A COMMON WHINE FROM FIRE OFFICER CANDIDATES IS THAT FIREFIGHTERS ARE NOT POLITICIANS. A "real" firefighter is good of heart, focused on saving those endangered by fire and righteous in suppression skills. That is all that is needed.

Only in the movies ...

A STARK CONTRAST

Dave Statter posted a video showing Engine 848 (West Lanham Hills #2) arriving at a well-involved garage fire (HERE) in Prince George's County, Maryland. His comments in a later post are worth considering today:

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It also illustrates what has long been a problem in the county: staffing. The first engine arrived with just an officer and driver. As we have pointed out many times in the past, PGFD is the only fire department inside the (Washington DC) Beltway that allows front line suppression units to respond with just two. Even with that built-in handicap, PGFD is also the only Beltway department to suffer major cuts in career staffing at its fire stations due to the current economic crisis

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If the fire occured 20 miles west, in Arlington County, Virginia, all of the arriving crews would be staffed with an officer and three firefighters. Both are urban counties with career and volunteer elements. There are significant differences in county funding practices and the evolution of the fire departments.

But why, in "liberal, labor friendly" Maryland the majority of the PGFD engine companies operate with a crew of two, while in "conservative, right-to-work" Virginia, Arlington has a minimum of four on every front-line suppression company?

KITCHEN POLITICS

We love to argue and fight among ourselves: Career versus volunteer, EMS versus suppression, Majority versus protected class, Rural versus urban. Each of us have hot-button issues and ownership of a concept that we spend a tremendous amount of time and energy to protect and promote. I can imagine how some firehouse kitchen conversations went after the Supreme Court ruling on the New Haven reverse discrimination appeal.

The problem is that all of that energy, heat and effort is squandered at the fire station kitchen table. It has the same effect an on-line petition has to change a policy or restore a favorite program .... NOTHING.

Our fight for independence from Britian was not won after a rousing discussion at the fire hall.

REAL SUCCESS REQURIES REAL HEROS

My heros are the men and women who spend the time making a real difference for their brother and sister firefighters. They have mapped out the turf and figured out how power works in their community, region or state.

They are engaged in the messy, unglamorous process of participative democracy by working with legislatures and political leaders in order to promote and protect what firefighters need. They are not well compensated for this effort. They spend hours in committee meetings. They ghostwrite studies and propose legislation. Back at the fire station get grief from those whose only action is to sit in the kitchen and complain.

Thanks to these heros, we have federal grant programs like SAFER and AFG, and state cancer presumption legislation. That same process of participative democracy also brings criticism like The Heritage Foundation analysis of the impact of federal grants (HERE) and the National League of Cities funding an analysis of cancer presumptive legislation (HERE).

This is real life. We need to protect, and often carve out, our chunk of turf and power. From the neighborhood to the nation.

PRO BOWL QUARTERBACK WITH COLLEGE SKILLS

Malcolm Gladwell used this image when describing the challenge in finding the right type of educator in the December 15, 2008 edition of New Yorker. (HERE) Dan Shonka describes the dramatic difference in NFL working conditions, meaning that the best college quarterbacks are not assured success in the pros.

There is the same level of difference between a one or two station volunteer fire department and an urban fire agency with more than 500 employees. I spent nine months living in the College Park fire station as an undergraduate. My master's degree from the University of Maryland focused on State and Local Government. I started writing about the two-hatter issue in 1999. Made a 2007 case study on the Kentland ambulance battle. It is clear to me that many of the players act as if they were still in a mom-and-pop fire company,

I wonder what PGFD would look like if more of the players would have spent their time and energy developing pro-bowl political and administrative skills for the greater good, rather than to embarass, bury or destroy their fire service colleagues. There are smart, capable and dedicated PGFD members doing great work, but so much energy is wasted fighting with each other.

Meet Mike (and Bill and Dave) in Booth 2200 - FireGeezer - at the Firehouse Expo in Baltimore July 23-25.