KAMPRAD SAYS NO!
FORUM
Increasing costs caused by the soaring rate of inflation has caused all municipalities the same problem of continuing to provide the services their taxpayers have become accustomed to expect. With fewer tax dollars to cover increased costs, the idea that fire fighters and police officers could work as a unit of public safety is not now a concept. It has been tried in a number of communities with varying degrees of success or failure.
But there are some problems: If police and fire personnel were combined and someone wanted to commit a major robbery, all they have to do is set several fires to to dwindle manpower. The services provided by a professional police officer require three or four years of training. The same is true of a fire fighter. With the increased use of many new materials involved in construction of home furnishings, the problems attendant to proper ventilation of fires occurring in high-rise properties, the knowledge of hydraulics needed to develop proper fire streams, the ability to use the many varied tools for extrication, ventilaltion, life rescue, etc., is definitely a full-time occupation. The days of horseshoe games and checkers passed away with the horse-cirawn equipment. Any fire chief of any community, large or small, is expected to have administrative abilities to cope with personnel management, union negotiations, budget preparation to say nothing about preparations of specifications for new equipment, enactment of a first class fire code and seeing to it that said code is properly enforced.
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KAMPRAD
In the operation of today’s fire departments a routine day of work for a fire fighter would consist of two or three hours of maintenance work both on the fire station and the apparatus and equipment. This would be followed by three hours of inspection of commercial properties in the respective districts, return to quarters for lunch and into two or three hours of inservice training. The above described activity is necessary for the members to maintain a knowledge of the buildings in their response district and a current knowledge of the latest techniques available to perform a more professional job.
A police officer must receive the necessary training to successfully perform the duties of his assignment. How can one person perform both duties? From the above, I’m sure you have understood my position as being opposed to the consolidation of police and fire service.
If I may respond to meeting the desire of city managers in regard to reducing costs by consolidation of services in other areas, I would like to point out the success of fire suppression, fire prevention and emergency medical service being carried on in many municipalities under the command and control of the fire chief. This has been proven to be a successful program.
The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) was invited to provide its comments on the consolidation issue. No response had been received by press time.
