I've been too silent for too long about an important subject in the fire service. I finally broke my silence in response to a discussion on drinking in the firehouse and a recent e-mail from Billy Goldfeder's not-so-secret "The Secret List" at www.firefighterclosecalls.com.

Here's what Billy wrote:

Hey.... For this weekends WTF, we stumble into New Ulm (Minn) where there is nothing like enjoying an icey cold beer in the firehouse after fighting a fire. As you may know by now, the City Council approved the measure Tuesday, giving their Firefighters the option of drinking at the firehouse after fire calls. "I feel these (firefighters) who put themselves at risk in fighting fires are responsible enough to know when they've had too much," said City Council President Dan Beranek.

Silly, silly President Dan.

A city attorney, however, said that letting "the boys" down a few, raises "serious concerns about liability." He said there are some legitimate causes for concern...concern? What concern? Ya mean like crawling down halls, using SCBA's, throwing ladders, driving apparatus and who is going to determine when a firefighter is too toasted to respond?

We also heard rumor that small and convenient appetizer sized portions of pot may also be offered soon, to help Firefighters "take the edge off" after a particularly difficult emergency call...but that measure is still under consideration. The concerns from council are that while they feel a firefighter would always know how drunk they might be and can then always stop drinking---like most drunks always do---being high after a call may cause significant memory loss and the firefighters may not remember exactly why they are expected to stop smoking the dope. Additionally, the grocery budget for the FD is limited this year and the expected rise in the cost of purchasing numerous 55 gallon drums of doritos, cheetos, tostitos, pringles, sun chips, ruffles and related munchies and salty favorites may simply be too much for the town budget to bear.

A Rabbi, a Priest, and a duck walked into the New Ulm firehouse. The bartender looked up and said, "What is this? A joke?"

You gotta be a special kind of stupid to be a city council that takes any posture other than abstinence towards drinking in the firehouse today.

"The official stance of the department is that the individual is the best judge of when you’re obviously intoxicated," said Scott Windschitl, president of the New Ulm Fire Department Relief Association.

The inherent flaw in the city council's reasoning for allowing alcohol consumption in the workplace is this: When you consume alcohol, what's the first to go? Your judgement and your inhibitions.

Your very ability to make sound judgements as to whether you're buzzed, inebriated or drunk off your ass go out the window with the first and subsequent sips. Your ability to make effective decisions as to whether you should have another beer - or you should get on the apparatus - are impaired - let alone your ability to make life saving or patient care decisions.

Forget impairment or intoxication - how about public perception? You only need to smell or appear that you've been drinking for John Q. Public to raise the red flag and your ass is in a jam. And we wonder why people have a hard time using the words professional and volunteer in the same sentence... I'm pretty sure this is where the phrase "200 years of tradition unimpeded by progress" came from.

I can, but don't want to believe that we're still having this discussion/argument in 2007. Our job is tough enough and dangerous enough to do sober - let alone under the influence of alcohol or any other drug.

There is zero margin for error in what we do and thus there needs to be zero tolerance in every firehouse. Lives hang in the balance, the least of which are ours.

Believe me when I tell you folks, I've been in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong BAC - but that doesn't make it right. And, I too was a cocky, you can't teach me anything, I'm invincible - 18 year old firefighter. I've also willingly accepted the consequences of my actions.

I also take issue with the comments that if we remove the beer and turn the firehouse into a professional place of work and take the social aspects out of it, people will have bad attitudes and not show up. I constantly struggle with balancing a professional environment with a family atmosphere in our fire department, but if it's the beer that makes you show up - you're showing up for the wrong reasons. And, for the record, don't bother showing up at my firehouse or on my fire scene.

My FD has proudly been dry for 15-20 years and it's the best thing we ever did. We did it largely out of respect for our Fire Explorer and Junior Firefighter programs we were ramping up at the time. We never wanted one of our kids to walk into the firehouse and see us sitting around drinking. And we did it at a time when others in the fire service said it couldn't, and some said it shouldn't, be done.

Amazingly, it hasn't seemed to hurt our membership, we took in 14 new members last year and we'll take in 5 more this month alone. And, all three of our current chiefs started as Explorers and Junior Firefighters, including myself. I think that says a lot about our attitude towards taking on the responsibility for being positive role models for our youth.

You can download our zero tolerance policy here. We've never had to exercise it ever since we implemented it.

This ain't your grandfather's fire service.

Download SOG-Zero Tolerance.pdf