tagged w/ Fire Department
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As ThinkProgress has noted, there are currently two competing visions of governance(http://bit.ly/bMxs9b) in the United States. One, the conservative vision, believes in the on-your-own society, and informs a policy agenda that primarily serves the well off and privileged sectors of the country. The other vision, the progressive one, believes in an American Dream that works for all people, regardless of their racial, religious, or economic background.
The conservative vision was on full display last week in Obion County, Tennessee. In this rural section of Tennessee, Gene Cranick’s home caught on fire. As the Cranicks fled their home, their neighbors alerted the county’s firefighters, who soon arrived at the scene. Yet when the firefighters arrived, they refused to put out the fire, saying that the family failed to pay the annual subscription fee to the fire department. Because the county’s fire services for rural residences is based on household subscription fees, the firefighters, fully equipped to help the Cranicks, stood by and watched as the home burned to the ground(http://bit.ly/cA0k7O):
> Imagine your home catches fire but the local fire department won’t respond, then
> watches it burn. That’s exactly what happened to a local family tonight. A local
> neighborhood is furious after firefighters watched as an Obion County, Tennessee,
> home burned to the ground.
> The homeowner, Gene Cranick, said he offered to pay whatever it would take for
> firefighters to put out the flames, but was told it was too late. They wouldn’t do
> anything to stop his house from burning. Each year, Obion County residents must
> pay $75 if they want fire protection from the city of South Fulton. But the Cranicks
> did not pay. The mayor said if homeowners don’t pay, they’re out of luck. [...]
> We asked the mayor of South Fulton if the chief could have made an exception.
> “Anybody that’s not in the city of South Fulton, it’s a service we offer, either they
> accept it or they don’t,” Mayor David Crocker said.
The fire reportedly continued for hours “because garden hoses just wouldn’t put it out. It wasn’t until that fire spread to a neighbor’s property(http://bit.ly/bEPdlY), that anyone would respond” — only because the neighbor had paid the fee.
A local newspaper further pressed Mayor Crocker about the city’s policy, which has been in place since 1990.
Crocker, a REPUBLICAN who was elected in 2008 and serves with a county commission where EVERY SEAT(http://bit.ly/d5m3Hj) is also filled by a REPUBLICAN, likened the policy to buying auto insurance.
The paper said he told them that, after all, “if an auto owner allowed their vehicle insurance to lapse, they would not expect(http://bit.ly/97phLQ) an insurance company to pay for an unprotected vehicle after it was wrecked.”
Ironically, in the county commission’s latest report on its fire services, which outlines which parts of the municipal area will receive fire services only through subscriptions, the commissioners and fire service officials brag that the county is “very progressive.”(http://bit.ly/dh0cOE)As ThinkProgress has noted, there are currently two competing visions of... more
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Lake Delhi Iowa ruptured amidst torrential rains on Saturday, Lake Delhi Iowa rupture has reportedly affected at least 8000 people though no injury or human loss is reported.Lake Delhi Iowa ruptured amidst torrential rains on Saturday, Lake Delhi Iowa rupture... more
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Socialism: Keeping America Safe from Fires Since 1898!
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asherp
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added this
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2 years ago
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"The BBC has a story up about a quartet of robotic fire fighters that the London Fire Brigade is testing and with which have been achieving 'tremendous results.' The robots were developed by QinetiQ, which is a defense contractor. The LFB has been testing the units since last year and the machines are primarily used in fires involving acetylene canisters. The group commander for hazardous materials and environmental protection with the LFB says that the robots have cut the time to resolve these potential hazards from 24 hours to 3. From the article: 'Three years ago we were shutting down parts of London for over 24 hours every other week. Now it doesn't even make the news.'""The BBC has a story up about a quartet of robotic fire fighters that the London... more
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A message in a bottle tossed into the ocean off of New Jerset has turned up in North Carolina - 39 years later.A message in a bottle tossed into the ocean off of New Jerset has turned up in North... more
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STRATEGIC OUTLOOK ON INTELLIGENCE
According to the FDNY, intelligence has a place in all three of its missions: prevention, preparedness, and response. For example, advance intelligence (foreknowledge) can alert firefighters responding to an incident to the proximity of volatile chemicals or potentially dangerous activities already under surveillance. Familiarity with surroundings increases firefighters’ situational awareness, improves their operational efficiency, and increases the safety of first responders and the public. Intelligence can also tell fire departments where best to deploy their limited resources on the basis of where threats are most likely to arise. And intelligence can help departments anticipate an event and thereby improve its chances of preventing it.
Collectors of Intelligence
The FDNY has identified the following as ways in which it can produce operational intelligence. Many of them can also be adopted by fire departments across the United States. Increased coordination, integration, and communication with other public-safety agencies enhance a fire department’s ability to fulfill its core mission of protecting life.
* Access to venues. During the course of routine building inspections, arson investigations, and responses to fire and medical emergencies, fire department personnel enjoy access to buildings generally denied outsiders. These firefighters are passive collectors, who are positioned in the normal course of their duties to observe the signs of terrorist activity and, assuming that the firefighters are properly trained, to recognize them as such. When properly shared with local law enforcement and local and national intelligence centers, this information can fill critical intelligence gaps and generate leads.
* Access to, and knowledge of, premises storing hazardous materials. Fire department personnel regularly inspect buildings and sites where hazardous materials are stored. Being familiar with such materials and their destructive potential, fire department personnel are in a privileged position to observe and report on suspicious or unusual conditions and to educate facility managers to do the same.
* Observation of suspicious activity. Firefighters may observe possible terrorist materials, such as equipment and planning documents, in the course of responding to an incident.
* Detection of possible weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Because many fire department units carry equipment, including radiation detectors, capable of identifying hazardous materials, fire departments can assist in discovering materials used in a WMD or dirty bomb. With proper training, firefighters and emergency responders can become alert to physical symptoms in humans that might indicate the occurrence of a biological or chemical attack.[8]
* Protecting critical infrastructure.
Users of Intelligence
Intelligence provided to fire departments can be a force and awareness multiplier in a heightened threat environment. Having access to intelligence about current threats allows fire departments to focus their limited resources on increasing their training and readiness for particular scenarios.
Intelligence Training and Sharing
The FDNY has conducted classes in identifying suspicious behavior and recognizing what might be indicators of terrorist planning.[10] Using faculty from the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy, the FDNY has created a graduate-level executive-education program—the first of its kind in the nation—to educate fire and EMS officers (who are under FDNY supervision) about the threat terrorists pose to first responders and the cities they protect.
Sure it's good to keep stuff on the down low so that terrorists don't know every move before we make it. Classified stuff should be classified... At the same time, it's on the internet. So should we feel more comfortable knowing there are more watching out for us?STRATEGIC OUTLOOK ON INTELLIGENCE
According to the FDNY, intelligence has a place... more
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