"We don't want no firehouse in our neighborhood...."

[JDgreen227]

Regarding insurance reimbursement, I've heard you are better off monetarily to let the whole house burn to the ground, rather than trying to save it.

As a retired carpenter who has dealt with the repair and replacement of fire damaged homes, I can attest that statement is true if, repeat IF, a homeowner has replacement cost insurance coverage. The sad thing is, few people have an inventory of the contents of their homes, and there is no way to put a value on the multitude of items that have sentimental attachment.

 

[super55]

Part of running lights and sirens is legality issues. In Michigan the law states that if you run lights you run sirens no if ands or buts. That being said a lot of rural departments as a professional courtesy to their residents will sometimes run lights only at that 2 am. call. By the way the law is written what they are doing is illegal.

During the day there's too many unforeseen hazards to not use the sirens. People in cars blasting stereos, joggers with Ipods, and bicyclist whom seem to refuse to get on the shoulder of the road for anything. You would be surprised how many people do not look in their rear view mirrors.

Just in case people are wondering most areas already have an emergent/non-emergent response system. I can assure you that if they are lighting up the lights/sirens there is a valid reason why they are doing so.

BTW if your area has a volunteer fire dept. be sure to thank them for what they do. Most don't get paid squat if anything at all. They have to drop everything to go assist someone in need and are often doing it with half the funding, resources, and personnel that a full time department does in order to make you property taxes a little more tolerable. I used to work as a professional full-time firefighter and before that as a volunteer and being a volunteer takes way more commitment since everything is being done on your time instead of being paid for it.

 

[PILOON]

And I've had more times than I can count drivers failing to yield or otherwise be oblivious to us being behind them, regardless of the number of flashy lights and sirens.
-mike

Last time I yielded it cost me $150. and 3 demerit points.*
So now when I hear a siren I simply stop where I am.

*ambulance honked & siren and literally forced me thru an intersection that had a red light. Cop was around the corner and issued a ticket for running the red light.
Without loosing my cool there was no argument that he would hear.
I later learned that no emergency vehicle is exempt either, merely tolerated due to nature of servie.

HOWEVER any and all bicycles run reds all day and never get ticketed.

 

[Johnny g]

Last time I yielded it cost me $150. and 3 demerit points.*
So now when I hear a siren I simply stop where I am.

*ambulance honked & siren and literally forced me thru an intersection that had a red light. Cop was around the corner and issued a ticket for running the red light.
Without loosing my cool there was no argument that he would hear.
I later learned that no emergency vehicle is exempt either, merely tolerated due to nature of servie.

HOWEVER any and all bicycles run reds all day and never get ticketed.

I would like to here the other side of that story. Around here when a fire/ emergency vehicle approaches a traffic light it will go green to clear the way, they still have to make sure the cross flow of traffic can stop in time.

 

[turnkey4099]

When I was in college, we lived about half a block from the Dairy Queen, which was next door to the Fire Station. Not long after I got out of school, the Dairy Queen caught fire and burned to the ground. We all wondered what the story was, but we never heard. So much for living near a fire station...

Or living _in_ a fire station. Colfax, Wa Fire Dept garage bay caught fire around 1am. Burned all the trucks, all the equipment and almost got the City Town Hall which was attached. Problem was that the fire crew could only stand and watch as they couldn't get the trucks out in time. The only "working" truck they had was "Wimpy" an antique one used in parades and none of its hoses had the right connections. All the nearby towns responded but by the time they got there nothing was left.

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

Yup, same here. Firehouse is not manned and when a call goes out our EMTs and firefighters respond as quickly as possible, which usually isn't very quick. They could be out moving cows, cutting hay, hunting or whatever and most locations in our county have cell service that ranges from spotty to none. Makes a person think very carefully about fire prevention/suppression, not necessarily a bad thing.

Ours is manned but only with 2 persn crew, trucks don't roll until enough volunteer firemen have arrived.

Harry K

 

[cqaigy2]

Last time I yielded it cost me $150. and 3 demerit points.*
So now when I hear a siren I simply stop where I am.

*ambulance honked & siren and literally forced me thru an intersection that had a red light. Cop was around the corner and issued a ticket for running the red light.
Without loosing my cool there was no argument that he would hear.
I later learned that no emergency vehicle is exempt either, merely tolerated due to nature of servie.

HOWEVER any and all bicycles run reds all day and never get ticketed.

You don't ride a bicycle, do you. :laughing:

 

[RobertN]

Well, imagine, the volunteer is at work. Work is 15 minutes away. They drop what they are doing, leave work short handed(bosses just love that, right?). Then, get to fire station, gear up, and drive 5-15 minutes to the call.

Are they a feel good thing? No, it's a bunch of people who drop everything to help others in need. For free. Because they contribute to their community.

How functional they are depends partly on how many they are, and how close they work in the community. Volunteering is getting difficult; the State and Federal rules require a LOT more training than in days past. It is getting harder to find people to commit to the training, both initial academies, and then monthly/yearly training.

JD - Same thing is true here..we have a volunteer FD but it is not staffed so if you are lucky someone shows up in 20 min. if not so lucky ...well some time after 20 min. Most houses burn down here...most are not saved...just the way it is...I think the volunteer FDs are just a feel good thing..not really functional as far as saving life or property....:2cents:

 

[PILOON]

I would like to here the other side of that story. Around here when a fire/ emergency vehicle approaches a traffic light it will go green to clear the way, they still have to make sure the cross flow of traffic can stop in time.

At the time I found it odd as traffic was really light and I had slowed to a crawl B4 actually entering the intersection cautiously.
And there was no cross traffic (and rarely is on that street) In fact I did not 'run' the light but entered the intersection and pulled to the side, however I did continue once the ambulance passed me.(maybe I needed to wait for the light change*)
The city does not use the radio control system as the traffic is very light on that street.

* but with my luck would have rec'd a ticket for improper stop or blocking or stopped with wheels past the white line.


Revenue is what they want and admit to quotas.

 

[PILOON]

You don't ride a bicycle, do you. :laughing:

No, I don't but when I did we had to obey traffic laws and pay to plate our bikes.

We get fined should we use a cell phone in a car but a cyclist can TEXT (or phone) even while running a light.
However should a cyclist run into my car door I will get heavy fine and lose lots of points. But the cyclist does not need any lights to run at night.

I understand the argument is that the cyclist can't break his momentum at cross streets.
What about my driving (cautiously) thru lights to save energy and fossil fuel. I see that as no different from a cyclist doing that, in fact since he uses no fuel he can well afford to stop and wait much more than a motorist.
In fact I bet we could argue that stop an go driving produces far more CO2 than steady pace.

The ultimate frustration is when I saw that a $2mil contract was awarded for snow removal on some bike paths a while back.
Then we have the BIXI bikes that is costing MILLIONS so that some folks can ride downhill with the city bringing the bike back to home base.