Since when is it a crime to make sure firefighters on the fireground for 7 hours have something to eat?
A fire chief in California was recently confronted by a woman upset the chief bought $23.96 worth of cookies at the local Safeway. According to the East County Today, East Contra Costa Fire Chief Hugh Henderson says the woman didn’t back down as he explained the cookies, 30 turkey sandwiches, Gatorade and chips were for firefighters who had been fighting a house fire. Some of the firefighters were on the fireground for more than seven hours.
The paper reports it’s SOP to make sure the firefighters are fed if they are at an incident for more than four hours. The woman apparently thought this is not a good use of her tax dollars. Unfortunately she’s not alone.
Every community has people like this. They seem to be growing in numbers and they’re often not shy about confronting fire chiefs and firefighters about what they believe is waste. Remember the guy, above, who got in the face of Butte County, California firefighters who stopped at a grocery store (this time spending their own money)?
We’ve run plenty of similar stories: the Florida politician who tailed firefighters and found them stopping to pick up food; the man in Nevada who complained about firefighters going to the gym and getting to sleep on the job; the Brooklyn man who thought he had a 60 Minutes worthy story when he recorded firefighters buying groceries.
This may be the natural fallout from political movements that make you believe much, or all, of government, be it local, state or federal, is big, bad and bloated. For some who feel this way, the fire service is nothing special. Just another lousy government agency. They’ve become penny wise and pound foolish watchdogs that fail to step back and look at the greater good.
The nice part about the East Contra Costa story is that local restaurant owner Nazanin Fazli heard about the cranky anti-cookie woman and cooked up an Afghan dinner for every firefighter on duty at all three stations. We need more people like her.
But the downside remains. It extends well beyond runs to the grocery store. In St. Louis recently, a police department consultant thought firefighters had so much down time they could also be cops. Then there is op-ed column we shared from The Washington Post written by a libertarian professor who believes career firefighters in large departments can easily be replaced by volunteers.
I promise you this is not a thinly-veiled swipe against all those who believe in small government. Instead, my point-of-view is 100 per-cent pro-firefighter. This comes from someone who understands the value of having a well-staffed, well-trained fire department with appropriate resources.
There are a lot of firefighters who support downsizing government and back politicians who will move us in that direction. Unfortunately collateral damage from this concept goes well beyond complaints about cookies. It’s the same ideology that has so many in Congress failing to do right by the victims of 9/11 by withholding their support in extending and properly funding the Zagroda Act.
We can all find fault with politicians on the right, the left and center. Very, very few of them meet our personal litmus test on all of the issues. Maybe I am naive, but I still believe you can find legitimate support of issues important to firefighters from both conservatives and liberals (but not all conservatives and liberals).
Just be careful you aren’t putting your support behind someone who would deny your department $20 worth of cookies or proper care if you become ill while on the front lines during one our nation’s darkest moments.
