Operation Open Your Eyes

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Members

This morning, I made a phone call to a retired FDNY Firefighter who lives in the Fort Lauderdale area. I connected with him though another retired FDNY firefighter that I am friends with. His mission is to help the rural volunteer departments of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and didn't have much to begin with. He’s gone up there and helped them in numerous ways- securing donated apparatus that he refurbishes himself; donating supplies he has to beat the bushes for, and goes up there and trains them on the equipment. He's constantly trying to aqquire more for these disavantaged departments right here in the United States Of America.

I hope you will take a moment to hear me out.

When many departments dispose of apparatus, they either sell it via auction, or in some cases, donate it. Many departments choose to donate their apparatus to some foreign country, where the person (chief and others) that donate it and go down there are made out to be kings…they have streets named after them, have the best place in town to stay whenever they want, etc. A lot can be traced to politics and under the table moves. Some even send perfectly good apparatus to Brookfield Wreckers for scrap metal, or sell them to a used fire apparatus dealer who will take them and export them for triple the profit.

However, there are many departments IN OUR OWN COUNTRY that need equipment desperately. When I am better, I have been invited down to document in photos these departments, how the operate, the devastation they suffered, and the neglect by the government to this day.

Let me give you a couple of scenarios.

-Just a few weeks ago, Rosenbaeur shipped 15 Engines to Halliburton, to serve FD’s in Iraq. (Halliburton, who, by the way, is moving their corporate headquarters to Dubai in the Middle East to avoid paying taxes on their HUGE contracts awarded by the US to “rebuild” Iraq). OK, so we can send 15 BRAND NEW fire engines overseas, that probably will get blown up at some point anyways, but we have departments in our own country that are operating, for example, with a 1966, yes Nineteen Sixty Six American Lafrance Pumper that's on it's last legs and is pushed to its limits and then some as their sole front line apparatus-when they also, besides modern apparatus, need a tanker and aerial, in some communties and ambulance and rescue truck, not to mention so much more..

-Morning Pride has a contract to supply thousands of sets of brand new turnout gear to Halliburton and Iraq FD’s. Meanwhile, these departments in the states mentioned above, consider themselves “lucky” to have 3 sets of full turnout gear.

- A typical PAID firefighter in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana makes $9.50 AN HOUR to start, and it doesn’t go up much. An overnight stock boy at Wal-Marts in the same area make $15.90 an hour.

- Departments, such as Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Los Angeles, FDNY, and many departments across the nation have ignored pleas to send their apparatus, Fire PD or EMS, to these departments, instead sending their apparatus to departments in South America. Liability is not the issue- there was a federal law passed that any department that donates equipment for emergency services cannot be held liable.

-Prosperous departments routinely get money to purchase more and redundant equipmen that uneccasrily duplicates what they have- thermal imaging cameras, extrication equipment, smoke trailers, AED’s, etc. Meanwhile, there are departments in the US that are in desperate need of HOSE and other firefighter essentials. There's a town in Mississipi that had three fire deaths last year....yet they have applied and applied for grants for a thermal imager and other essential equipment....yet have gotten $0 every time. Meanwhile, some of the communties mentioned above have no fires, yet an arsenal that would be more then needed for any fire, ever, in their or neighboring jurisdictions.

-Many fire departments are packrats. How many departments have back rooms filled with gear and equipment they don’t need or use anymore, and probably won’t in the future?

-Departments in these areas have a code that new buildings need to be a minimum of three stories due to flooding, yet the nearest aerial or good compliment of ground ladders is over 40 minutes away. There is no or poor hydrant systems, so tankers are crudely built using whatever materials they can find.

-Imagine you were driving through some of these communties on your way to vacation or whatever, and gf, got into an accident and were pinned, and needed the help of these disadvanted departments that don't have extrication equipment, EMS training much less an ambulance, and have to wait for a tool to come from 40 minutes away and wait for the next available helicopter to come and START first response medical care and then to take you to the hospital since there is no ambulance to do so.

-And the list goes on........

How much sense does the above make to you? We’re all worried about “homeland security” and preparedness, but we’re turning a cold shoulder to departments in our own country that our in desperate need of apparatus, equipment, and training. Instead of keeping the apparatus and equipment in our own country, and keeping every community safe and protected, we’re sending it out of the country while our OWN fellow citizens suffer.

Did you know that Mississippi is one of several states that doesn’t require communities to provide fire or EMS. Also, Fire Departments there can’t do EMS. Many of these guys form rogue FD's themselves to protect their community. Where are the unions, where are the Volunteer Fire associations to help these people? We do MDA boot drives, have huge convention parades that costs thousands of dollars, car shows, and other events, yet how many benefit charities that help our own?

It was once said to me by someone who is very pro-career and I QUOTE "Ideally every community, even the smallest, should have a full professional paid force, much like Law Enforcment, but the Volunteers exist and at least we can do is make sure they are just as well equipped and trained as we are".

Sure, when there’s a disaster we’re quick to send help and money…..and the Metro NY area and nation did that after Katrina. But how quickly we forget……..imagine having a disaster in your community, and two years later having truckloads of supplies that you need drive right through your town to a port to go to a foreign country.

In the coming week, I hope to launch a grassroots campaign that gets my new friend Patrick’s mission across…..a federal law that mandates departments, when they dispose of equipment, that they donate it to a place that’s in need in our own country. My eyes were opened today, and we seriously need to start helping OUR OWN in OUR OWN COUNTRY. Sure, it’s nice to help around the world….but we need to worry about our own communities-and people- first and foremost!

I sincerely hope that some of you on this forum will help me out with this. More information on this initiative will be announced later this week on EMTBravo.com.

-Seth

[grumpyff 1,159]

Seth,

I wish you good luck with this, our brothers down there have taken a beating, and like you said have been forgotton about. Even before Katrina, most of these departments down there had very little. Unfortunately some of the departments (commissioners/trustees) up here are worried about liability, or having to justify the disposing of department resources in a way that benefits their department. Sure some companies up here have sent equipment (Patterson sent its old 22-2-4 a 1970's engine, as did Lake Carmel I believe). Others sold retired apparatus to Brookfield, and told their members it was being sent overseas. I know Pleasantville's old R-47 (1980 Hahn) sat at Brookfield for months. I had finally convinced my wife to let me buy it, but it was to late. It is no longer there, my wife called, and was told it was sold. I called and was told it was cut up and sold overseas for scrap. I know Brookfield tries to make a profit where it can, but perhaps they could have used the good publicity if they had donated it to somewhere. I remember the Rported Dispatch ( Journal News now) did a story back in the late 80's/early 90's on how Brookfield picked up, delivered and then picked up again cars to the Fire Training Center to allow firefighters to train on car fires/ extrication. Also remember there are others close to home that are less fortunate. I belong to a Hahn Fire Apparatus group over on Yahoo. I spoke with a guy from Pennsylvannia whose department's annual budget was only $25,000. Their rescue was a converted F-350 that was overloaded. Brookfield was asking $5,000 for the old R-47, but there was no way that department could swing that kind of money. It is truly disgusting that we have allowed other departments to have to operate this way.

[Goose 188]

Seth,

Sound's like a noble project to me. I don't agree with the politics all that much, as i don't see the issue as cut and dry. Aside from that, i would like to see some more local help being brought to these guys. We are pretty damn spoiled as far as budgets, as Grumpy duly noted, and should bee more in tune with whats going on down there. There are a number of departments that have recently turned around new apparatus, maybe under the proper pressure they would be apt to help out? I would be happy to help however i can. Let me know Bro.

[AFS1970 504]

This has been a pet peeve of mine for some time now. Why is it we will donate equipment to another country and then sit back and feel all warm and fuzzy about ourselves and how we helped the poor, while there are departments that are in many cases much more deserving of our donations right here in the USA. I hope this latest effort gets off to a good start, I would love to help any way I can.

Now some of the efforts to do this in the past were not administered as well as they could have been. I have tried to donate twice to groups that would get the materials to US Fire Departments. Once we boxed up several sets of Turnout Gear that we were no longer using. They were older but in good repair and didn't fit any current member. I contacted one charity that told me to wait and they would contact me when they were going to have a truck in the state. After a year sitting in the attic, that gear ended up in the dumpster. A second time I tried to donate an Engine. I did get a call back and was told the engine would be much appreciated, all my department had to do was hire a flatbed hauler at our expense and have it delivered to the charity in question. We ended up selling it to a local collector, who is letting it rot away in a parking lot in the next town.

There obviously needs to be a better method to get the needed equipment to the departments in question. And there needs to be a way to convince departments with surplus stuff, that it is better to give it away than to sell it.