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Annoyed...
Apr. 19th, 2007 07:44 pmIt seems that a federal court has ruled that FF Chris Kangas will not be eligible for federal Line of Duty Death (LODD) benefits, which more significantly means that he will not be commemorated at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the story, Chris Kangas was a junior firefighter with Co. 52, Brookhaven Fire and Rescue, not far from Swarthmore. In 2004, he died at the age of 14 when he was struck by a car while responding to a call on his bicycle. His family has been in and out of court trying to get him recognized as a firefighter and his death as an LODD.
In a volunteer fire department like Brookhaven's, or Swarthmore's, junior firefighters train to fight fires and help out in numerous ways. While they cannot enter burning buildings or other IDLH (firefighterspeak for "immediately dangerous to life or health") environments, and cannot operate power tools like ventilation saws until reaching the age of 17, they fill many vital support roles on the fireground, such as taking the hydrant, changing air bottles, and getting tools and equipment. And they can really contribute during the take-up phase after the fire is out, especially with laborious tasks like draining and repacking yards of hose. Juniors can also be a godsend on the non-fire related calls that make up the bulk of any fire department's responses -- I particularly remember being glad for their presence one crazy weekend when heavy rains brought on a spate of flooded basement calls, so many that we were unable to return to the station between calls.
So I'm quite annoyed that Kangas will not be recognized as a fallen firefighter -- he was killed while responding, as unfortunately happens far too often, and which normally counts as an LODD. It seems that the court ruled that since he could not legally do interior work, he wasn't a firefighter. Yet there are plenty of people, like fire police officers and junior firefighters, who while not directly engaged in rescue, hoseline, or ventilation operations, perform tasks vital to having a safe and smoothly functioning fireground, and sometimes are injured or killed while doing so. And what about recruits who are killed during training exercises, as recently happened in Baltimore and in a number of other places, who aren't legally able to fight real fires either until they've finished training? Cases like these are generally counted as LODD's.
Like Kangas, while on the Swarthmore FD, I generally responded to the station by bicycle, either from campus or ML. Some other Swarthmore student firefighters and EMT's do the same. I never was in a position where I felt like my life was in imminent danger. But like Kangas and like my fellow student firefighters, I sometimes found myself biking fast to the station at night, or in bad weather. And we knew that we would be in a very bad way if, while riding in the unenclosed positions of our old open-cab attack pumper, it were to roll over or get into an accident. And in some sense -- it's only because of either luck, or the grace of God, that nothing serious ever happened to me or any other firefighters I knew personally.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the story, Chris Kangas was a junior firefighter with Co. 52, Brookhaven Fire and Rescue, not far from Swarthmore. In 2004, he died at the age of 14 when he was struck by a car while responding to a call on his bicycle. His family has been in and out of court trying to get him recognized as a firefighter and his death as an LODD.
In a volunteer fire department like Brookhaven's, or Swarthmore's, junior firefighters train to fight fires and help out in numerous ways. While they cannot enter burning buildings or other IDLH (firefighterspeak for "immediately dangerous to life or health") environments, and cannot operate power tools like ventilation saws until reaching the age of 17, they fill many vital support roles on the fireground, such as taking the hydrant, changing air bottles, and getting tools and equipment. And they can really contribute during the take-up phase after the fire is out, especially with laborious tasks like draining and repacking yards of hose. Juniors can also be a godsend on the non-fire related calls that make up the bulk of any fire department's responses -- I particularly remember being glad for their presence one crazy weekend when heavy rains brought on a spate of flooded basement calls, so many that we were unable to return to the station between calls.
So I'm quite annoyed that Kangas will not be recognized as a fallen firefighter -- he was killed while responding, as unfortunately happens far too often, and which normally counts as an LODD. It seems that the court ruled that since he could not legally do interior work, he wasn't a firefighter. Yet there are plenty of people, like fire police officers and junior firefighters, who while not directly engaged in rescue, hoseline, or ventilation operations, perform tasks vital to having a safe and smoothly functioning fireground, and sometimes are injured or killed while doing so. And what about recruits who are killed during training exercises, as recently happened in Baltimore and in a number of other places, who aren't legally able to fight real fires either until they've finished training? Cases like these are generally counted as LODD's.
Like Kangas, while on the Swarthmore FD, I generally responded to the station by bicycle, either from campus or ML. Some other Swarthmore student firefighters and EMT's do the same. I never was in a position where I felt like my life was in imminent danger. But like Kangas and like my fellow student firefighters, I sometimes found myself biking fast to the station at night, or in bad weather. And we knew that we would be in a very bad way if, while riding in the unenclosed positions of our old open-cab attack pumper, it were to roll over or get into an accident. And in some sense -- it's only because of either luck, or the grace of God, that nothing serious ever happened to me or any other firefighters I knew personally.
