Fidalgo Conversation: Bill Turner

Recently I attended a firefighters training session with Kimberly Jacobson, a reporter for the Anacortes American. I am 57 years old and an Anacortes City Council member. You might ask, “Why are a reporter and an old guy doing firefighter training?”

The firefighter community has decided to educate the people who make decisions about their funding. If you think about it, those of us who vote on money for our safety protection (city councils) really do not know the dangers and hardships of firefighters. Sure, we read lots of material and listen to talk, but we never experience the actual work. Now I have.

For 10 grueling hours, I got to experience all aspects of training that firefighters endure each day and year of their professional life.

We entered burning buildings, climbed up ladders to four-story structures, used the Jaws of Life to extract injured bodies from cars, gave first aid, and experienced propane tank explosions. That’s about half of what we did, and we were encouraged to lead in these activities.

It was hair-raising at times, fun at times, but always an incredible physical challenge. In fact, I opted out on the second burning building, due to my bad back and high blood pressure.

Kimberly wrote an article in the American a couple months ago that described, in detail, what we went through, so I do not need to do that again.

There is another side to this educational experience. You might call it a dark side.

This training event was arranged to let us experience the thrill and dangers of actual firefighting, but also to educate us on the perils of government funding for the basic safety of our communities. In recent years of anti-tax initiatives and anti-government bias in our leaders (state and federal levels), firefighters are being squeezed for adequate funding for the job we are asking them to do.

Increasingly, the firefighters’ job is changing to a medical one and a more hazardous one, because of the toxicity of the makeup of a fire and the chemicals that they are asked to deal with. These changing tasks require constant training. A firefighter is also an EMT (emergency medical technician), and a HAZMAT (hazardous materials) responder.

Just imagine all the new changing technology in medicine and chemistry etc. today, and you will quickly understand the constant training needed to ensure proper response to emergencies.

I am a member of the Anacortes Public Safety committee (subcommittee of the Anacortes City Council), and also was a volunteer firefighter for four years in District 11 at Lake Erie. I have many opportunities to learn about the needs of our local firefighters.

I can tell you that our mayor, council and chief have been very prudent with the money we have to provide us with adequate safety protection. But I can also tell you that the National Firefighters Association and other governmental departments keep increasing the requirements for our firefighters and their training, but the increased funding needed to meet these requirements does not come.

I became aware of the increasingly dangerous world firefighters have to train for sometime after 9/11/2001, when I read that the New York firefighters did not have adequate medical care for injuries resulting from their efforts in the World Trade Center tower.

None of us could foresee the toxicity of that building fire and collapse.

Just imagine the array of chemicals you might find here in Anacortes in any boat building business, or in any new home with all the new plastics, etc. The firefighters cannot afford to just “imagine.” They have to train constantly and be prepared.

A result of the increased training requirements is a lack of volunteers in our local department. In 1990, we had over 20 volunteers and now we have four.

The average person does not have the time to train properly. When I was a volunteer in 1978, the requirements were minimum. You could train adequately in four to eight hours per month.

Today things are very different. Houses are much bigger (larger fires), and the fires are more hazardous. The community’s expectations for prompt medical care are much higher, and require intense training.

When we ask our firefighters to prepare for all types of emergencies and then to confront these very dangerous situations, let us remember the benefit we receive from our tax dollars that pay for this service. We should carefully analyze the many anti-tax initiatives, and make an effort to provide a safe margin in dollars to our public safety departments.

In return, we can ask our firefighters to use our money wisely to provide the best protection money can buy.

Fidalgo Conversation is a new column aimed at providing additional information and perspective on issues important to Fidalgo Island. Look for community leaders to contribute frequently in this space. For more information, e-mail Publisher Jack Darnton at .