STATter 911

damn dave took you awhile
you getting old and slow
 

Old yes. More cautious than slow. I heard about the singing shortly after it began. Just making sure there is a news story and dotting the Is and crossing the Ts.

Statter
 

Is this Jerry Engle singing his way out of trouble?
 

Guess they ran out of rookies to light on fire.
 

p.g. county is nothing but a joke. A bunch of wannabe, pathetic fireman. Or should i say arsonist's.
 

There are a lot of very dedicated and professional firefighters throughout the county, both career and volunteer alike. It's a shame there are idiots like this in their midst. I sheds a bad light on all. Yes PG does seem to have it's share of problems, but please don't lump all of them in with the idiots.
 

Sounds like a lack of leadership to me, no night time supervision around the fire house. Thats what the citizens of Riverdale get when you let a bunch of renegades back in the Station and turn it over to Vinny Pockets. Lets not forget that there was once 24 hour supervision at that Station. Then low and behold Mr. Herman and Vinny Pockets got in bed together and back in goes the unsupervised members. Then it was only a matter of time for the spot light to be back on Riverdale. I know there were some members that tried to do the right thing but you can't be there 24/7. So who do the citizens of Riverdale thank for this, lets see Former Mayor Mike Herman, Vinny Pockets to name a few.... Watch out Acting Chief Jones be careful who you surround yourself with, lets not be guilty by association, or you might get a vote of no confidence!

Needless to say though that all those involved in the investigation have rights just like we all do. So I don't see much of anything will happen to those members because there are many that have gotten away with alot more and they are still members or still have their careers. Nothing is a suprise anymore.

Maybe Vinny Pockets can sweet talk the investigators into letting them go " I remember you, you are a great fireman! Can you do me a favor...." Sickening!
 

Hey, where was Mike Murphy, PGFD shiftman?
 

First of all its an allegation.

And I am sure its from Jerry snitching or making up things to save his own ass for being caught stealing. Lets toss the cards up and see where they land and then so be it.

And for the supervision bash.. How much supervision was the career guy from 34 under when he set that restaurant on fire? And no body said "Can you do me a favor?" when he was charged with misuse of credit cards? That is sickening!

I know a few of the members from 807. Things are turning around for them. The will survive.

Why focus on 807? Fires in 838 and 831's areas; seems bigger than just 807. Yeah this is a black eye for everyone.
 

It seems to me that the fires stopped and the investagation started after the "Mayor" got caught stealing. I have to agree that the "Mayor" is trying to save his own ass but throwing a few fellow brothers under the bus to save himself. But there have been no charges filed as of yet so right everything is just an allegation.
 

Sounds like a lack of leadership to me, no night time supervision around the fire house. Thats what the citizens of Riverdale get when you let a bunch of renegades back in the Station and turn it over to Vinny Pockets. Lets not forget that there was once 24 hour supervision at that Station.Vinny Pockets has been out of office for over a year. Remember the membership of Riverdale gave him a choice. Resign or be removed, then his boy Jerry rolled out to 9 and then to 13. In addition, there is supervision there at night and the citizens get what they deserve. The best fire and EMS response they have had in a long time.
 

Not to mention the string of vacant or homes under construction in 824's first due the last few years. This problem might be more widespread than they think.
 

It is about time that the "Mayor" Jerry Engle is going to get his due. But in typical Jerry fashion, he has to take others down with them. Even innocents will somehow be connected. If someone loaned him a lighter, they will be investigated because Jerry will be sure to say "Oh yes, they knew when they gave me the lighter I was burning down a house. He has always and will never do anything for good or from the heart. He is the man with the master plan and is a true Sociopath. I hope there are plenty of seats available when he is convicted.
 

Company 7, this too shall pass! Your members are up and coming. keep up the good work and stay strong!
 

It's an absolute shameful disgrace that a few individuals choose to make the total Fire and EMS Service a Public Entity that is being scrutinized by everyone. As previous comment states these are only allegations. Time will indicate if any Truth and Factual evidence can substaniate these allegations. Unfortunately during the Investigation all of the Good Volunteers are subjected to bad and ugly Media. If the individual named Engle any words he speaks should be taken as a half truth at best. He has a lot of baggage with him that has tarnished and disgraced the Fire and EMS Service.
What I cannot understand to any degree of Reasonable rationale, is why,how,who,these allegations occur. There is plenty of Controlled hands on Training offered by PGFD Training Academy and MFRI. If these individuals are proven to be responsible for allegations of Arson they donot deserve to be associated with any ire and EMS Service Organization and/or Entity. At the very least they have shamed and brought disgrace not only to themselves, but also to their colleagues ie; Brothers and Sisters who ride the Apparatus with them. It is beyond my comprehension how,why, who can do such acts of ignorance. What would each one of these individuals say if confronted with the most important issue at hand?
"What would they say if a Taxpayer/Taxpayer Family member, and also equally important "One of their Brothers and Sisters" was or could be Injured in their minute of stupid inaction"? ie; Inside a burning Structure a Wall, ceiling, floor could collaspe onto Firefighters. A deliberate starting of a Fire is disgusting and brings one to ask; The most important issue for Firefighters in all aspects of Training today, "FIREFIGHTER SAFETY/EVERYONE GOES HOME". This Arson thing seems to be relevant in different places around our Country. ie; Tracey/Coatesville Pa. Then there is the individual who was smoking crack cocaine and started a Fire where a Brother Colleague was seriously injured in West Virginia. The Coatesville Fires were also started by Tracey and another individual who had some association with a Volunteer Fire Dept. It is not the fault nor responsibility of the Volunteer Fire Depts to keep constant supervision on Adults. These individuals including the guilt of the PG Volunteers are nothing more than "Overated Showboat HotDogs". They are inexperienced with little or no understanding of the Fire and EMS Service. Meaningless Glory Seekers. Chief Eugene Jones isnot to blame nor should any verbal words of negative thoughts be against him. Here is a novel thought If I remember correctly a couple of weeks ago, a Career Firefighter was Seriously burned and injured by an arson fire. I wonder what these individuals were thinking then. Bottom Line these individuals made a choice and with choices there are consequences.

Thank You
 

Don't make this a volunteer/career issue. The rumor mill is that the PG volunteers are Mont. Co. career staff.
 

Definitely Jerry singing like a bird and taking some others with him. Good riddance. The county had Jerry in the bag a year ago and failed to cut him lose
 

Don't make this a supervision thing either. The career guy from 34 was part of a crew of 3 with one supervisor. The volunteers have what 8-12 with 1-3 supervisors, depending on the day, time of day etc.

This is the actions of a few and they SURELY do not represent the departments, the departments leadership nor the volunteer/career fire departments that they are members of (or were).
 

Not Jerry, he's the star witness for other county cases....He's a bum and one of Dave's top informents or should I say liers, story teller. Like his book a bunch of lies and things that never happened.
 

You might have to clean this up a bit Dave, but I am pissed! Why is it whenever an issue comes up like this, the first thing these 1619 hacks start spouting is that volunteers need "supervision?" Let me be clear when I say I would rather be supervised by a blind mute than by 60% of the career officers in this county! Half of them cheated on the test!
 

im wondering when the atf should be in on this. if mr. engles is singing . what about all the fire in the 7200-7300-7400 blks of landover rd. alot of apts burned there, if anyone remembers. allfull strange its happening again. it just sucks that these men and ladies if any. got hookup in this.
 

If you are upset about the career folks jumpig on the volunteer bash wagon, you should not be so quick as to jump on the career bash wagon. We all have those who have no business being in the fire service. We all have good, hardworking members among us. Tossing hand grenades back and forth does neither group any good.
 

Time To Chime In,

I really don’t like to speak on a matter as serious as this one as I know the leadership is handling it the best they can without sticking their necks out to far. But for this to turn into a bashing match by what appears to the same few local union folks that use to be assigned to 7 before the volunteer take back of their station. I was a riding member of one of the surrounding stations when Riverdale was once again thrown into media and even thrown out under the current leadership in place now. Does this mean they are at fault this time? I trust not, but if you listen to the few pot stirrers they would have you believe that this same set of leaders, No No Vinny encouraged these idiots to do something as dumb as this. Level headed loyal fire fighters know that not one chief and or president can stop the actions of the few that wish to step out and above the law. What we hope is that the rank and file pay close attention when the leaders are not around and make sure anything that looks bad needs to be reported. This is black eye indeed but the sun will rise in the morning, the men and women will spring into action should the alarm sound and the citizens will never have to worry that the fire service shall remain a great public service they can depend on day in and day out. Hang in there 7 you have friends out there
 

The problem here is that a Firefighter that we trust started a fire. We do not think about him/her as a paid FF or a volunteer. The way we see it is that one of our hero's is lighting a match. And that hurts on many levels. We do not hear the inside scoop, the opinions of other firefighters or the past of the individual. We just trust that you have wanted to do this your entire life, and that when we are running away from the smoke, you are there to help us. We don't think for one second that because a firefighter is bored, he starts a fire so there is something to do. Not only is he/she putting the lives of the public at risk, but they are also putting the lives of their own 'brotherhood' at risk. What kind of person does this?

Thank you,
A member of the public
 

Hey Dave.

Nice of you to Bash Riverdale. Talk about jumping the gun to get the story only to bring down a Volunteer department.

If you would have waited til you had all the facts, like this

saying five to 10 volunteer firefighters from different stations are being looked at following allegations of an arson ring operating in the county Maybe Riverdale wouldn't be ALONE under the spotlight for such allegations.
 

To the person who is saying I am bashing Riverdale, you might want to give a call to the chief there and see what he thinks about my coverage.

Also, there isn't anything in my reporting that I can see conflicts with Mr. Castaneda's story in the Post.

I never reported it was only Riverdale they were looking at, though the large majority of the people suspended are from 7 or had been members and the center of it was and is there.

You might want to reread what I have written before you say I am bashing. But as always, thanks for your opinion and taking the time to read our coverage and voicing your opinion.

Statter