Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
Copyright 2006 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
Letter to the Editor
Re: “Sounding the alarm: Firefighters’ low pay cited in low morale, exodus,” Page 1, Aug. 18.
Saturday I received the phone call that a firefighter’s wife dreads. Tulane Emergency Center called and informed me that my husband, a New Orleans firefighter, was injured in a fire.
My husband was one of the firefighters who fell through the whole in the floor while fighting the five alarm fire downtown. He ended up with a dislocated shoulder, and at this point we don’t know if he will need surgery.
My husband was the second firefighter to fall through a hole. The first firefighter that fell through tried to radio to the others to warn them of the hole and the radios failed to work. Once my husband fell through, the firefighters above him could not call for help because they did not have radios.
The fire department does not have enough radios for each man to have one. My husband’s accident could have been avoided if the city would provided the firemen with proper equipment and equipment that works.
As I look back at the mayor’s decision to bypass the firefighters (again) for a pay raise, it just makes me sick.
But yet, the mayor paid the former information technology director at City Hall a six-digit salary — and he had equipment that worked. These firefighters are dedicated people who give their all and put their lives on the line every time that alarm goes off.