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Buffalo Firefighters Battle Fast Moving Fire, Impatient Neighbors
MICHELE MCCLINTICK
WIVB
Reprinted with Permission
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - It's been a busy and dangerous night for first responders in the Queen City.
The flames were intense, and the situation was magnified when fire crews heard that a family was inside a burning home.
Flames already engulfed the entire first floor of this Kehr Street home when crews arrived at about 12:30 a.m. Monday.
Concerned neighbors looked on as crews arrived, some grew impatient with the fire department's response.
"Sometimes were not making the progress that people think we should just because of Hollywood movies. This isn't a Hollywood movie. This is real life," said Division Chief John Mogavero, Buffalo Fire Department. "Anybody questioning how long it takes us to do the job, they would not be able to walk a mile in our shoes."
Firefighters battled the wall-to-wall fire as they searched to see if anyone was inside.
Fortunately no one was home at the time.
Crews were able to knock the fire down before it spread any farther, but damages are expected to be costly.
Damage is pegged at around $35,000.
Investigators will be back on scene Monday morning, but right now, firefighters don't believe that it's suspicious.
Copyright WIVB.com
WIVB
Reprinted with Permission
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - It's been a busy and dangerous night for first responders in the Queen City.
The flames were intense, and the situation was magnified when fire crews heard that a family was inside a burning home.
Flames already engulfed the entire first floor of this Kehr Street home when crews arrived at about 12:30 a.m. Monday.
Concerned neighbors looked on as crews arrived, some grew impatient with the fire department's response.
"Sometimes were not making the progress that people think we should just because of Hollywood movies. This isn't a Hollywood movie. This is real life," said Division Chief John Mogavero, Buffalo Fire Department. "Anybody questioning how long it takes us to do the job, they would not be able to walk a mile in our shoes."
Firefighters battled the wall-to-wall fire as they searched to see if anyone was inside.
Fortunately no one was home at the time.
Crews were able to knock the fire down before it spread any farther, but damages are expected to be costly.
Damage is pegged at around $35,000.
Investigators will be back on scene Monday morning, but right now, firefighters don't believe that it's suspicious.
Copyright WIVB.com
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jason Koontz on
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and stupidity can't be cured
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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Ralph says, "Ignorance is bliss......"
Jason says, "and stupidity can't be cured"
So to both Jason and Ralph, and what are we going to do about it?
This is either a PR nightmare or a PR dream depending on how the department handles it.
It can be an opportune time to highlight what we do and how we do it and perhaps push for more funding for equipment (such as TIC), or we can ignore it and have the neighbours think we're useless at our job.
However the ignorance and stupidity that you both offer could in fact be ours for expecting everyone to understand what we do and the challenges and issues we face....
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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I agree with Lutan, this can be a great opportunity for them to educate the public there in Buffalo. Too many people have no idea what's involved in fighting a fire beyond what they see in the movies and television.
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Permalink Reply by drew on
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Yea the gentleman claiming "they ain't put no water on it" certainly seems ready, willing, and able to take in some public education on tactics and strategy.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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However the ignorance and stupidity that you both offer could in fact be ours for expecting everyone to understand what we do and the challenges and issues we face
While there may be an opportunity to explain how we operate, reality is you also have to have an engaged audience. Fact remains most people just don't care. Face it Luke, if people really cared about the messages, we wouldn't be seeing fire deaths because a smoke alarm was not working. We wouldn't see deaths because people went back inside and so forth.
In order to have effective education you also need to have an audience that wants to learn. We can not sit such people down and explain to them the basics of firefighting if they don't want to learn. There have been many examples out there of depts attempting to educate the public, but reality is there is only a handful of people who do show. Ask other fire depts that when they do an open house how many people really actually show?
In my dept and union, I took it upon myself to do such education to the public. I explain the dept, how we operate, why we do things on the fireground, why we send so many people on certain EMS calls. I have pictures and so forth from the initial attack, ventilation, to overhaul and explain why such stuff is done. I have offered this education to several community groups and neighborhood associations. Want to know the real outcome? There has only been a handful to take up the offer and out of those groups I did do, there was only a handful that showed up.
That is the reality here Luke, majority of people really don't care until it affects them, as we see in this case. So I agree with Jason and Ralph when it comes to the comments, because for the most part, that is what we face. We can really only do so much, we can not be expected to go door to door to explain to people the workings of the fire dept. In cases like this, the statement made does get to the point "we are NOT Hollywood"....where's the question there? What more education is really needed? How much of the message is the independant media going to roll with? In the end, such a basic statement does cut to the core.
It can be an opportune time to highlight what we do and how we do it and perhaps push for more funding for equipment (such as TIC), or we can ignore it and have the neighbours think we're useless at our job.
Equipment really only goes so far, reality is staffing is what determines how the fire goes out. You are replying on a thread about a city that has seen significant cuts and despite the "education" message given out, this is the response from elected officials and really the public in general. So you really are seeing an "education" being done, look at Philadelphia who is fighting brownouts and spreading the message of the dangers of cuts. Know what, the reality is many people don't care about that either because it doesn't directly affect them. Useless in the job? Not hardly for the most part.....reality is most people just don't care about our jobs, just like I really don't care about the job of a lawyer, doctor, tow truck driver, auto repair, or so forth until I would need such services.
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Permalink Reply by Russ on
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good christ the media should not have even ran that and should know better than to take the word of a bystander. having been there myself, my favorite complaint was somebody complaining about the "rusty water" we used-(before poly tanks came along)-because the rust in the water made the fire burn worse. (sigh) so the chief had us flushing and refilling the tanks twice a day to appease the all knowing fire expert public. i would have called the PIO
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Permalink Reply by David Francis on
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the chief said it best... this isn't hollywood.
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