STATter 911

Dave,

Sharing this video was a "good thing". I watched it at least three times and then emailed it to each member of my Department. If that video didn't create discussion around each fire station...nothing will!!!

I hope you judge the value of your web site by the number of daily "hits". I try to check it every weekday. Don't simply judge the value of your web site by the number of comments, as this is the first time I have written a comment, however I have read your web site each weekday for over a year.

Keep up the great work.

Sincerely,

Tom Wood, Fire Chief
Boca Raton Fire Rescue
Boca Raton, Florida
 

How couldan accident like this happen? One of the major factors
is attitude. In many fire departments, safety does not receive
the kind of importance it should. One of the key players in the
"safety equation" is the company officer. If that individual does
not really puch safety or doesn't lead by example in safety, how
can one expect firefighters to practice safety? What were the officers in these vehicles doing when the crash occured? Apparently,
not much! Had they preached the importance of slowing down,
especially at intersections? Without concerned and dedicated
officers, the same thing will happen again, and again, and again.
 

Chief Wood,

Thank you for your nice comments. Since my parents moved back to Baltimore, I haven't been in Boca for quite a while.

No, I don't necessarily judge the success of the site by the number of comments. To me the significance of these most recent comments are that at least they are about safety and not something trivial.

In fact, there have been days when I have received tons of comments and thought there must be a lot of people checking in and it turns out that wasn't the case.

Most of the negative comments I have received in the last 18 months (besides that I am either anti-volunteer or anti-career, depending on the day) are about the comments section. Some of the people who hate it are among my closest friends in the fire service.

I don't like the negativity and the rudeness. I do like the well thought out, factual discussions. I have learned a lot from some of the comments and have discovered some interesting stories.

What I like about doing the blog is that it is all me, with no one telling me what to write. It takes a lot of my time, but I get to choose the stories and topics I think people are interested in. Based on the stats I see, we have been steadily growing, which does give me some satisfaction.

Again, thanks for taking the time to write.

Dave
 

Hello: I have served on both volunteer 3yrs 1975-1979 Approx. and fulltime for allmost 10 years. have been on both sides of the fence.Now I have to take in consideration this is over 20 years ago.The Volunteer rules is get there as fast as you can because your response time has allready greatly disminished just by not being at the station. The Vol. allways drove faster than our fulltime department did. Even our two stations drove differently one being rural country and one being border the city.I can remember a call to a apartment fire we had our first line pumper out was a 1964 International gas engine and manual brakes with 750 gallons on board,we were on that call comming to a intercetion 4 way lights and the my partner was driving he we got there just when a tractor trailer and the squad car was approciating we couldn't completly stop the trator trailor couldn't stop it had the green light and the squad car was comming from the west completly blind spot probly at least 70 mph well we went around the semi the squad took the shoulder between a tavern and a guard rail at 70 mph or so and we turned the corner I put my head down I knew we were going to crash but you know what no one hit anything and we all kept going to the call. if you are going hot red lights and siren you have to slow down for intersections and blind areas expecially no a days other wise its not if you are going to crash its just when your going to crash. Most departments have a supurb saftey SOPS now and if you don't abide by them you don't drive by the way that video looks from that angle and not being there I would have to assume that both companies were running to fast at that blind intersection, without seeing it in different angles and interviewing people. I have been driving Truck for last 24 years and have to drive the same way bottom line is you have to be able to stop your truck at anytime it may warrent give yourself room and don't run fast threw intersections blind ones especially. Im glad to here that everybody is going to be allreight. and this should be a HUGH learning experience for all departments all over the country not just this one on response to calls. Just My Two Cents.

Steve