MEDFORD — A Medford fire alarm operator has been suspended for two weeks without pay, and three firefighters have received written reprimands, after the Fire Department did not respond to a 911 call for a medical emergency July 13 that resulted in a fatality, the city announced late Friday afternoon.
An inquiry launched by Mayor Michael J. McGlynn and Fire Chief Frank A. Giliberti Jr. determined that the fire alarm operator failed to send the proper alert, which would have triggered a loud alarm and lights to go off in a neighborhood fire station. He also recorded in a log that the Fire Department was on the scene when they were not, according to a press release from the city.
Comments
Must be nice to get paid to sleep.
This is why support for unions is waning. Unions are supposed to fight for workers' ability to make a decent living, not to be bullied by hig powered bosses, whether in the private sector or th4e government. Too often though, unions fight for bad apples who end up contaminating the whole lot. Remember the body builder fire fighter on disability?
I'm not sure why the dispatcher here was the one suspended without pay, as he actually did send the alert; the article says that firefighters' radios were turned down too low so they could sleep, that seems like the greater sin than falsifying the log book. I'm also wondering how they intend to ensure that there's one person awake at all times. Does that mean the others get to sleep? How do you determine who is the guy who actually has to be awake on the job? Sounds like bullcrap to me. Fine, I don't mind them sleeping on the job IF THEY WAKE UP WHEN THERE'S AN EMERGENCY.
Is fire a better gig than police? It's tough to know for sure. These guys spend 24 hours at the station and it counts for 3 days work. Tough job. No wonder almost all of them have a second full-time job.
Is there any evidence any medical aid that the fire department (as opposed to either the police or the ambulance service) would have made any difference? Fire trucks are being sent on these "runs" simply to pad their activity levels is an outrageous waste of resources. What good does a pumper truck do in a personal medical emergency? Why do they ALWAYS have to go when ambulances can do the same job? Why isn't a smaller unit, more appropriately equipped and more nimble than a huge truck used for such emergencies? The management of fire departments, particularly in large cities, is an exercise in vast waste of resources, mismanagement of their resources and, because of the routine use of pumper and ladder trucks for minor incidents, actually results in raising risks for the public (and firefighters) as they race around chasing fender benders and any scale "emergency". "Public Safety"? The way fire resources are misused and risk is unnecessarily escalated by their padding of "run" statistics that idea is a joke.