Boston (MA) Fire Marshal Bart Shea testified in a hearing about the Occupy Boston movement on Thursday, expressing his concern for the safety and well-being of the protestors, who are currently encamped at Dewey Square in the city.
“People need to be removed from that site immediately if the court allows,” Boston Fire Marshal Bart Shea testified, according to a report from Bloomberg (http://buswk.co/rOweWJ). “Every day that place is occupied, I fear for the life and safety of everyone on that property.”
Shea also admitted, however, that before to the city’s court filings last Tuesday, the fire department had never properly delivered a written notice to Occupy Boston protestors expressing the depths of this concern, a report from Boston.com noted (http://bo.st/spX7By).
Occupy protests have gone on for several months now in cities across the United States, from New York to Los Angeles, with sporadic arrests and occasional–though so far not lethal–violence invovling encamped protestors and police. Boston has not experienced a high degree of uproar over the movement.
Thus far, firefighters have not notably been involved in response to Occupy Wall Street and its associated protests, however firefighters and paramedics must always be prepared to deal with the consequences of civil unrest, such as the possibility of multi-casualty incidents, potential conflagration, and so forth. Download a free training program for firefighters and EMS workers on civil unrest courtesy of the Firefighters Support Foundation HERE.
