That Houston lost four of its firefighters and had several others injured is bad enough. Yet two stories out of the Houston area seem to compound that injury with insult.
And while the thieves in these incidents probably didn’t connect the dots, the victims — firefighters — did. These incidents seem to defy human decency.
The first story comes out of Sugarland, Texas, and involves an off-duty Houston firefighter who was standing guard over one of the four fallen firefighter’s bodies at a funeral home. While inside, a thief broke into his vehicle and made off with more than $3,000 worth of computers, tablets, etc.
The second story comes out of Liberty County, northeast of Houston. The Moss Bluff Volunteer fire chief returned to the station to find that it had been completely stripped of all salvageable metal. The thieves had cut through the sheet-metal wall and made off with everything including hose couplings, vehicle batteries, fire pump, a generator, and even the air conditioning unit.
The Moss Bluff Volunteer Fire Department’s station was uninsured and is out of commission. And as Chief John Wilson said, “It’s going to take a lot of barbeques and fund raisers” to get the department rolling again.
The Houston firefighter faired a little better thanks to the responding police officer. The officer was so moved by the theft that he used Facebook to raise money to replace the firefighter’s stolen belongings. When enough money could not be raised, the officer opened his wallet and kicked in the rest.
As firefighters, we often see people having one of the worst days of their lives. But those worst days are generally brought on by accident or negligence, and rarely by malice. The careless smoker or cook is probably not an inherently bad person.
It is easy for us to believe that people are inherently good — and most are. Yet it is incidents like these that remind us that there is no honor among thieves. How often have you heard of thieves who scour the obituaries to burgle the homes of the deceased during a wake or funeral?
The moral to the story is hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Take the time to check your fire station for potential security gaps, carry insurance, lock your POV doors at the station, and so on.
Even in times of great tragedy, there will always be those with no sense of decency.
