First I would like to thank everyone who has read and shared my blog. I had over 450 hits in the last day. WOW! My letter has been sent to all the local papers.
Tonight I would like to address firefighter and scene safety. As I wrote last night, it is important to have an incident commander at every call. This person is set back from the chaos and active work to control that chaos. Number 1 is firefighter and EMS personnel safety. If the chief or other officer is expected to be part of that active scene than safety is compromised. When will the board of selectmen realize this? After someone is seriously hurt or worse. I do not want to say goodbye to another firefighter lost too soon. It sucks plain and simple.
Yet the selectmen's budget proposal doesn't allow for the hiring of a new firefighter to fill one of the open positions nor does it provide for adequate part time staffing to cover when people are off. This essentially brings us down two firefighters. Now neither my husband nor myself are fortunate enough to live and work in the same town. This goes for the majority of the call firefighters in the area. So what happens when there is a major incident during normal work hours? Who is going to show up to assist those on duty. Who will be in charge if the chief has to work interior attack because there are not enough bodies. It comes down to compromised scene safety and how much value we put on human life. I do not want anyone to ever have to explain to my son that his mom or dad's life was not worth it because budget cuts were necessary due to personal agendas.
Firefighting is probably the most physically challenging tasks I will ever undertake. That goes for my fellow firefighters. We need enough people on scene to allow us adequate rehab breaks. The number one cause of firefighter death is due to heart attacks at scenes or shortly thereafter.
The BARNSTEAD BOS is completely reckless with the lives of not only our civil servants, but also the lives of the towns people. We need to stand united and take a stand against their out of control behavior. I do not want it come down to the lives of my brothers and sisters before some change is made.
Remember...the BOS forgets they work for me. I am a voting tax payer of this town and I will not allow them to drag us down. They are elected to oversee the running of the town. Oversee, not micromanage.
Maybe it's time to ask them why one of them is no longer the police chief and why the other is no longer involved in the fire department.
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