Bill Manning certainly has taken a negative attitude toward buzzwords.
Rod Carringer
Former Chief
Center Township Fire and Rescue
La Porte, Indiana
It concerns me that he places focus on buzzwords as if they somehow dictate philosophy and direction within progressive fire suppression and emergency services agencies.
Certainly, buzzwords have been around for a long time. “Ya know,” “can-man,” “quad,” “quint,” “leather lunger,” “pipe-man,” and many other colloquialisms have left their mark over the years in fire service conversations. My question is, What do these words have to do with me and the guys on the rig pulling a line on the next burner? The answer is “Plenty.”
We have customers, we have a strategic plan, and we even do long-term planning. Why? It`s all in an effort to provide the highest level of emergency services we can to our neighbors. They expect the best, and if we can`t provide it, we have only ourselves to blame. No whining or crying about the fact that folks like you degrade those whom we revere and hold in esteem for the work they have accomplished over the years. No moaning about the articles in Fire Engineering that have no technical oversight and encourage acts known to be unsafe and impractical. The bottom line is that folks like you and others who put down and ignore modern firefighting methodology will soon be gone. But, years from now when no one remembers your name, Center Fire and Rescue will be providing the best customer service that it possibly can.
We use neither buzzwords nor terminology to add to the “glamour” of what we do everyday. It is an unglamorous business filled with a lot of manual labor and all sorts of dangers, but this is our community and these are our neighbors, and we are responsible. The buzzwords and industry demigods Manning has attacked have done many times more good for the growth of our department than Fire Engineering ever could ….
The same buzzwords he throws in the trash are used everyday in businesses that have made this country great. We can only hope that they will equally inspire us ….
