House fire kills mother, 4 children - An Everyday Tragedy

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With the tragedies that occured in Newtown,CT and Webster,NY, we must not lose focus. People, adults and children, are severly burned or killed in house fires like the one below. Fires also take peoples homes and busineses. It happens almost every day.

There's a lot of talk about gun control and how we can prevent shooting incidents lately, and for good reason. But, what about fire control? Why shouldn't the everyday tragedies, of which could benefit from changes in the fire servie, get the same attention?

Things such as mandatory sprinklers in residential structures and smoke detectors should be standard in every community. We should figure out ways to increase staffing and upgrade equipment, so that the first due has enough manpower to initate a rescue efficienty. "Bedroom communities" should have increased staffing at night and on the weekends. OSHA, or whatever regulatory agency that could do it, should mandate 4 firefighters on every apparatus. And fire prevention classes should be mandated twice yearly for every student in every grade in the US. Require firefighters to be "Certified" just like EMT's and Police Officers. Hold EVERY firefighter in the US to the same standard. Push for realistic interoperability. And learn from New Jersey, and their homeland security preperations and operations. That should be what the fed's should be doing nationwide.

The media has covered just about every possible angle regarding Newtown and Webster. They are intense tragedies. But the "everyday" tragedies should not be overlooked, as they add up. Why are these tragedies any different? Look at the statistics for 2011 in the US from NFPA. It speaks for itself.

In 2011, U.S. fire departments responded to 370,000 home structure¹ fires. These fires caused 13,910 civilian injuries, 2,520 civilian deaths, $6.9 billion in direct damage

Of course, we can't prevent every fire, nor can we rescue everybody every time, but we can do our best that we can, and campaign as hard as we can for change in the fire service. The goverment regulates a lot of things, such as automotive safety compliance. Why can't we have mandatory things like other federal agencies require, such as the USDA, EPA, and Transportation Safety board. Both set strict regulations for compliance, and they follow up on it, and fine companies that aren't complying. Look at airports. The fire service for ARFF is strictly regulated and has to follow specific protocols. Why should the fire service be any different?

Oklahoma City house fire kills mother, 4 children

By By SEAN MURPHY | Associated Press 19 hrs ago.. .

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) A fire that ripped through a home in Oklahoma City before dawn Wednesday killed a woman and her four children and left one man in critical condition with serious burns, authorities said.

Firefighters who arrived about 6:30 a.m. found the bodies of Jeanine Bonnet, 28, and her children inside the two-story, wood-frame home, Fire Department Maj. Tammy McKinney said. They found Brian Poletto, 39, outside the burning house while a man who rented a room at the home, David Ruppert, managed to escape the flames.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/oklahoma-city-house-fire-kills-mother-4-children-234309047.html

[SECTMB 612]

Money.

While I agree with all your points, and, that they would greatly improve the fire service and the general public which we protect, in light of the current and yet to come economic conditions, anything that increases costs will be met with great resistance regardless of the potential benefits.

When you look at the statistics you quoted, they are only in the same league with general gun violence and automobile deaths. Gun violence receives enormous publicity, with no results, and automobile deaths, I believe, have continued to decline because of better built/safer autos and public scrutiny and police action on DUI.

I just moved to a perfect example of money and the fire service. My street is the County line. One side of the street is 'M' County. Big, bright, new fire stations, paid personnel, modern fleet of apparatus. The other side of the street is 'L' County.

Its volunteer, the nearest station is 3 miles away, its a small two bay concrete masonry block building, no windows, one personnel door on the side and an elevated water tank outside to fill the water tanks. The next station is 15 miles away, its a two bay drive through metal pre-fab, no windows, one personnel door. Neither station has a paved apron or parking, its dirt. There are two more stations that I have yet to see.

Apparatus, by our usual standards, is what we had as reserve, ten years ago. This is a truly rural community, like a vast amount of this country, and the associated costs with the improvements you speak of, and I agree with, could not be supported by the community, not without hardship that could be more than the community could absorb.

Now, if you want to talk about a national standard that, by Obama speak, levels the playing field and allocates money and resources to poor rural areas to upgrade their infrastructure, apparatus and training without sticking them with a bill they can't pay, then I'm sure these less fortunate, less populated smaller tax base areas would jump on board to improve their abilities and capabilities.

[SageVigiles 1,194]

SECTMB is spot on about a portion of it, but at the same time there's also not a political agenda that can be furthered by publicizing and talking about fire incidents. Its sick, but I can't help but think that's in relation.