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Comment by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on October 27, 2009 at 12:08pm

Katherine:
You should not be concerned about your personal safety at the fire scene because someone has a difference of opinion or an outright dislike for you. It all changes when the tones drop. Really; they do.
I was on a department where we would literally get into fistfights at meetings. It's something that I am NOT proud of but it proves my point that, even though we would have our disagreements, no one and I mean no one would intentionally hold back or cause someone to get hurt at a fire. As crazy as it looks, we were brothers and brothers might fight, but you never LET your brother get hurt by someone or something else.
In the meantime, maybe someone should step up and fix what's wrong. Things will run better.
By the way, we no longer have fistfights. That all changed when I made chief and the riffs between other fire departments stopped as well.
TCSS.
Art

Comment by Fred Cummings, Jr. on October 25, 2009 at 5:06pm

Does the conflict have to do with being a paid fulltime and or a call/volunteer?

Comment by greg on October 23, 2009 at 10:39pm

I have seen it in many defferent depts. Take a stance. Let it be known that you have concerns. More importantly if they are true safety concerns concerning fellow firefighters,then start going threw the ranks all the way to the top. If the brass turns a blind eye then it can only mean 2 things. They dont care about the safety of there firefighters or the dont have the guts to fix the problem. Any department that risks firefighters safety over grudges has serious issues and I would look to join another department, a department with officers who address safety issues head on before someone gets hurt or killed. I mean after all inst that what we are about protecting lives, ours, theres, and the publics!

Comment by Jason McDonald on October 23, 2009 at 8:39pm

When I moved to the Philippines I was accepted as a brother and welcomed unconditionally, then I visited about 20 different stations and I was welcomed at all of them and asked to join each station that I visited. I still go around and visit stations so I know who I am working with and to share the brotherhood.

Your county and city should be working together because we are a brotherhood and without the trust of brotherhood, safety will be an issue.

I wish you the very best in you situation.

Comment by Rusty Mancini on October 23, 2009 at 2:45pm

Sounds like the two Chiefs need to have a sit down to straighten out the Issues for both sides?