Oh, your taxes?  That was just in case you needed us. Montgomery County, Maryland, is one of the richest and most educated counties in the United States.  Their 2013 approved fire/rescue budget is $196.6 million, an increase of $16.6 million over FY 2012.  Just what does $197 million dollars get you?  Apparently not a ride […]

“A Social Experiment” President Harry Truman’s grandparents owned slaves and historians have said that he was raised and conditioned to be a racist.  Yet, just 100 days before the 1948 elections and despite 82% of Americans disagreeing with his position, he issued Executive Orders 9980 and 9981 ordering the racial integration of the US military. […]

Yesterday’s blog post at IAFF online by Rich Duffy trumpets a “must read” article in a “prestigious, professional online magazine” by author John Steadman concerning the fatal fire at the former Deutsche Bank building which was under demolition at the time of the incident. First, employing “J’accuse”, a reference to the 19th century Dreyfuss affair in […]

Well, thank you to my Local Facebook friends who saw fit to send along the recent breitbart.com/Big-Government posts detailing the IAFF decision making process to hire Mr. Ron Saathoff as their “pension czar”.  I had no idea I had such conservative acquaintances.  Mr. Saathoff,  longtime former head of the San Diego Firefighter’s Local and a city firefighter’s […]

District of Columbia Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe is set to forge ahead with his recently announced plan to convert the department from the current 24/72 work schedule to a 12-hour shift format.  According to Ellerbe, the change saves money ($36M?) and results in decreased staff of up to 400. There are arguments for either side […]

Why should you care about this? It’s simple. FDNY is the most revered fire department, period. They are copied and imitated in ways too numerous to even begin to list.

Friendly Fire? ATF Agent John Capano was shot and killed in Seaford, Long island, on New Year’s Eve when he intervened in a robbery at a pharmacy. Agent Capano was in the pharmacy picking up a prescription when the assailant, who has a record of prior robberies, demanded money and medication. He followed the robber, […]

Amidst the growing tendency in some parts of the  US to approve 48-hours as the normal for firefighter duty shifts, the fire chief of Washington, DC, Kenneth Ellerbe, is taking an assertive step in the opposite direction. According to the Washington Post, Ellerbe is promoting a schedule change from the current 24-hour system to 12-hour […]

Willy-Nilly: in a haphazard or spontaneous manner. A Monday morning fire at 1100 Prospect Place in Crown Heights,  Brooklyn, resulted in serious injuries to members of Rescue Company-2 as they apparently conducted a search on the top floor of the dwelling. According to the New York Times, a family with four children lives in the brownstone […]