“Fighting Fires with Words,” Editor`s Opinion, January 1997
Name Withheld
After reading Bill Manning`s editorial, I was all too familiar with the feelings he expressed and those of the members of other departments who are now faced with having EMS policies forced on them.
At the present time, our department is making firefighters respond to “Oxygen Calls” without having been trained. There is a list of 19 applications for oxygen, varying from childbirth to asthma. Company members are greatly distressed over this lack of concern for our brother firefighters in the sense that the ranking officials who oversee the department members have placed us in such danger without training or explanation–not to mention the lack of respect these men are showing to the public we are dedicated to serve and protect.
If there is any information that may be of help or anyone who might help in this matter, please contact me at Trkman @ aol.com. We are trying to inform other firefighters within our department, EMS personnel whose jobs will certainly be affected, the public, and–the hardest of all–our own union leadership and the politicians with whom they seem to bed down.
Thank you very much, and I applaud the opinion you have expressed. Finally, [there`s] someone who is not afraid to speak up ….
