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Car/fire vehicle crash in JP sends four to hospital with minor injuries
By adamg on Mon, 09/07/2009 - 6:29pm
A Boston Fire Department SUV responding to what turned out to be a false alarm collided with a car driven by a man with a young child in the back seat at Amory and Atherton streets around 4 p.m. Fire officials say their vehicle had its emergency lights and siren on.
A Boston fire chief, another firefighter, the man and the child were all transported to local hospitals with what were described as minor injuries. The Boston Police Department will investigate the cause of the crash. between a BFD SUV responding to a fire and a car.
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Comments
Guy was rushing to same address as fire chief
Because he thought his house was on fire (it wasn't), Channel 4 reports.
fun fact: chiefs can't drive themselves
Did you know that despite the budget cutbacks, Boston Fire Department chiefs (and there are dozens) all have their own drivers? The next time you see a BFD SUV, a)note how shiny new it is (the department just bought a whole bunch of new ones) and b)how there are two people and c)the guy riding shotgun looks a whole lot more senior than the guy driving.
My favorite is when they all come over to the local firehouse for a meeting, and park all their SUVs blocking the garages. And since that's dangerous, they have to leave their drivers in their trucks. With the engines running. Of course. Apparently, fuel (and drivers) grow on trees.
Nevermind that Boston has the asinine policy of sending firefighters out on every medical call. Wanna guess why? Well, it does a great job of making them look busy in a time when fires are down nationally and have been dropping for more than a decade. In short: thanks to better building codes, education, etc- firefighters are becoming less and less necessary.
Let's not get started about the sweetest deal of the century: the Kelly Shift. 24 hours of mostly sitting around and sleeping in the station house? Ooooo, that's rough, clearly deserving of a weekend's worth time off.
I wish I could get 2/3rds of my life in time off!
Do the math
If you only work 56 hours a week or less, then you do get 2/3 of your life in time off.
The standard workday is 8 hours. I know that many people work more than that, unless they work for the government or a government contractor. However, 8 hours is still the standard workday. 8 hours is 1/3 of a day. So if you work 8 hours a day, you get 2/3 of your time off on a daily basis. Considering the weekend, you get 2/3 of your week off if you work 56 hours.
The Kelly Shift just lumps three shifts together - instead of 8 hours on and 16 off, you get 24 on and 48 off. Instead of five normal shifts followed by a two-day weekend, you get seven Kelly Shifts followed by a 'weekend' of 6 days off.
Fire houses have to be manned 24 hours a day, because people can't be convinced to schedule their emergencies. The Kelly Shift reduces transitions and overtime (a fireman is less likely to be going to a fire at the end of his scheduled shift and running over). It is logical. Get over it.
sleep?
"If you only work 56 hours a week or less, then you do get 2/3 of your life in time off."...
...And "work" includes SLEEP, watching TV, and even when you're awake, sitting around 99% of the time?
We'll take turns
You call Brett at 2am to get fully dressed in a full uniform and jump on a truck.
After Brett's return, dress down, and back to sleep, I'll call him at 5am for a repeat.
Time off, eh?
Don't let the facts get in
Don't let the facts get in the way of this firefighter hater (there are lots of them, believe me). They are not drivers, they are incident command technicians. They are the eyes and ears for the chief inside the fire building. They make reports to the chief about conditions in the rear of the building. They have that job because of their knowledge and experience. Their duties are recognized by all national standards that apply to firefighting.
There was a fire in 2007 on Blue Hill Avenue that was filmed by a local cameraman before the arrival of any apparatus until the fire was put out. The incident command technician went up the rear stairs of a fully involed three decker and rescued a child from his crib without the protection of a hose line or even a ladder placed to a window. Ask the parents of that child how important the I.C.T. is. Check out the video on youtube. Ten years ago, in a cost cutting measure, I.C.T.'s were removed. The experiment failed.
By the way Brett, the two jakes were not seriously injured. I know you were worried about them.
why should we care more about the "Jakes" vs the "civilian"?
By the way anon, the guy and his kid were not seriously injured. I know you were worried about them.
Oh wait, they were injured: Concussion and wounds that required stapling.
My question is this:
How long was the siren on BEFORE the SUV entered the intersection?
All too often, I've witnessed emergency vehicles that do not activate their sirens until 50 feet or less before entering an intersection. And then, it's rare for the siren to be put on full blast. Instead, they usually "blip blip blip" the siren instead.