A few months ago I wrote a column entitled “When Marketing Fails” (http://www.volunteerfd.org/archive/mcnamara.php ) For those of you who do not remember, it was the story of Marty McNamara, a volunteer firefighter who lost his life in the line of duty in Lancaster MA. While the loss of any firefighter is a tragedy, what made this even worse was the fact that town of Lancaster MA voted to NOT give McNamara’s family health insurance and death benefits.
The reason why this became an issue was that Lancaster’s legislation provides for a benefit in the case of a permanent disability of a call firefighter, but not in case of death. Conversely, Lancaster is required by state legislation to pay a full time firefighter’s widow his full salary annually if he lost his life in the line of duty.
After writing the initial article, I have heard dozens of stories of firefighters who were disabled or died in the line of duty and received little or nothing. It turns out it is a much larger issue. In the initial article I stated that there should be a state or federal program to assure this doesn’t happen again and that is exactly what happened.
From http://www.mcvfa.org/home.php?12,,113223,mcv113223,,,Index,leg.html “The MCVFA in cooperation with the Town of Lancaster, Fire Chiefs’ Association of Massachusetts, Corps of Fire Chaplains, Massachusetts Municipal Association, Lancaster area legislators, and career firefighters have drafted and filed comprehensive legislation to provide a survivor’s annuity to the surviving spouse and minor children of any call/volunteer firefighter who is killed in the line-of-duty.”
The bill summary is available at http://www.ci.lancaster.ma.us/fpedd_taskforce/bill_summary_one_page.pdf and the entire text at http://www.mcvfa.org/pdf/mcnamarabill.pdf. The bill is well developed and detailed and a program that can be duplicated in states across the US.
The concept is simple. When the bill passes, the State of Massachusetts will develop the “Volunteer Public Safety Risk Pool”. The first year the fund will need $2 million and in upcoming years $1 million. These funds will be raised by the communities who have volunteer, paid on call, or other such police, fire and/or EMS members. The amount levied for each area will be based upon the population served and the number of public service members.
Once the fund is set up, the Risk Pool will pay out an amount equal to the first year’s yearly salary of a similar public service officer. The provisions actually apply the same for Fire, EMS, or Police volunteers who are disabled or die in the line of duty. Communities are also allowed to extend health benefits to the spouse and dependent children of the fallen officer.
Now this is a step in the right direction. My last article was entitled “When Marketing Fails”. Hopefully my next one on this topic will be “Doing the Right Thing”. Departments in Massachusetts and throughout the US need to band together and make sure this bill passes, and Marty McNamara’s family and others are taken care of. We are a brotherhood, its time to act like one.
Discuss this column at: http://www.volunteerfd.org/phorum/read.php?f=20&i=325&t=325
A few months ago I wrote a column entitled “When Marketing Fails” (http://www.volunteerfd.org/archive/mcnamara.php ) For those of you who do not remember, it was the story of Marty McNamara, a volunteer firefighter who lost his life in the line of duty in Lancaster MA. While the loss of any firefighter is a tragedy, what made this even worse was the fact that town of Lancaster MA voted to NOT give McNamara’s family health insurance and death benefits.The reason why this became an issue was that Lancaster’s legislation provides for a benefit in the case of a permanent disability of a call firefighter, but not in case of death. Conversely, Lancaster is required by state legislation to pay a full time firefighter’s widow his full salary annually if he lost his life in the line of duty. After writing the initial article, I have heard dozens of stories of firefighters who were disabled or died in the line of duty and received little or nothing. It turns out it is a much larger issue. In the initial article I stated that there should be a state or federal program to assure this doesn’t happen again and that is exactly what happened.From http://www.mcvfa.org/home.php?12,,113223,mcv113223,,,Index,leg.html “The MCVFA in cooperation with the Town of Lancaster, Fire Chiefs’ Association of Massachusetts, Corps of Fire Chaplains, Massachusetts Municipal Association, Lancaster area legislators, and career firefighters have drafted and filed comprehensive legislation to provide a survivor’s annuity to the surviving spouse and minor children of any call/volunteer firefighter who is killed in the line-of-duty.” The bill summary is available at http://www.ci.lancaster.ma.us/fpedd_taskforce/bill_summary_one_page.pdf and the entire text at http://www.mcvfa.org/pdf/mcnamarabill.pdf. The bill is well developed and detailed and a program that can be duplicated in states across the US.The concept is simple. When the bill passes, the State of Massachusetts will develop the “Volunteer Public Safety Risk Pool”. The first year the fund will need $2 million and in upcoming years $1 million. These funds will be raised by the communities who have volunteer, paid on call, or other such police, fire and/or EMS members. The amount levied for each area will be based upon the population served and the number of public service members.Once the fund is set up, the Risk Pool will pay out an amount equal to the first year’s yearly salary of a similar public service officer. The provisions actually apply the same for Fire, EMS, or Police volunteers who are disabled or die in the line of duty. Communities are also allowed to extend health benefits to the spouse and dependent children of the fallen officer. Now this is a step in the right direction. My last article was entitled “When Marketing Fails”. Hopefully my next one on this topic will be “Doing the Right Thing”. Departments in Massachusetts and throughout the US need to band together and make sure this bill passes, and Marty McNamara’s family and others are taken care of. We are a brotherhood, its time to act like one.Discuss this column at: http://www.volunteerfd.org/phorum/read.php?f=20&i=325&t=325