Letters to the Editor

We’re part of a bigger field

I read “The Fire Industry Is Bigger Than You Think” by Sam Goldwater (Fire Industry Today, July 2011). It is an excellent article that reminds all of us how we are interdependent and how much bigger our field is than our day-to-day experiences. Keep the good articles coming.

Ty Dickerson
Fire & Rescue Chief
Lexington (VA) Fire Department

This is an excellent article and a very informative read. I personally would like to see you craft the same type of article for tactics, what’s new, how it is being used, and how it is or should be applied.

Another idea, which you may be in a very unique position to comment on, is on the similarities between military firefighting, municipal, and industrial. As we all know, the lines between municipal and industrial continue to be blurred as municipals are called on to plan for and respond to industrial and/or fully involved situations up to and including large infrastructure catastrophes.

You might find it interesting to read the articles on the Berkeley system that Hytrans supplied to them about a year ago.

Robert Nelson
Via e-mail

Sam Goldwater did a nice job on the article; I am not surprised, though. It makes one stop and think; our industry footprint is indeed pretty large.

Jim Cottrell
President
Combat Support Products
A division of Cottrell Associates, Inc.

Let the buyer beware

“Apparatus Purchasing: Evaluating the Presenters” (September 2011) and “Apparatus Purchasing: Abusing Specifications” (October 2011) by Bill Adams are well written, are valuable, and wisely reference National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards. As Paul Harvey used to say, “It’s not all one world.”

I have had one long-time builder of wildland apparatus tell me that he had no idea what NFPA 1906, Standard for Wildland Fire Apparatus, has to say, and he just designed them on intuition. He’s got a ready spate of customers. Another, and this time a large company’s rep, told me that if it had to “securely anchor the tank to the chassis” of a wildland rig, as per NFPA 1906, he wouldn’t warrant it. Let the buyer beware.

Charlie Enlow
Rural Fire Defense Coordinator
Oklahoma Economic Development Authority

Calling out austerity

Editor in Chief Bobby Halton’s “Austerity Will Not Defeat US; Nothing Can” (Editor’s Opinion, September 2011) was great. Keep up the good work!

John Lee Cook, Jr.
Georgetown, Texas

We don’t know from busy

In reference to Editor in Chief Bobby Halton’s “Gus’s Boy, the Resilient One” (Editor’s Opinion, October 2011), I want to regale you with a few other stories about George Washington.

After the battle of Great Meadows, in which British General Braddock was killed and Daniel Boone, a wagoneer, barely escaped with his life, George found that his coat was full of bullet holes. He wrote, “I have heard the bullets’ whine, and believe me, there is something charming in the sound.” He withdrew the remaining troops back east to what he called “Fort Necessity,” which was renamed Fort Pitt, and which became Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

During the Revolution, he inadvertently rode into the midst of a band of Redcoats, but the British—with their sporting blood—decided to let him get 100 yards away before shooting at him. At that range, with their smoothbore muskets, George was safe!

During the winter of 1778-79 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, he required the troops to spend three hours each afternoon in meditation and prayer. When spring came, they were ready for anything! Finally, at the close of his career in public life, George wrote, “Tonight I will have dinner alone with my wife for the first time in 20 years.” And we think we’re busy.

Charlie Enlow
Rural Fire Defense Coordinator
Oklahoma Economic Development Authority