This is amazing…Xenia (Oh) City Council doesn’t know why firefighters don’t understand that the City is under an economic crisis and want them to buy their own turnout gear. Xenia is the self proclaimed City of Hospitality!!!
Scroll down for the video!
I have to give credit to the Fire Chief for speaking up for his department….and all of the council members are not on board with this idea of postponing the purchase and potentially making firefighters buy their own turnout gear.
City Council in Xenia, Ohio have lost their minds. They voted down purchasing new turnout gear for their firefighters. edited to add: I apologize. I thought the vote was to put the purchasing on hold. In fact after further review, the motion to purchase went through. However, there is still a need to educate these council members who do not understand our need for decent gear! Ugh… They think that maybe the firefighters should purchase their own gear…and then went so far as to say maybe the police officers should purchase their own bullet proof vests.
This was also run on FirefighterCloseCalls.com.
I will go the extra step…email them today to tell them what you think! Oh wait, this gets really good… They actually post their addresses, home phone numbers, cell phone numbers, and terms on their website. Click here for that information and tell them what you think (be sure to be professional though)!
The video says: Watch the Xenia City Council debate the purchase of BUDGETED safety equipment for the Fire Department. This is part of the 5 year rotation on gear.
This is BS you have to be fricken kidding me…………
From a Firefighter – In a democratic nation majority rules. As the person who posted this stated, the motion did pass for the city to replace the turnouts. We have to trust that our elected leaders will discuss and come up with a best option. NFPA standards are what most agencies use for a replacement schedule, no one here is out of line. Xenia – you are not alone many small departments are using sub standard gear because without it no response would be possible. The point if you have 6 old sets sitting around make a gesture of good faith contact some of your smaller agencies and see if they could use the old gear you have stored. We are all in this together, we travel through each others cities, counties, districts and states. Please remember to help each other don’t leave gear with value sit in a corner and time out.
Let’s put this in perspective. In any forum, you’re always going to have one or two people with unusual ideas. The fact it is his completely uninformed “opinion”, gear can’t wear out quickly is telling – but he is quickly put in place by even the other dissenting member who said he had no argument with the chief’s stated need. At the end of the video, the motion to purchase the gear passed with only two votes against.
I fail to see why this is a “call to action”. The motion to buy the gear passed.
You are right. I misunderstood and have edited the post. I thought that they voted to postpone the purchase.
Either way, the thinking process of some of the council members is astonishing.
Thanks for the comment!
Bottom line, it’s against OSHA regulations for a person to be responsible for his or her own PPE.
For those members who feel that the old gear is acceptable, give it to them, and let them wear it during a live burn training rotation. Make them UNDERSTAND that the very lives of those firefighters who wear that gear could depend on that gear being in serviceable condition.
This show how the people in charge of a town can easily forget who voted them in. They are totally out of touch with their public servants.
here is a bottom line for you all and please get this to the two council members who have no clue, the financial loss would have been greater if anyone of those 7 firefighters where to have become hurt or killed wearing gear not up to basic standards than to just buy the new gear. not to mention they have no clue i say let them suit up for a live fire drill in gear with rips and tears in it then see the outcome of a new vote
We have a very small department (6 folks show up for meetings). Our current city council doesn’t like us, so we get almost no help from them. We are fortunete that one of our members has been very succesful at writing grants. Because of Mike Huser, we have new bunkers, air packs, and boots. We are in the final phase of buying a new truck, our first in over 40 years because we went looking for funding on our own. Please don’t ask for grants. You may get some money that I could use without complaint. Be Safe Brothers.
Funny those two council members voted to spend twice as much on trees and landscaping just 5 weeks prior, its a revenge tactic because the firefighters are supporting a ballot issue that the council opposes