STATter 911

well the chief at station 32 needs to move in an drive. that is his respondable . to get the equipment out. im sure there are more then one driver. his dept, isnt any better then any other dept in county. so he needs to get his vol. to come to the plate and do there part. like everyone else is trying to do.
 

The reason why none of his volunteers are qualified is because he will not turn them over to drive. That is one of the reasons that the volunteers left in the first place. It is crazy to have a chief officer ride the ambulance, but Finamore will not mentioned that. All he cares about is his car and his position as a Division Chief in the County.
 

The reason why 32 does not have any volunteers is because Finamore will not let them ride, therefore the volunteers left the company. It is crazy that a chief officer (not Finamore) has to ride the ambulance. The only thing he cares about is the car and the Division Chief position.
 

Nick cares deeply about the Prince Georges County Fire Department and Allentown Road. What he will not do is allow transplants or hacks from Calvert County, Pennsylvannia or more importantly unqualified individuals to staff or operate apparatus. His first priority is to the citizens and not to some phony title. This whole crisis was started by Vince Harrison, Buddy King and others who know damn well that the volunteers cannot staff the stations but convinced an idiot (Jones) that they could. Any blood is on their hands; but hey Harrison already has blood on his hands.
 

Why can't they ride or drive the apparatus? Could it be that just maybe they don't meet the qualifications or standards that Nick has put in place to assure that the person is an asset on an emergency rather than a liability.I think the last poster alluding to how Vince Harrison and Buddy King sold Chief Jones on an idea they cannot fully back is a disgrace. Both of them need to ride off into the sunset, their usefullness to the Fire Service expired a long time ago.
 

Didn't Chief 17 get suspended because he refused to send his company on calls. This is pretty much the same thing. And don't give me this bull that he cares so much about the citizens to let people from Charles, Calvert, or PA to come to his station and get turned over to drive. If he was that concerned with the citizens he would do everything he can do to have coverage and not say, well it's not my fault. He is the Chief of the department, shouldn't he be able to drive the apparatus in his stations? Why doesn't he go and drive then he will have a quilified person to operate his apparatus. The fact is this. He doesn't care about the citizens that he and others claim. He cares about having a county car that he can drive all over the place and not have to worry about paying gas. He cares that he is a divison chief so he can go to calls in other areas and run the show so he can be incharge.Nick do the volunteers a favor and step down. Get out of the fire service and retire for the good of the fire department in general.
 

Hey Dave,

On Sunday Congressman Hoyer was on FNC with Chris Wallace. During the program he touted the Stimulus Bill for saving F/F jobs because jurisdictions were receiving funds from the stimulus bill. On the front page of the May/June 2009 issue of Fire Fighter (IAFF Magazine) they also highlight grants (SAFER) to be used to reverse layoffs and restore cuts to staffing. Maybe its time to ask if Prince Georges County has received any funds to prevent furloughs and stations not being staffed. Start with Hoyer.
 

As a Volunteer, I am embarrassed that Finnamore has publicly disgraced his Volunteer Department. Don't you think it is a little to late to tell everyone that you don't have any drivers? What has he been doing for the last 20 years as their Fire Chief? The problem with 32/47 seems to be the Volunteer Chief. How can you blame the Chief of PGFD for the lack of leadership at the Allentown Rd VFD.
 

When you take advice from Vince Harrison or Buddy King, that shows you aren't the sharpest tool in the shed. When something bad goes down with this plan, they will both duck for cover like cowards and leave someone else to get hit in the face with it.
 

If you dont have the personnel to properly staff YOUR apparatus, then shut down. Its one thing to have people that cant come around at particular times, its another to blatantly admit that you cant staff your firehouse. They should dissolve the department.
 

All you lovers need to get up off of the Nick Finnamore band wagon. Allentown Road had volunteers, Chief Finnamore ran them all away. He want all career personnel in his stations so he doesn't have to worry about anything else, like staffing, getting apparatus out the door and such.

As was said, this is so Nick can run up and down the street as a "Volunteer Division Chief" and do what he wants, when he wants.

Nick needs to be removed from this program IMMEDIATELY!! If you don't have any volunteers and your company is defunct of volunteers you shouldn't be in a position like that to manage volunteers. Nick Finnamore has always been a "Volunteer Hater".

Why does it matter where you recruit your volunteers from as long as they are getting the apparatus out the door and serving the community. They meet the standards and don't preach about career standards (there are none)all you volunteer haters need to shut your pie holes and realize that this County can not and will not survive without the VOLUNTEERS!!

Whoever said Nick cares about the community first, you need to see a doctor immediately, you are severely infected with a ravaging disease. If he did, then he would worry about calls in his area and not run all over the county all the time like he is Gods gift to firefighting. Many a fires went out without Nick ever being there, the only thing he adds is constantly running his mouth on the radio and sounding like a circus clown, but hey he offers comedy relief.
 

U guys are ridiculas!! Because Nick can't provide staffing you throw him under the bus. Give me a break.

Why don't you go ask Chief 26, Stommel, about the letter that he submitted. It basicaly says the same as Nick's letter. And I am sure that if you really start looking into the matter that there are more letters to Jones than you would care to admit.

Lets face the facts. The vols can't handle the day to day operations of the fire dept. If they could than the career guys would not be in the stations that they are in already.

Finamore is the only one that has a grip on reality. He knows that he can't provide a service and isn't blowing smoke up the arse of the Acting Fire Chief.
 

32 is the epitome of PGFD. A volunteer owned organization, staffed by career folks. Pull the career folks out and there are no volunteers to do the job. The vollies have either stopped volunteering or are providing services at another firehouse. Bottom line is this, we should be staffing apparatus, not stations.
 

Dave,

I really appreaciate your coverage of the PGFD thus far, but I have one question for you.

Instead of interviewing the vols and the vol chiefs and that POS Brady, why not go to the source and get Jack Johnson, Eugene Jones or any of the council member to admit that the citizens and employees of the fire dept are all expenable and that they just don't care if people die.

It's obvious to us that is what is going on here, it shuold be obvious to you as a reporter. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see this.

If they cared they would do something to fix the problem. There is money somewhere in the budget or someone's pet project.

The police just got permission to hire an additional 100 officers and the fire dept is still talking about Rif's and layoffs.

Give me a break. The fire dept is nothing more than an expendable line item budget and will be cut wherever necessary to help the budgetary needs of the county.

Ask the real questions to the upper managament of the county and you will see that we are all expendable in their eyes. They don't care what happens to you or me.

Oh and be careful if you drive into the county for and interiew or a news story, you might be relying on a volunteer that isn't there to come and save your butt if you are in trouble.


Ask the real questions to the people that make the real decisions!!!!
 

"If you don't have any volunteers and your company is defunct of volunteers you shouldn't be in a position like that to manage volunteers."

To the person who wrote the quote above, are you serious???

Probably over half of the vol companies in the county would be shut down, which is fine by me.
 

Has anybody ever heard of take care of your own house first? If you can not manage your own fire station then why would we let this man be one of the Division Chiefs (who is suppose to be managing the whole volunteer system since obviously he has done such a great job within Allentown Road)// All of you who want to find people to blame should look at yourself on the volunteer side of thing we became lazy and relied to heavily on the easy career staffing and in many cases have let down the generations of volunteers that came before us. On the career side it all became about money and how many different tech pays or OT one could make. And for all of you who seem to hate the idea of volunteers coming from other counties. How about those people that were employed by the PGFD actually live in the county they recieve there absorbent salary from. IF RT 4, RT 5 and Bay Bridge were closed on the same day we would have a terrible career staffing problem. The bootom line is times are tough and none of us are immune from these problems
 

If a fire were to happen and 32 were to fail don't you all think that the Chief would be named in the lawsuit. By writing this letter he passed the buck to the county.... not a bad move.

He is the chief and is ultimately responsible for what happens at his station. Stepping up and saying We can't do it Takes Guts.

As Preacher Vinnie Pockets would say "Amen Brother!"
 

"On the career side it all became about money and how many different tech pays or OT one could make."

Your a moron. You can't blame the career people for getting as much money as they possibly can. Do you turn down money or raises at your work, I don't think so. So why should the career people not take what they can get.

The facts still remain that the career side still has the toughest working conditions in the Metro DC area because of you all, the tics!!!
 

I hear all of the sirens and air horns blowing!!!

Oh! It's a MAYDAY for Pee Gee EMS (and fd)! It's getting ready to collapse! I can hear it creaking and groaning! Everybody out! Save yourself!

Looks like there's going to be major life and property loss due to poor money supplies and poor command and management.
 

Whoa! Where are all of those dudes from PA and VA now? All I hear are crickets at these "hard core volunteer" stations now! Guess they all took their "urban firefighting experience" and went back home! Maybe they can start getting some recruits from WV or KY next. Nobody who lives in Pee Gee seems to want to be a volunteer and not many even want to be paid! Most paid people either live in DEL or over on the Eastern Shore! Pee Gee should have a 'residency requirement' in their hiring process.
 

The facts still remain that the career side still has the toughest working conditions in the Metro DC area because of you all, the tics!!!

I do not normally debate unarmed oppents but I just can not stop myself.

What terrible working conditions are you talking about the 20 year retirement (better than nay other department in the area), the 14 paid holiday leave days,being paid OT after 40 hours not 50 that the FLSA requires, the 24/72 work hours or being "career" firefighter with a straight 40 monday through friday 0700-1500 hour work week.

Or is it the station you work on only gets basic cable television for you to watch everyday?

I completely agree with you that there is nothing safe or pratical about 2 man engines and ladder trucks. Just an aside your fellow union brothers are the ones who have made all of these decisions and been playing the shell game for far to long

But considering a whole lot of people work outside in 90 degree heat everyday for minimum wage I find kind of hard to feel bad for your poor work conditions

The fact is a generation ago guys would kill to have this job now all we do is complain about how bad we have it.
 

Read what you rewrote from what I wrote!!!!

"If you don't have any volunteers and your company is defunct of volunteers you shouldn't be in a position like that to manage volunteers."

To the person who wrote the quote above, are you serious???

Probably over half of the vol companies in the county would be shut down, which is fine by me.

I didn't say anything about shutting anyone down. What I did say is that they shouldn't be in a position to manage and especially not in a position to manage other stations volunteers by being a Division Chief.

Why, as a Chief of a department with two stations would you not have any of your volunteers turned over to drive the apparatus? Because you don't want them driving, you don't even want them there.

YES, take them out, they should not have command status. If you want to go to fires ride the fire truck you don't belong being a manager. Would then be a lot less, clueless "chief officers" running around the County while thier station goes understaffed, fails or rely totally on career personnel. 32/47/17/29/30/13/35/11/48/28/39/43/21/42/26/8/38/5/25/ and YES I know I'm missing some. If you want to be a Chief or Command Officer be responsbile and accountable.. Standards and professionalism along with accountability of actions and responsibility should be the guiding light, not popularity and crybabies. Nick is a Joke, but he has company, chiefs of companies named above and then some. Yes, I said that and I am a Volunteer. Once proud but more ashamed everyday of the imposters. It is not about where you came from or anything else, as was said the highest majority of career folks don't live in pg county and came from PA, DEL, NJ, NY VA, NC, CT.. can you blame them for not living here? I Don't ! Most of the Volunteers in PG are a disgrace to both the system and profession, with exception of a handfull of stations.
 

What do you call a Volunteer Fire Department that has no Volunteer Firefighters?

You call it a Tax Scam.

What do you call a Volunteer Fire Chief with no Volunteer Firefighters to command?

You call him a crook looking for a "free ride" (literally..in the form of a Chief's car and free gas for personal use).

What PG needs is to conduct an independent audit that will determine the viability of the volunteer system, and then the county needs the political will to and to then to use the findings of that audit to decertify any Volunteer Fire Department who no longer is viable, capture the assets so they can be used elsewhere to actually serve the community, not to enrich the last man standing who is too stubborn to turn the lights out.

But unfortunately Jack Johnson will never do that. Why? It would take a heartfelt interest in ensuring the safety of your community to do it. Jack doesn't have that skill.
 

In the long run, the volunteers are just being suckered into taking the PAID firefighters jobs by the county. You should feel good about yourselves.
 

First if the volunteer chiefs sending in these letters to the county aren’t even willing to try to staff their stations then no they should not be in charge of anyone. That is a responsibility that comes along with being management and it doesn’t say much about the pride you have for the organization you are running voluntarily, let alone set a good example for the younger members you do have. There are volunteer chiefs in the county who are making efforts to staff the apparatus when their companies don’t have any paid personnel and those are the guys who should be commended and yes this means you might have to drive a fire truck or even an ambulance, instead of your chief’s car.

Second paid guys you might want to be careful about what you say about “THE TICS”. There was an incident in the county not to long ago where a paid man went down in a house fire and I believe it was the tics that got him out. Furthermore you had to have that pay raise and now are wondering why you are facing furloughs and possibly layoffs; the money couldn’t have been that bad, was it? Maybe that pay raise could have waited.

The county budget issues sound like they are bigger than the fire department. I think that the volunteers and the paid guys need to swallow their pride and work together and make the fire department stronger instead of tearing it apart. You are all there to do the same job and have the same training.
 

Finimore is a disgrace to the fire service as a whole and the volunteers in specific. He doesn't belong in the position he is in and is only there because of his "political pull" with the county and the union. He's a turncoat to the citizens of the county who pay taxes to support his personal hobby and he's a turncoat to the corporation that lets him be their chief. He needs to go and right away!
 

I am amazed at the bashing of the vol side. How is it possible for the vol's to take money/jobs from the career side when there is no money?? You can't take what isn't there right?

Another thing..For all those 1619'ers on here bashing any vol house for not having the staffing or management....LOOK AT PGFD! Everything you are saying about any vol house understaffed, unable to handle 24hr staffing, bad management, etc., all can be attributed to PGFD. Think of PGFD as a whole just like your thinking of the vol side as a whole. The career staffing, money, management is no different than any individual vol house. Neither side can do it alone. I may be wrong but there hasn't been a firehouse in this county fully staffed 24hrs. by the career side ever as far as I know. My statement being based on a full compliment for the ambulance and engine/special service if two calls went out at the same time. You say audit the vol side, hire enough career, take the vol equipment, etc..CAN'T BE DONE. Your dreaming. There is no money for overtime, much less creating another 400 positions. As far as taking equipment, if it is owned by the vols the county can't have it.

If you want to get to the bottom line, the only reason there is a PGFD that is functioning, the only reason the career pay, benefits, etc is as good as it is, is because the buildings and apparatus that 75% of the carrer guys ride/work in are owned by vol corporations. You complain about furloughs, if the county had to purchase the equipment to replace the vol fleet there would be RIF's for the next 5 years. In case anyone gets the wrong idea, I am not anti career. I have been in the department for 20 years and have seen very good and very bad on both sides. My point is as several others keep saying, you have to work together. Nobody cares but us.
 

It's quite ironic that all those comments are listed as Anonymous. Now, more than ever, your department needs to stand together. However, you guys won't do that. The same cowards that write this language are the ones who break the department in half. It's going to be a long road for you brothers. I hope you learn to stop passing blame and degrading one another; rather develop some good solutions to your problems before you lose someone.
 

Well, 47A might be more active if he logged off the WatchDesk and started running calls. ARVFD is a sad story, 15 years ago both houses had tons of people, and most of them had ties to the community....now they are the laughing stock of the 5th Battalion. Nick is a joke and has been since I have been involved with the fire service. He ran the volunteers off at both stations and now two of the neighboring stations has some of their most active members.
 

It's easy to point your finger and to beat the blame into Nick. But, what your really missing is that guy has probaly forgotten more then the majority of you will ever know about how to put out a fire and has led this department on both career and volunteer sides in good and bad times. We all have our issues, but realize the fact its very simple why the County government is conducting business the way they are. Its because the volunteers want to put on a show that leads people to think they can handle emergency services. But the core services; EMS, inspections, fire investigations, and etc are done by the career folk.
 

Ok Already enough said of critcism
and sterotype bias. Ok so a Volunteer Chier or others as was commented wrote a letter to the Fire Chief. How about the fact that
perhaps not everyone who is a member of a Volunteer Station is qualified nor has the ability, nor the attitude to get behind the wheel of an enormous Fire Apparatus. As far as the comments about shutting down all Volunteer Stations that is an outright ignorant juvenile opinion spoken with what I believe is frustration and displeasure as to why, how, whynot, when, who everything is being done. Let's not forget the
County Training requirements are in place for everyone. So when Career Local 1619 people say the "Volies/Ticks" can't handle it. It is obvious there are those who want the Volunteers set up to fail. That is without any doubt totally unprofessional for anyone to say. If there isw concern for blame here, how about keeping mindful the Taxpayers rejected a Ballot Initiative proposed by County Executive Johnson in the 2006 Election. It was supported by and vocally spoken against by the TRIM Group. No new Taxes is what the Taxpayers voted. I really do think the voting Taxpayers were misled in fully understanding the importance of repealing TRIM. What they said in rejecting the measure is "ACCEPTED RISK" Everyone in the Fire and EMS Delivery Service understands the reasoning behind this Groups efforts. As far as Understaffed Primary Apparatus, Redeployment/Brown outs no it's not good for anyone. The Fire Chief is doing the best he can keeping within Budget Constraints set forth by the Executive. I would like point out something that doesnot serve anyone positively. When the Career People
refer to Volunteers as 'Volies/Ticks" and say their working conditions are difficult because of the Volunteers. This is absolutely not true. No one expected the Economy to take a complete 360 downturn. The Volunteers when they refer to the Career People as "Paid Maids" Is an a derogatory statement of no substance. Station Mauntenance is everyones duty. What do the Volunteers call it when they clean/Station Maintenance? "Volunteer Cleaning Services" or House Cleaning Services"? These immature statements against each faction is an absolute shameful disgrace against the Fire and EMS Service.
The 1960's Mentality/Attitudes are over done, pack it away. This is the 21st Century Fire and EMS Service. What is most important today for all Firefighters/Paramedics is "Health/Wellness and Fitness"
I would ask and really do hope both factions Career and Volunteer start today refraining from any sarcasim, cruel words of bias/sterotype. The Fire and EMS Service belongs to everyone. The Operational Public Safety Personnel must ensure they are ready to meet and overcome the Financial challenges facing them today. It's time to get it done, with the Trust and Respect each and everyone Career and Volunteer
deserves. please I emplore you to swallow your Pride and make it work. 21st Century Fire and EMS Service. Firefighter Safety Everyone Goes Home/Professional Customer to the Taxpayers of Prince Georges County. At the end of the day, this is what it is all about.

Thank You
 

Where is Eugene Jones staffing plan? I can't believe they will confirm him as fire chief on 7/14.
This is a joke.
The beast(PGFD) is dead.
 

Jesus Christ and its only July 10. Wait til January when theres 'less than no money' in the bank. Ok maybe I should ask before I go further. Is the PG Co. budget year July-July or aligned differently (feds are Oct-Oct)

Yeah Dave I agree with the guy that says- you need to ask the County Exec or the crooked politicians "W.T,F!?!?!". Too many volunteer individual experts that run roughsod and the county staff can only do what the County Exec says they can.
 

So when is the new and improved staffing plan coming out? Shortly after Chief Jone's is confirmed on the 14th. i hope. This place is crazy these days.
 

There is no staffing plan. It is a bunch of B.S. The County Council members of the respective destricts are looking out for their own as they should and have said no to it. What they are too stupid to realize that our current plan, the old way we used to do things, and any way that we could do things require people and training. They require money which the county is saying it does not have. Volunteer and career side of this are being streched to the max. There is no way that the volunteers will just go away and the quality of career staff will not improve if there cannot be some sort of training and regularity to where they are assigned. PGFD operations will not change. The Golden Horeshoe will fall. People will bitch "how could this happen." It will be forgotten and status quo will begin again. The ego's will always be there. The willingness to do what is right in fear of being retaliated against is squashed by the ego's and fears of those that run this county. PG would not be PG if it were any other way.
 

I find it hard to believe that Nick cant scrounge up 4 people. Hell he should be there to drive. They knew about it and I mean damn, 6 bodies during the day. If he cant manage that, then put in a full house of career staff..
 

Call Hoyer's Office, 202-225-4131Where is the Stimulus Money promised by Congress and the annoited one? Vote the bums out in 2010.
 

At 0655 this morning I received a phone call from a career fire fighter there will be no career staffing at station 820 with no notification to any of the chiefs until after the fact, which resulted in the ambulance failing to respond on 3 incidents one being at the court house. It's a shame they pull the career personnel out of the station that protects the county seat. Our volunteers have jobs, the county needs to do a little better on their planning and most of all comunications with the volunteer chiefs!
 

"You say audit the vol side, hire enough career, take the vol equipment, etc..CAN'T BE DONE. You're dreaming. "
Yes, it can. Yes, it has.(about 3-4 years ago?)
Just don't renew the organizations' charter to operate as an non profit. Once expired the equipment then becomes property of the government.(by default, no sole ownership in said non profit).
The other post was correct. It would take a very tough council and executive to make the decision and move forward with it.