Gabriel Angemi shares how despite Camden's cuts, firefighters can't just hold back. Maybe.


On a national level layoffs have become the norm for public safety personnel, regardless of the threat posed to the ones they leave behind or the residents of the area they once protected. How is it then, when a city such as Camden NJ has its civic and public safety leaders stand up at a podium; hair done, neat and groomed, in full dress uniform or otherwise meaning business, rhetorically running on from the mouthpiece about how "public safety will not be affected" or "the streets will be just as safe now as they used to be" and "were reorganizing for better deployment" better yet, "no firehouses are being closed, fire protection will not be compromised"... In my mind, these are all misnomers of paramount concern. If the residents of our cities will be bamboozled by such ignorant political statements (which increasingly more and more they are not) then I cannot make them see the light. Perhaps its because of my career (one I'm lucky to still have by the way) that I'm led to think otherwise, since I am the guy actually sent to rectify these public safety issues that develop. Moreover, my point and meaning, I know better than to believe these fallacies as I bare witness to the flip side of that coin on a shift by shift basis working the ever hopeless streets of one of the American cities in question. The public's safety is in fact only partly the issue here. One part of a greater whole, or the first part of a two part fiasco which is often overlooked in these political lullabies for the working class. Within these municipal cookie cutter speeches about how nothing will get worse for the residents who get wrapped up in the middle, one should also include into these statements of urban myth for lack of a better term, these pacifying statements about how everything is going to be OK... sorry, I digress.


Include into these statements that things will dramatically change for the folks who are still liable for delivering public safety. Commonly, the people most susceptible to physically proving these comments to be the frauds they are, are the ones left on the street by their dispersed counterparts. Those who remain are trying to make amends to the issues so endearingly being spoken about by elected and/or appointed politicians. The ones referring to your person as not any more unsafe than before, akin to a bedtime story read to a child who's parents wish would fall asleep. Alas, dumped on again. We will try to pick up the pieces of our reeling departments while politicos regurgitate the standard "your safety will stay the same" mantra after a mass layoff. The remaining workers are subject to a disposition they are not quite accustomed to, or particularly not willing to adopt as the new normal for their chosen profession. To state it clearly, It is less safe for us to be doing what were doing. Notice there is no sheep-herding speech from a Mayor, a Council or a City Attorney about our safety, or that we will still all be fine like before. They pray on our willingness and our love for our jobs like a Vulture circling a newborn Baby Bunny. Not that it was expected mind you. Rightfully so, we know better... even if they had the audacity to declare such misgivings. Truth be told, maybe we are just simply not used to doing more with less yet. Although, at the end of the day it seems we must become used to doing even more with even less since as it stands, police and fire departments regularly scale back on all they can before the inevitable layoff finally happens.

So it goes something like this; the service your department provided was slashed. Then it was cut. Then it was reorganized, and slashed again, eventually becoming a permanent, irreversible shell of itself. A Fire Department that once had 11 companies started to randomly close a few and in turn a few more and then so on and so fourth. Now, with 7 fire companies left, it is a flat out lie to lead the public to thinking that they still have the fire protection they need in place. Or that the firefighters themselves will operate just as safely as it they were prior. And please, spare me the self righteous runnings-on of how unions are not willing to compromise and concede. That belief is predicated upon a completely farcical political agenda. If you believe that then go retrieve yourself another glass of Kool-Aid from your ice box before you read anything more.

Focus now on what I mean by the two fold of public safety suffering as I expand on an incident sure to be repeated and clearly indicative of the other half of the lack in safety not talked about by city administrators. We are willing to accept the fact that there are many, often times life threatening circumstances inherent within our line of work. Work that, for the majority of us is much more than just a paycheck, it is a lifestyle. As first responders we want to help, case and point my dear friend Joseph DiPaolo. Joey D as he's known, was at work last Friday night when Engine Co. 10 was dispatched to 2879 Tuckahoe Rd. for a working fire in an occupied dwelling. Assigned the nozzleman's position, Joey D and his Captain, Mike McCarthy arrived on location with the rest of the company to do what they do best, protect life and property. The scene did not look dire for either man as they stretched an inch and three quarter pre-connected hand line with a smooth bore nozzle. Both men are long time members and seasoned veterans of the Camden Fire Department with 18 and 22 years respectively.


However, the discrepancy lies in that the firehouse in which 10's pulled out of a few short blocks away from the location of the fire has been a victim of the departmental cutbacks. Most times and for years prior, a Ladder Company, Hook & Ladder 2 was housed in the station at 9th and Morgan as well. Responsible for aspects aside from extinguishment but of a coordinated fire attack, not having Ladder Co. 2 pulling up right behind them as usual was the beginning of the end for a successful and injury free firefight. Be that as it may, after standing around waiting and waiting one begins to feel the pressure of residents screaming for you to take action. Your own self telling you, you have done this before countless times and if someone is inside, their life is fading quickly into jeopardy while your standing outside touching yourself. Having said that, when ventilation is not accomplished in a timely fashion in conjunction with, and coordinated in turn as the interior attack from a hose line begins, issues will develop one by one. In this case, the issue became FF. Joe DiPaolo sustaining 2nd degree burns to his face and neck from a resulting flashover.

Tactically speaking, I'm not trying to write about flashovers, recognizing flashovers, fire science, wind driven fires or anything else of that nature that may have led to the given situation. Debating that of semantics is not my purpose here and arguing the variables takes away from what was a near horrible incident. What I am trying to convey is that the city, any city, would have you believe your still safe (residents and firefighters alike) when truly, nothing could be further from the truth. People are going to get hurt again. People are going to get burned, again. Perhaps someone or a few someone's may even loose their life in this, the fiscal war that's been unleashed on the people in place to help you in your time of need. Civilians and Firefighters are at a much greater risk now than they were a few months ago, and the domino effect on surrounding towns will be felt one way or another, sooner or later, if it hasn't already.


When you look at the pictures of my friends gear, and the album of pictures I put up to coincide with this note, consider that the man inside it was extremely lucky. Consider that by no fault of his own, he incurred 2nd degree facial burns operating the only way he knows how, by doing his job. Joey D thought he was righteous, thought he was engaging in the appropriate actions of a man in his position thats sworn to duty and upholding the values in which he believes in. Extinguish the fire and make things better for any possibly trapped occupants. Put the fire out and keep the extent of damage as minimal as possible. Put the fire out and lessen the degree to which his fellow firefighters are exposed to heat and the products of combustion while they go about their assigned tasks and functions. By cutting our department to pieces in order to balance a budget (a budget we as firefighters surely did not have any say or control in over-extending or fiscally mismanaging) the city has put us in a position to be damned. Damned if you do (making yourself available to accept greater risks), damned if you don't (being subject to public scrutiny and accounts of cowardly inaction). Hypothetically speaking, had Engine Co. 10 stood around and waited for a truck company to arrive and be ready to operate some 5 minutes after their arrival, they would have been much further behind the eight ball in terms of suppression and surely subject to neighbors accounts of shitting the bed. Go ahead and act like that would not bother you as a firefighter and Ill wait for you to come to your senses. Meanwhile, awaiting the undertaking of forcing/gaining entry, performing ventilation, and doing searches properly would have left any tenant inside the structure surely asphyxiated or burned along with the unabated destruction of property coupled with the risk of nearby exposures becoming involved. Public opinion would come down harshly on the men who would have consciously protected themselves first instead of the public we serve. After decades of being an aggressive fire department, we are now forced to take measure.

Trapped occupants notwithstanding, a move towards standing-fast in order to protect ourselves first and foremost until enough manpower is on location goes against all of our tradition and will further subject residents in need of our assistance to the by-products and agents of what may be their demise. We do not want to worry about ourselves first, its not in our nature. The oaths taken by firefighters at their swearing in states you may indeed have to give your life while on duty, serving the public. But the rules have somewhat changed, albeit changed against our will and has left us at an even bigger disadvantage. After searching that out, as a member, you may find yourself thinking that you did not sign up for this new fire department or what goes along with it. You may or may not want to stand idle waiting for a counterpart truck or engine company as the case may be before you start doing your job. You may want to remind yourself that the fire department you once knew and loved so dearly, the one you would have sacrificed so much for, is long gone and a new approach might have to be adopted to coincide with this new department. A more indignant and lackluster approach made more relevant to the musings of political agenda and scapegoating thats befallen us, further aligning us with the disenfranchised... I feel we need to resist the urge to let it go. Resist the urge to be the lame and uncaring. Joey D got burned fighting the good fight and If I know him at all he would be willing to do it all over again as soon as he's healed because that's the kind of people we are. They will understand and make our jobs right again, wont they? Cities and towns who have laid off their firefighters and police officers will see the faults abounding in the present situations and hire them back right?

No matter the outcome of grants or tax hikes, we are here to help and we always will be. The Camden Fire Department is made up of folks like the aforementioned gentleman waiting to handle your problems. Collectively speaking, we are never called out for something good. We are in place to handle a given problem and we do it well. Just know that we have been doing it with a hand tied behind our back for the last few years, and now more recently the other hand and a leg as well. Just know that we are going to see firefighter and civilian injuries increase dramatically no matter what political spin or posturing is used to make you seem just as safe as you used to be. Think nothing of the increased work load placed on your Police and Firefighters after our hearts have been broken. Think nothing of how much more we are in jeopardy at an already highly hazardous gig. Just remember, when you or your family is having to rely on a public safety department to spring into action, that everything is fine. That the public safety false dichotomy is an oxymoron and that the protection and coverage once afforded you has not suffered one bit because you were told as much and all is well in Camden NJ.

A special thanks to Gabriel Angemi for allowing us to share the post, with permission.
All photos courtesy Gabriel Angemi.

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Bill is the Online News/Blog Manager for Elsevier Public Safety

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