BROWNSVILLE(TX) FIRE5 CHILDREN DIE IN FIRE

[FLAME5]

BEING FROM THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY, AND WORKING IN A DEPARTMENT ABOUT AS LARGE AS BROWNSVILLE,AND ABOUT 45 MILES WEST. I KIND OF THINK TO MYSELF THESE QUESTIONS.
YOU KNOW "WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE TO PREVENT THIS?" "AND WILL IT HAPPEN AGAIN?"
IT IS OF COURSE SOMETHING WE ARE GOING TO FACE IN OUR JOB. DO MANY DEPARTMENTS OUT THERE HAVE A LONG ARRIVAL TIMES TO COUNTY AREAS AND WHAT IS BEING DONE TO IMPROVE? (IF ANY)
JUST A LITTLE INFORMATION MY AREA IS SPLIT INTO STARR, HIDALGO, CAMERON, AND WILLACY COUNTIES (THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY)

JANUARY 2001 FIRE DEATHS
HIDALGO: 1- CHILD (ELSA TX.)

CAMERON: 1-ADULT (HARLINGEN TX.WAS INSIDE THE CITY, IN A AUTO BODY SHOP)
5-CHILDREN (BROWNSVILLE TX.)
JUST A LITTLE EXTRA INFO. I AM SURE OTHERS AREAS AROUND THE WORLD ARE WORSE.

STAY SAFE EVERYONE!

[This message has been edited by FLAME5 (edited 01-18-2001).]

[JAMESBENNETT]

I have been in the fire service a long time and this has been a ball buster since I started. The more people move from the Metro areas, the more this problem will grow. The expense of adding new station and putting on paid staff is out of the question in most area's. I live in Central Tx. and the population is a little denser than in some of the area's you have described, but the problem is still here. We lost a man in a fire about a mile and a half outside of town a few weeks ago. The fire was dispatched at 6:30 am. and the man was dead when we got there. His grandson call the fire in from next door and the evidence in the house told us that the fire had burned and smoldered most of the night. This was a case that it would not have mattered paid or not, next door to the station or a hundred miles away. Response time is always going to be an issue, but all we can do is train hard and try to find the funding to strategically place our station where they are needed. I have never known a group of firefighters than did not do all they could to get there as quick as possible. Response is one of those issues that is tied to the bottomline and, as we all know that, is as low as it can go for some departments just to keep their doors open. The sad fact is people are being killed more and more and taxes are going up, but the emergency response teams across the country are not seeing these increase. An old wise fireman once told me," You cannot save them all and something's were built to burn, but if you can go home at the end of the call and know you did all you could do to the best of your ability than you gave them their best chance."

The only way to make up in response time to these area's is training and team work. You can make up a lot of time just by being ready to go when you get there!

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SERVING FOR PRIDE
PROUD TO SERVE!

[This message has been edited by JAMESBENNETT (edited 01-19-2001).]