Upset about Alameda? It’s just the tip of the iceberg

FireFighterCloseCalls.com

Everyone “and their brother” (I love that term) is upset about Firefighters in California watching a suicidal man head into the San Francisco Bay — to drown. If you are not aware of it by now, on Memorial Day, in Alameda, CA, 52-year-old Raymond Zack walked fully clothed into water up to his neck and ended up floating face down an hour later. The “world” has been outraged every since.

“How could the firefighters stand on the shore and not react!?!” — screamed the public! Interim AFD Fire Chief Mike D’Orazi stated department policy precludes his Firefighters from attempting water rescues because they aren’t trained to do water rescues. Makes sense-to us — but not the public.

On the other hand, we have all done stuff that we are not trained to do-resulting in good and bad outcomes.

But it’s a good rule of thumb — unless you are trained and certified, don’t do it.

The bigger issue for us though is the discussion they had out there on FUNDING. Funding for Firefighter water-rescue training, which was CUT from the Alameda budget in 2009, training funding that would have probably helped.

Others have also added psychiatric care would have stopped the suicide of Mr. Zack. Maybe. But the fact is, he went into the water and the FD was unable to get him out — for relatively valid reasons: the training budget was cut and they no longer provide water rescue services.

Another “penny wise and pound foolish” decision by city hall dwellers — most likely responding to public cries of “lower the budget-cut the taxes. “

A good reminder to any and all fire and local officials: when “it” (whatever “it” is) is being considered to be cut from the budget, make it crystal clear (publicly) what impact it will have on those who call 9-1-1.

We keep seeing budgets cut — BIG BUDGET CUTS — but we keep reading “it won’t affect services” or “response times will be the same.”

Stop the BS. While there are some areas where some budgets can be cut — “here and there” — at some point, when the budget is cut to the bone, the public saves a few bucks a year but survivability (ours included), services and response times are affected.

If you can fix that thru alternative responses such as thru collaborative services with neighboring FDs, great — but if that is not an option or if time delays will be a part of the solution — let’m know the truth.

Anything else is BS. If the public and city hall dwellers want budgets cut to save money, they need to honestly and factually be told what it will and will not impact. No emotion. Pure factual honesty required at all levels.

As the impacts of budget cuts continue to be enacted, similar “WTF!?, you mean the budget cuts actually impacted fire rescue services!!?” awareness will continue to upset, shock and directly impact the ability to help the public, when they are having a really bad day.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. What a FD can do and what it cannot do, based upon training and funding, is a public decision. Being factual without BS in making them understand what cuts truly mean (after making sure our budgets are squeaky clean) is our responsibility.

There are numerous “Alamedas” out there just waiting for someone to call 9-1-1 expecting one thing, but getting another. Budget cuts to the FD without impacting the public? Don’t be silly.