Reading Firedaily.com they had an article about Grants Pass Oregon. There are 2 "fire departments" in the county. I use quotations because calling them Fire Departments might be an insult to fire departments.

Its not about the condition of the engines, maybe late 60 early 70 vintage, or PPE a mesh mash of construction helmets, safety vest and leather gloves. Its about the actual firefighting ability. The video shows a house fire. Doesn't show how long it took to get there but there is fire from the D side with smoke throughout. they pull two lines (1 1/2) and within several minutes there is an explosion. While the video doesn't have smell-o-vision I beleive there were several messing pants. Lots of running around and an air horn blowing for maybe 2-3 minutes. I don't know if this was for evacuation or for dinner. I guess the driver beleives in the old axiom the larger the fire the louder the engine should sound (as told to me when I joined in 1978)

I'm on the record as hating Keyboard Incident Commanders because we don't know the full story. But DAMN, no leadership, poor equipment and to top it off its a private department that is contracted with various towns and home owners. This video shows one departement so I might be wrong about the other department in Grants Pass but this is the scariest video I ever saw....and that includes my first wedding video.

 

http://firedaily.com/2012/01/video-worst-fire-department-in-the-uni...

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How so Luke?

 For the most part it IS the beauracrats who are allowing this service to respond. It is the beauracrats who should be enforcing NFPA and so forth. It is a combination of the taxpayers and beauracrats who are allowing such fly by night organizations operate under the guise of costs alone.

 

I'll agree, there is more to blame than beauracrats....I would be blaming the taxpayers being served by such "services" to be allowing such organizations to take place.

I just watched this. I cannot even form words to describe what I just saw. Holy crap.

Hi all, 

    I had to watch this video three times , it is hard to believe that this is happening in 2013. 

     This remind me of watching  the Little Rascal fire dept at lease they had better equipment. This video should be shown as a training of what not to do at a fire. 

     

Those who should really be ashamed are the elected officials that have perpetrated this on their citizens. I can tell you as a career guy neighboring small towns and rural areas, I promise you I have seen worse! Yet it doesn't go away like it should. I have seen people with the hammer to stop it just turn a blind eye and rubber stamp these groups. The saddest thing is that they get other people hurt or killed while they usually skate through. Yes it is a junky property and house, but nonetheless, to the owner, its their home and probably all they have and they deserve better. Truthfully, they can probably sue them for misrepresenting their service ability and the county for willful compliance. Sounds petty but that's about the only thing that will get their attention.

WTF???

 It's like a bunch of monkeys trying to  FU,,,,BEEP a Football!

  I do hope that somone has taken the time to point out to them, that they are the worst fire dept.

 in the country.

   I have been told I have no tact. Wich is why I am not allowed to be a fill in PIO. There fore I cannot do it.

  I propose that we have nominations then  a vote to pick a firefighter from FFN to call them.

 to explain to them in a tactfull manner that they are not by any stretch of the imagination a fire department.

  What say you all?

There's such a thing as tact? Who knew?

Simply unbelievable!

Nope, unfortunately it is entirely believable.  There are states that have absolutely no standards at all for fire fighters or fire departments.  Even in the states with standards there are plenty of fire departments that are beyond lax in enforcing training standards.

The sad part is usually the citizens haven't got a clue what pathetic fire protection they have.

Very true, Don. It is sad to see such disarray in the fire service. There is one thing of being a poor department and another for just not giving a crap. One thing to have pride and another to have to much that when we are in over our heads not to call in or accept help from another department. I find this to be a outrage to the whole fire service paid or volunteer. Village, district or privately owned or city department's. This is the stuff we need to take a stand on. We as firefighters should not just watch stuff like this and say well its not my department. We should be writing letters to town and state official's and letting them know that this type of service in unacceptable and something needs to be done. This  gives the fire service a black eye no matter where you live. Just my opinion and going off again sorry.

The reason, at least to my thinking, why this type of thing is allowed to happen, is simple, it doesn't cost the local government a damn thing.  The contractor that supplies fire protection gets subscribers and does all the work, supplies all the equipment and manpower.  Fire protection is an option that the local property owners can choose to pay for or not. 

You are probably correct. Still gets me a little worked up. I guess it is beyond my comprehension to understand why people would settle for such poor coverage. Also that governing body's that will tax us for everything would settle for that same type of coverage for the people they are empowered to protect. Maybe I just look at things the wrong way.

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