Kudos to Bill Manning`s Editor`s Opinion (May 1998).
William F. Crapo
Captain (Retired)
District of Columbia Fire Department
The entire article is a scathing indictment of the current state of the fire service in the United States. The current fire service leadership is more worried about whether we are serving citizens vs. customers than in addressing the real issues and needs of the service.
I would like to make a couple of points, however. The first one concerns the make-up of the blue ribbon panel that FEMA Director James Lee Witt is calling for to examine the USFA/NFA. Manning says, “Let us hope the fire service elite drafted for the mission step up to the plate for Joe Firefighter.” My concern is that this panel will be made up of the current fire service “elite.” They are the very people who are responsible for our being in our present mess. To draft them for the panel would be tantamount to asking the fox to guard the henhouse. What are needed on the panel are individuals who are not in the mainstream. We need rogues and mavericks on this panel. People who are not afraid to tell others what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear. People like, well, Bill Manning!
The next point is more general but very much to the point of this lack of leadership–that is, the volunteer firefighters of this nation. They need to come together as a whole. Currently, each individual volunteer department guards its individual identity so closely that there is only symbolic unity. I know of too many volunteer departments that won`t even attempt to establish common fireground SOPs, dispatch protocols, and so on, to improve efficiency on the fireground. They fail to see any common needs even within the same jurisdiction. If there can be no unity within a county or borough or parish or whatever, how can there be any unity or agreement of what is needed on a national scale? (And my fear is that most don`t care as long as they maintain their own individual kingdom!) And since they represent such a large segment of the U.S. fire service, they must take the lion`s share of responsibility for the current state of affairs. It`s time for the volunteer firefighters of this nation to start acting with the interests of the citizens or customers (or whatever) in mind U.
The fire service as a whole has a golden opportunity in front of it. Unless we are ready to forget the attitudes of the past 25 years and truly pull together, we will be having this exact same conversation another 25 years from now. So, what will it be: Step up to the plate and hit a home run? Or strike out U again?
