WBZ-TV, the CBS affiliate her in Boston ran an "investigative report" on "Firefighters getting lunch... on your dime"...

 

Check out the feedback on the WBZ-TV I team's report about "firefighters getting lunch"...

http://wbztv.com/iteam/boston.fire.t....html#comments

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Maybe thats why the engine just drove by and didnt help the lady that died. Call Joe instead of 911. Yea Right!
This is total bullshit! What do they expect the guys/gals to go with out food and hygene? Kiss my ass!! They need to worry about real news like our tax money supporting people on welfare that are abusing the system!!! They should of pointed out the safe practice the crew uses by chalking the wheels of the rig while shopping for lunch! Furthermore its not 32 truck its ENGINE 32 get the lingo rite jerk!!!!
Kali, my point is, that they're out of their first due area (See post below from Ted). At the end of the day, they're either in it or their out of it. In this case, they're out of it.

Many will scream blue murder about response times, and you said yourself, they were 3 or 4 minutes out. Is response times really only an issue when it suits us?

If there's nothing else suitable in their area, then preplan their meals. (Does everyone remember preplanning?) Get stuff on the way to work, the day before, the way home- whatever it takes. We can't have our cake and eat it.

Is it a story out of nothing? On face value, I'd say yes. But from a tax paying public, it's not. It's their taxes paying for that truck and those staff members to be there, protecting THEIR response area.

In point of fact, they could have been CLOSER to any given address in their district by being out of the station.
You're right- and if they were near an airport, they could've boarded a plane to Haiti too as they would have potentially been closer than another team. Where does the line get drawn?
OK- enough said. Logic, rational thinking and common sense seems to come and go as we please, depending on whether we (the fire service) is being attacked or doing the attacking. And I guess if it's on your continent then it must be right and no other discussion can be entered into?
Lutan,
I believe the issue at hand and the issue Kali is making here is that the out of city store is actually closer to the station than say a store within the city and at the far reaches of the response district.

In one of our response districts we have a similar issue with a grocery store within the neighboring jurisdiction but next to the street which defines the border. The store is much closer and well within response times for the first due, but outside the city. Due to a similar rule made in the past, about rigs staying in the city, that said pump has to go 3 miles and within their third due response area to shop. So if one really wanted to split hairs, what is cheaper fuel wise etc for the taxpayer? The closest store or the one at the furthest end of the district? How would you justify the argument?
Well, I'm not going to read all 6 pages of comments, don't need to. I read page 1 of 6...not one negative comment towards the firefighters. Not 1. That's refreshing to see a town support it's own. Good for the great citizens of Boston.

Hey "watch dog"...get a F*#@ing life, A#&-H*#@...
YES!!!! I would not have even posted if I had read this first. Excellent.
Nice point-out.
Love it, just love!!!! LMAO
This reminds me of something I would read on The Onion...

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The point is being missed- the public don't know the ins and outs of the fire service.

The public sees a fire truck, and it's reported in the media as being somewhere it shouldn't be. They take that as being correct.

The public funds that truck and that crew.

Generally a station is in a given location due to a percieved hazard/risk. When the public see a truck not in the correct area, then what are they to think? Especially when they find out they're out getting lunch.

Again, this is about perceptions.

We can't scream about response times and compromised public safety when budget cuts, staff cuts, station closures, etc are ear marked and then expect the public to understand this sort of reporting as being correct or incorrect.

It's unlear (to me) if they were in or out of their designated response area- my point is if they were out of their area (other than for a support call or other approved task), then they're in the wrong. Period. It doesn't matter if this store is closer than another one in their response area. Policies are black and white for these sort of reasons- it keeps the waters from getting muddied when this sort of thing get thrown up....
Policies are black and white for these sort of reasons

It truly does depend. I can not speak for Boston, but there is no such policy regarding where a rig can go to shop in my dept. As it is there are several rigs that must go outside their response district to shop, which can add time to a response if called while shopping. Now the flip is that the rig may actually be closer to an incident while out too.

Yes, this is about perceptions, however, this is a one sided biased story here without decent journalism, especially for an "investigation team". They never interviewed the crews of the station as to why they shop there, they never mentioned why firefighters shop for food, they didn't ask what was the closest store within a response district, etc, this was a one sided shoddy story. The issue of being out for inspections or pub ed, pre-planning and so forth was never addressed, which can be reasons for being out without having an official record.

Yes, it is about perceptions and when the media, as here, paints the picture how they want without a true "both sides" investigation, they get the spin. However, as the case here, reading the comments to the story you can see the public outlash at such a bogus story as well as the MISperception of the media here. For all practical purposes here the rig could have been following all procedures, the media just didn't report that.

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