Is it me?

[turbojimmy]

Yesterday I went over to my mom's house for a barbeque. She lives down the street from me (same town). Across the street and also down the road are some volunteer firefighters. The guy down the street was having a 2nd birthday party for his son. I had seen a firetruck go flying by earlier and the sound of the air horns drew me to it. I walked down there and found the truck backed up pretty much behind the house, with some other pickups and stuff parked in front of it (to hide it?). The chief, from what I was told by a kid playing in the driver's seat, brought one of the town's firetrucks by to be used as a giant jungle gym. He was at the party somewhere. This is a fully commissioned, in use fire truck that belongs to the town - not the volunteers (not that I don't appreciate their efforts). When I got there there were kids climbing all over it - inside and out. Fully loaded O2 tanks installed in the seats, and all the tools and whatnot easily accessible. There weren't any adults in sight. I put my kid in the cockpit, and sat there for a while watching this other kid jumping around the driver's seat. The longer I sat there the more PO'd I got. Is this what my obscenely high taxes are paying for? Catering kids' birthday parties with multi-hundred-thousand-dollar firefighting equipement?

I'm going to call the town tomorrow and ask how I can get a firetruck dropped off at my kid's next party. I'm thinking they might tell me that I'm crazy.

Am I wrong for being a little ticked off?

Jim

 

[Brian Mc]

Would you rather your house burn to the ground or have some of it saved if you had an accident? It's all for the kids anyway, not just fire trucks.

 

[turbojimmy]

Originally posted by Brian Mc
Would you rather your house burn to the ground or have some of it saved if you had an accident? It's all for the kids anyway, not just fire trucks.

Is the implication that without being able to use the truck for private parties that there would be no volunteers and thus my house would burn to the ground?

I'd rather the truck be where it belongs rather than being used as a jungle gym. In this case, it was really close to my house so if I did have an accident it would be really close. But since I live in a pretty remote part of town, others who live close to the firehouse (where the truck should have been) wouldn't have faired as well.

I guess it is just me....the wife thinks so

Jim

 

[Pitbozz]

Well...It's not just you. I would probably be upset also. However...where you will lose most of your support is in the fact that you brought your own kid there and let him play on it also. Kinda makes you look hypocritical. No flames intended.

 

[Gothmog]

If the town owns the truck , there should be equity regarding the use of the truck, either all the town gets to use it for parties or none. Not just the "special" people.

My 2 cents

 

[turbojimmy]

Originally posted by Pitbozz
Well...It's not just you. I would probably be upset also. However...where you will lose most of your support is in the fact that you brought your own kid there and let him play on it also. Kinda makes you look hypocritical. No flames intended.

Oh yeah, it would be totally hypocritical of me to do anything now. I put my kid on the thing like everyone else. I wouldn't do anything anyway - I know the guy from high school. It just bugs me, that's all.

Jim

 

[bruce]

If it bothers you then do something. Is the short of it.

But, who knows, that thrill that the 5 YO got from it, might lead him to be a firefighter, or in some other way a contributing member of the community.

If they were using it to commit arson would be another matter.

I'd also venture a guess, that in case of an emergency the response from there would be immediate just so that it wouldn't be an issue if there was a problem.

Personally, I cut EMTs, Firefighters, and cops all a little slack. They don't get enough Thank Yous, in my opinon. I was involved with a serious fire once, and can live the rest of my life without going thru that again.

It just seems all to easy to get caught in looking at the negative end of things, it seems now a days.

 

[WE4]

I agree with Bruce (LOL)

Just the morality of it all would be worth my tax dollars and I am sure they are alot higher here. Just to see the kids faces and the fact that it might interest one of them to become a firefighter would be enough for me. What else one might do is assemble all of the kids at your birthday party and prearrange it to take them down to the firehouse and see ALL of what the firefighters do. I agree, never enough "Thank you's" involved....
I know some of my family ( firefighters) gave there lives in 9/11.
I'll bet not one of them would ever object.

Just my opinion......

Bruce
WE4

 

[turbojimmy]

Re: I agree with Bruce (LOL)

Originally posted by WE4
Just the morality of it all would be worth my tax dollars and I am sure they are alot higher here. Just to see the kids faces and the fact that it might interest one of them to become a firefighter would be enough for me. What else one might do is assemble all of the kids at your birthday party and prearrange it to take them down to the firehouse and see ALL of what the firefighters do. I agree, never enough "Thank you's" involved....
I know some of my family ( firefighters) gave there lives in 9/11.
I'll bet not one of them would ever object.

Just my opinion......

Bruce
WE4

This is why I posted the question - there's different ways of looking at everything.

Last year, while on vacation, we stayed at a hotel off of Rt. 95 outside of Richmond (ironcally across the street from where one of the sniper victims was killed). The hotel was built right in front of the firehouse. I took my son over there to look at the trucks. Some really nice firemen gave him the grand tour of the place and gave him a hat to take with him. He wouldn't take it off the whole way home. That experience was inspiring.

I've personally witnessed some bad behavior among the ranks of my local volunteers and let those couple of bad apples spoil the whole bunch. I went into this situation with a tainted opinion. I should know better....thanks all for posting.

Jim

 

[tta1401]

When I was in school, we use to have firetrucks and ambulances come by and let us tour it and even let us climb up the ladder, ofcourse w/ a fireman. That is alright w/ me. If you replace "school" w/ b-day party, it doesn't really make a difference IMO. Just less kids. But it really just comes down to POLITICS. You probably wouldn't get that firetruck at your kids party unless you knew someone.

 

[TurboTer]

Originally posted by turbojimmy
Yesterday I went over to my mom's house for a barbeque. She lives down the street from me (same town). Across the street and also down the road are some volunteer firefighters. The guy down the street was having a 2nd birthday party for his son. I had seen a firetruck go flying by earlier and the sound of the air horns drew me to it. I walked down there and found the truck backed up pretty much behind the house, with some other pickups and stuff parked in front of it (to hide it?). The chief, from what I was told by a kid playing in the driver's seat, brought one of the town's firetrucks by to be used as a giant jungle gym. He was at the party somewhere. This is a fully commissioned, in use fire truck that belongs to the town - not the volunteers (not that I don't appreciate their efforts). When I got there there were kids climbing all over it - inside and out. Fully loaded O2 tanks installed in the seats, and all the tools and whatnot easily accessible. There weren't any adults in sight. I put my kid in the cockpit, and sat there for a while watching this other kid jumping around the driver's seat. The longer I sat there the more PO'd I got. Is this what my obscenely high taxes are paying for? Catering kids' birthday parties with multi-hundred-thousand-dollar firefighting equipement?

I'm going to call the town tomorrow and ask how I can get a firetruck dropped off at my kid's next party. I'm thinking they might tell me that I'm crazy.

Am I wrong for being a little ticked off?

Jim

Yes, it's just you.

Seriously though, I don't see what the big deal is. Tax dollars are going to be waisted no matter what anyway. I'd rather it go to this than some inner city program like midnight basketball.

 

[turbojimmy]

Re: Re: Is it me?

Originally posted by TurboTer
Yes, it's just you.

Man I gotta lay off the caffiene. I was sure I was right on this one. So I'm getting old AND crotchety?!

My son and I had fun anyway - he was talking about it again yesterday. I suppose that's all that matters. Plus when Santa comes around on the firetruck he knows our names - freaks my kid right out.

Jim

 

[Drew L]

Most likely that peice was not "out of service" while sitting at the party. It could respond if called. If the truck remained in the district or area that it serves then it's not even out of position. If it was out of the area thats a concern. Was there a person supervising the children on that truck? If not do the department a favor and bring that to their attention. Having a child fall off an unmanned engine is bad. No one whants to see that happen. Policies get changed when something gets brought to a departments attention. Friendly discussion has the best results. Do you have all volunteer protection or a full time career department? Volunteer sumplimenting a full time staff? There are many arangements in use today. Pro's and con's for both. I bring that point up because rules and regulations for the two different style departments are completely different. There was a brief period of time that we were bringing trucks to kids birthday parties. That quickly ended when parents left their kids with us essentially babysitting. That's not what we do. We are open 24/7. If a child or a group wants to come visit there is ample opportunity to see us and our equipment with the understanding that we are "in service". So if we have to leave, we got to leave. We're not talking about going to schools during Fire Prevention Week, we are talking about a kids birthday party. That's bad buisness IMHO. Drew

 

[turbojimmy]

Originally posted by Drew L
Most likely that peice was not "out of service" while sitting at the party. It could respond if called. If the truck remained in the district or area that it serves then it's not even out of position. If it was out of the area thats a concern. Was there a person supervising the children on that truck? If not do the department a favor and bring that to their attention. Having a child fall off an unmanned engine is bad. No one whants to see that happen. Policies get changed when something gets brought to a departments attention. Friendly discussion has the best results. Do you have all volunteer protection or a full time career department? Volunteer sumplimenting a full time staff? There are many arangements in use today. Pro's and con's for both. I bring that point up because rules and regulations for the two different style departments are completely different. There was a brief period of time that we were bringing trucks to kids birthday parties. That quickly ended when parents left their kids with us essentially babysitting. That's not what we do. We are open 24/7. If a child or a group wants to come visit there is ample opportunity to see us and our equipment with the understanding that we are "in service". So if we have to leave, we got to leave. We're not talking about going to schools during Fire Prevention Week, we are talking about a kids birthday party. That's bad buisness IMHO. Drew

The truck was within its serving area. I know my area is served by that company. The fact that it was hidden is what made me suspicious. They must've known that they shouldn't have had it there. The department is totally volunteer - not much goes on in our town other than the occasional car wreck. I can't remember when the last fire was. I could see if they had uniformed firemen there providing information and such, but they backed it up behind a barn, put some pickups in front of it, and walked away from it. I was there for about 15 minutes and there wasn't an adult anywhere near it. It was there for a couple of hours - maybe it was the only way for this guy to get all his firemen friends at the party?

I guess all's well that ends well, but if someone did get hurt on it it would be interesting how the lawsuit would play out.

Jim

 

[Drew L]

Think of it as being civic minded

As mentioned, bring the unsupervised portion of your concerns to the proper person's attention. The rest of it will take care of itself. Nobody wants to make the "hard , right decision" but you could be preventing an injury, to a child. Drew