me the most in the blog that followed this article was people who have no idea how fire departments work or anything about the Manassas Department making statements about the chief that were not accurate. First the Chief and the career staf are not responsible for the current condition of the Tower. The equipment was and is maintained by the volunteers. I respect what the volunteers do, but they are losing a lot of that respect. This bickering and throwing around accusations concerning the career staff really need to stop. They need to accept the fact they could not staff the fire house properly resulting in the need for additional career staff. I hope they start supporting the changes asked for by the chief especially the need for a second station. Any way you cut it, the need for that station is supported by national standards which aren’t being met at this time to that side of the City. Council needs to stop all the studies and support the chief you hired to do thsi job.
June 20, 2009 at 9:09 pm
FWIW: all involved parties will be presenting their proposed solutions this Tuesday night (hope that’s right, its the 23rd).
June 21, 2009 at 11:38 pm
I too have been following the blog over at the N&M with some amusement at the comments. Having in younger days been a volunteer firefighter & EMT, I can look at it from that point of view. What strikes me most of all is not one person has bothered to think of WHY our fair City would want the truck.
Regardless if there was another truck five miles away (and we all know even if running with full lights & siren, five miles makes for at least 20 minutes of drive time around here sometimes), there is a pressing need in the City for it. Within our borders and just on the edge are: Prince William Hospital, MICRON, Lockheed Martin, BAE, our own City Hall, and other taller buildings where a tower truck is a strategic asset. And that is even before it responds to support PWC – just look at the buildings going up down at Dumfries exit in that “Quantico Park” and there is the secondary justification for it.
Especially an asset when you have a blaze requiring distance and height..and as I learned years ago, that comes in handy when dealing with a chemical fire. I for one support the truck, and have written a letter.
July 2, 2009 at 2:46 pm
” MANASSAS PURCHASES NEW FIRE APPARATUS!
The Manassas Council last night voted to purchase a piece of fire
apparatus from the Buffalo Fire Appliance Company of
Buffalo, N.Y. which will be equipped with a 500-gallon pumper,
foam generator for gasoline fires and a 100-gallon booster tank.
This equipment is similar to that used in many first class
cities around the country and it is believed will give Manassas
and environs that measure of fire protection which has been
lacking for so many years.
The equipment will be delivered in sixty days and cost the
town $5,000.
After years of toil and tribulation the Manassas Volunteer
Fire Company will now have modern tools to fight fires.
Fire Chief Albert Speiden last night expressed to the council
his satisfaction over their action on the purchase issue which
has been ‘hanging ‘ for months and promised the full
cooperation of the recently reorganized fire company in
giving Manassas the best fire fighting organization in Virginia.”
The Manassas Journal
June 27, 1929
(The councilman who made the motion to buy the truck
was Edgar G. Parrish, the grandfather of current Mayor
Hal Parrish)
And eighty years later —
July 2, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Hey Steve,I believe they still have that 29 Buffalo! I think the 46 and the 09 too! Wow, that 09 is a hundred years old now!!!