Elections and Officers Requirements

[firemoose827 324]

Another issue that some may not consider is the liability. If I wasn't properly trained (that is a loose term, because there is no concrete requirement that is standard for officers) I wouldn't want to run.

Reason being, : If you sent a crew into a fire and something goes wrong, lets say a flashover for arguments sake. You have members that got hurt and now this is being investigated, If you have 7 years with a boatload of training and 40% attendance, this will be considered an accident and insurance kicks in and it takes its normal course.

If you have 1 year of 20% attendance and FF1 and 1 or 2 more and the same situation occurs, you can and will be held personally liable for endangering your crew by making a decision that you are not properly trained to make

This is exactly what concerns me with this new assist chief...hes very inexperienced and has no Haz-Mat, AVET or rescue training so if he rolls to an MVA MCI incident with multiple injuries, a few fatalities, and multiple people yelling for him to do something...I dont see him making the right decisions and that could hurt our department, the people we serve and even hurt him in the long run. We cover a dangerous section of State Route 20, with two lane sections and hills and turns...we have a fatal a year on this road and we do extricate quite more than I would like to. Yet now we have officers, of whom only one or two actually have the AVET to make life or death decisions regarding extrication.

Fires...I dont feel like they will be able to make those decisions for fires either, even though he has Level 2 firefighter now, he still has not gone out with that training and applied it with officers and senior firefighers and gained real time experience at real fires and MVA's and rescue calls...he wont be able to do it.

And I am worried about him too, not just the people. If he makes bad decisions and ends up killing someone, especially one of our own, he will have to live with it the rest of his life and he wont be the same firefighter he could have been with the right experience in the right time frame...

But, he was around a lot, showed up to drills and worknights, was fee during the week day a lot to run rigs for inspections and maintenance so he buttered up to the chief. His mother was our chief for a few years as well so that helped him too. So he got voted in and other more experienced and trained people did not...The system is beyond broken and beyond repair, it needs a total overhaul.