Tag: Firefighter

Categories
News RIP

Long Island Firefighter Dies 4 Days After Fire

Inwood (Long Island) Firefighter, Joseph Sanford Jr. won’t be where he belongs this Christmas. His family will miss him dearly.

The 17 year department veteran succumbed to his injuries sustained in a house fire 5 days ago in Inwood. Sanford was helping to battle a blaze in the house. He was standing in the kitchen of the home when the floor gave out from under him. He was unaccounted for for several minutes before his dept. brothers found him in the basement. He fought for his life for (4) days but ultimately passed away yesterday.

Sanford is survived by his wife and daughter but his family went way beyond those who were related to him, as many firefighters are feeling the pain caused by his loss.

His loved ones have started a gofundme.com page to raise money for his wife and daughter in their time of need.

Sanford was 43 years old.

It’s always sad when these things happen but when it happens during the holiday season, it seems to be particularly harder to handle. This EZKOOL writer has already donated to the Sanford family and I ask that you do too.

FF Joseph Sanford Jr

Any amount will help. If you find that you cannot afford to donate, that’s okay too. Please just share Joseph’s story on social media.

Thank You and Merry Christmas from all of us here at Ezkool.com

Categories
cop Featured

Firefighter Responds to Car Accident, Gets Handcuffed by Cop – Video

A California highway patrol officer handcuffed and detained a firefighter who was treating car crash victims last night after he refused to stop the rescue to move his truck.

The men had both responded to a car crash where a sedan had flipped over a concrete divider on the I-805. When Jacob Gregoir, a firefighter for more than 12 years, arrived at the scene, he parked his firetruck behind the ambulance to provide protection for the emergency responders — something the Chula Vista fire chief said fire crews are trained to do.

But the cop, apparently trying to clear the highway’s fast lane, asked firefighters to move their trucks.

The CHP officer, whose name has not been released, told firefighter/engineer Jacob Gregoire to move the engine out of the traffic lane or he would be arrested, Hanneman said. He said Gregoire, who was checking the overturned car for any additional victims, answered that he’d have to check with his captain.

Instead, directly in front of CBS news cameras, the cop decided to handcuff Gregoire and detained him in the back of a squad car for approximately half an hour.

“To detain one of our firefighters in the middle of an incident is ridiculous,” Chula Vista Fire Chief Dave Hanneman told CBS.

Supervisors from both agencies had to be called to intervene and Gregoire was eventually released without charges — probably a wise move on the highway patrol’s part.

In 2008, a police officer was fined $18,000 after he arrested a firefighter who also refused to move his firetruck during a highway rescue.

Categories
Barack Obama Politics United States

Firefighters – Call And Tell Congress To Pass The Jobs Bill

A new ad running in different states are urging Americans to call congress and tell them to support President Obama’s jobs bill. The group responsible for the ad is The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).

The bill has $35 billion in funding to help pay for staffing at fire and police departments across the country as well as at schools — that includes $1 billion in funding to protect firefighters’ jobs. The IAFF estimates that 15,000 firefighter and paramedic jobs have been lost or are threatened due to lack of funds.

Categories
Featured Texas

While Texas Burns, Perry Slashed Firefighter Funds By 75%

The fire raging through Texas is not a surprise, it’s something everyone expected, in fact, it happens often. Yet, with that in mind, Rick Perry, the Republican candidate for President in 2012, massively cut funding to the only agency whose job is to fight these fires.

Volunteer departments that were already facing financial strain were slated to have their funding cut from $30 million to $7 million, according to KVUE.

The majority of Texas is protected by volunteer fire departments. There are 879 volunteer fire departments in Texas and only 114 paid fire departments. Another 187 departments are a combination of volunteer and paid.

The raging inferno presently covers over 25,000 acres near Bastrop and has already destroyed nearly 500 homes. At a time like this, all hands should be on deck, but thanks to Perry’s decision making, the burning continues.

This decision by Rick Perry gives a whole new meaning to the term, ‘slash and burn.’

Categories
Collective bargaining Republican Party (United States) Wisconsin Wisconsin Union Bashing

Wisconsin Republicans Now Going After Police And Firefighter Unions

And so, the inevitable happened. Scott Walker and his Republican goons in Wisconsin have now turned their union busting efforts against Wisconsin’s police and firefighters.

Local firefighters and police officers are vowing to fight legislation proposed last week that would limit their ability to collectively bargain and negotiate contracts.

Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer, I-Manitowoc, introduced the bill that would eliminate collective bargaining for public safety employees on health care and pension contributions. Ziegelbauer’s bill does not require an employee to contribute to health care and pension funds, but would allow municipalities to mandate contributions.

Walker’s bill curtails collective bargaining for most public employees, including municipal workers and teachers, but exempts police and firefighters. A Dane County judge has blocked the law from taking effect after opponents allege that a meeting where the bill was approved violated the state’s open meetings law.

Jeremy Kopp, a Wausau firefighter and the department’s union president, said he will urge firefighters to email and call legislators to express their opposition to Ziegelbauer’s bill

In his original union busting bill, Scott Walker stated that there were no reasons to include the police and firefighter unions. The politics of this decision was obvious. These unions supported the governor in his run for office.

But that was then and this is now.

The Republican governor watched, as the very same union members he excluded from his bill, turned against him and joined the hundreds of thousands of other union members who were under attack. Consider this new bill as his chance to get even.

Anyone who didn’t see this coming needs glasses.

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