LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Credibility
I found it ironic that Peter G. Sparber’s article (Capitol Connection) in the March issue was titled “Credibility.” In my opinion, it was unfair to compare the Rodney King incident to firefighter arson. While it appears that the Los Angeles police officers were wrong, up until this time (at press time), they have not been convicted of a crime.
The fire service needs the cooperation of police officers. Degrading these officers in a national fire publication will not help firefighters in gaining police assistance. I don’t want to read a police magazine criticizing firefighters and suspect police officers demand the same treatment.
1 believe Sparber lost his “credibility” when he passed judgment on the police officers. We should confine our attention to fire problems and let the legal system handle police problems.
Ross Montelbano
Sbrei ‘eport, Lou isiana
I certainly agree with most of Sparber’s article “Credibility.” However, his comparing a firefighter intentionally setting fires with the Rodney King beating case is ludicrous. The Los Angeles police officers were attempting to subdue a violent felon who admitted that he did not want to go back to prison. The officers’ frame of mind was such that they were afraid that this person would do them great bodily harm. Arsonists generally are not in fear of their lives, and their crimes usually are committed against property, not people.
I also would like to point out that the officers were acquitted in state court and the federal trial has not yet been concluded (at press time). Let’s be fair to these police officers and wait for the verdict to come in.
Tom Hutchinson
Fire Safety Specialist
Riverside County (CA) Fire
Department
I agree that we need to be aware of certain issues and guard against them, but 1 must rise to the defense of those who are maligned through innuendo and generalization.
Peter Sparber’s article on credibility was demeaning and paints hundreds of thousands of dedicated public servants with a tainted brush. If Sparber is unaware of any other branch of government that hasn’t made significant strides in minority recruitment, he should look at the judiciary. When he is done with that, a look at the legislative branch would be in order.
Sparber reports that the people he talks to all have a story about firefighters who set fires. It takes only one active arsonist to make our local statistics look bad, and he doesn’t believe the “few bad apples” theory. If he divides the actual number of firefighter arsonists by the number of firefighters (both full and part-time), he will not come up with an epidemic. I doubt that the numbers would be statistically significant.
The same holds true with regard to firefighters as polluters. Once again a few stories are used to create an issue. There are thousands of fire departments doing their best to keep up with the plethora of rules and regulations, all promulgated without the necessary funding to earn7 them out.
Let’s address the issues as they arise and clean our own houses —but remember, the good guys still outnumber the bad guys.
James Jenkins
Director of Public Safety
Springfield, Michigan
Peter G. Sparber responds: I agree, in part, with the folks who are upset by my use of the Rodney King incident. The Los Angeles police involved in that incident are indeed innocent until proven quilty; in no way did I mean to sene as judge and jury. However—as that incident clearly shows —the court of public opinion can be a lot rougher than America’s judicial system. When firefighters commit arson, they risk losing the public confidence, much in the same way as when police officers abuse the public trust.
As for my exaggerating the problem of arson by firefighters, I visit with fire officials almost every week of the year and have done so in all but one state, which I will visit this summer. For the past two years, I have regularly asked if firefighter arson is a problem. I have yet to be told it isn’t. And 1 get examples all of the time.
Regarding job discrimination in the fire service, I could write a year’s worth of well-documented columns on the subject.
But the whole point of my column was that the fire service should be honest about its problems, deal with them, and avoid losing credibility, a loss that has crippled most other institutions.
Some things take a long time
In 1953 I was chief of safety and fire protection for the Atomic Energy Commission’s (AEC) New York operations. At Cambridge, Massachusetts, the AEC owned an old ice cream factory, the Hood Building, in which MIT did very important work. The safety of the occupants depended entirely on the sprinkler system. I required that the building be evacuated when the sprinklers were shut off. The building was never evacuated, but sprinkler work was done at night. AEC auditors who complained about “overtime for plumbers” were satisfied when the alternative, sending everybody home, was pointed out.
I since have carried on this campaign in my fire loss management programs for AEC and its successor, the Department of Energy. I hit it several times in the second edition of Building Construction for the Fire Sendee in 1981 and stressed it in Fire Engineering in 1985 in “Automatic Sprinklers, Prelude to Disaster?”; in the Fire Loss Management series, which ran in Fire Engineering from 1989 to 1991; and in the recently published third edition of Building Construction for the Fire Service.
Behold, the 1991 edition of the National Fire Protection Association Life Safety Code contains the following amendment (Pr. 31-1-3.6, page 231): “When a required automatic sprinkler system is out of service for more than four hours in a 24-hour period, the building shall be evacuated, or an approved fire watch shall be provided for all portions left unprotected by the sprinkler system shutdown until the sprinkler system has been returned to service.”
The amendment would permit shutting dow n a sprinkler system in a shopping mall for four hours during the Christmas shopping rush. Note that Appendix A-1-7.3 reports that fatal fires have occurred when sprinklers were shut off. A fire marshal faced with a legalistic, letter-of-thelaw’ mall operator should fall back on the principle expressed in the third edition of Building Construction for the Fire Service, pages 584-5. When the sprinklers are out of service, the building lacks sufficient exits. (Sprinklered buildings are allowed fewer exits.) There would be no hesitance in evacuating the mall if a bomb threat had been received.
Fire departments should discuss this serious matter with owners of facilities required to be sprinklered for life safety before a problem arises, so that it is understood that such work must be done in off hours.
Francis L. Brannigan
SFPE
Port Republic, Maryland
Cover photos os educational aids
The explanation of the photo on your March 1993 cover was right. Education is what will prevent this from happening. Part of my job with the limestone Fire Department is just that, public education. I am always looking for educational aids that will help me with that job. Photos like the photo on your March cover help me not only with children but with their older brothers and sisters and parents.
1 have been getting Fire Engineer- ing for more than six years now. The different topics you cover each month, in addition to your regular sections, are excellent. I try to read several different publications each month, but 1 know that Fire Engineering will always have the best articles. Please keep up the good work!
Jeff Schaeffer
Captain
Limestone (IL) Fire Department
Brake adjustment
The diagram accompanying the article “Brake Adjustment, Within an Inch of Your Life” by William C. Peters in the March issue is misleading and conveys the wrong information to your readers. In the diagram on page 30, the brake is at rest with the angle of the pushrod and the slack adjuster arm at 90 degrees. With stroke added (brake applied), the diagram shows the slack adjuster arm pushed forward with the angle between the push rod and slack adjuster at less than 90 degrees.
The most efficient angle for leverage to exert torque on the camshaft is 90 degrees. Movement of the slack adjuster arm beyond the centerline drastically reduces the brake effectiveness, as it shortens the effective length of the lever. Such a condition calls for readjustment of the brake.
Bill Bramstedt
Chief
Cosmopolis (WA) Fire Department
William C. Peters responds: The point made by Chief Bramstedt is well taken; however, the purpose of including the drawing (copied as shown from the quoted Department of Transportation pamphlet) was only to illustrate measuring the stroke travel distance.
The reader is advised several times to thoroughly read and understand the technical publications provided by the manufacturer, as tolerances and inspection procedures are outlined for each individual vehicle.
I apologize if any confusion was created by the use of this generic illustration.
