GA_Dave

Not sure where you got your numbers, but the US Fire Administration shows 82 LODD for 2018 and 87 for 2017. 2019 saw only 57, but previous years have been higher. 2016 - 89 2015 - 90 2014 - 94 2013 - 97 2012 - 81 Back in the 1980's, the numbers were more like 400/year. A huge safety initiative has reduced the LODD totals to those we have these days. Better health/fitness programs, safer apparatus and improved equipment have all contributed to the reduction.

You are partially correct. My rant was also aimed at Quickfarms' comments, along with yours. I have edited those directed at him. My apologies on that part, but the part I left is still valid, including where your comment, that I was replying to, was the one that set me off! Most Firefighters are not killing themselves on the job, but the job kills about 100 of us every year. No one ever calls us because someone did something smart, but stupidity keeps us busy as hell!

You're saying it badly! Who made any statement about anyone "killing themselves on a massively difficult gov job"? As a retired government worker, I defended my 28 year career and you go off on some tangent about Firefighters on military bases. I was never a Firefighter on a military base. I was also never in a union. I accepted a job offer that included a salary and benefit package, including a pension, in exchange for specified duties and expectations. I fulfilled those duties and exceeded those expectations on every evaluation I was ever given. I was instrumental in improving our tactical operations and the reliability of our apparatus. To this day, numerous officers there credit me for them getting to where they are. I am treated with honor and respect whenever I visit. Your opinions are not worth the bandwidth you wasted posting them. Go pound sand!

I already drive the car I want!

Firefighters employed by the General Services Administration (GSA), who man military base fire stations, work many more hours than most people. They work a 24 hour shift every other day, minus one shift every two weeks, equaling a 72 hour workweek. What does any of your statement have to do with my job?

Yes, Firefighter, retired. A 24 hour shift every third day equals an average workweek of 56 hours, minus 12 hours we do not work every 9th shift, making it a 53 hour workweek. The 7-5 workday is based on the 40 hour workweek of the Admin side. Certain activities (inspections, most training, non-emergency equipment repair and maintenance) are only conducted during those hours. Emergency responses are 24/7/365 and we are busy enough. Fifteen people manning five apparatus and a command car responding to over 7,000 incidents annually. Residential population is about 13,000, but we are adjacent to the busiest airport in the world and there are over 250,000 people in our city all the time. Not one of the Firefighters makes the decision that there will be overtime, only if they are willing to work it. Overtime is feast or famine. As I previously stated, there are times I have worked 60 hours straight and there have also been times where there was no overtime for six or eight months. Starting pay is $40,000/year. The ONLY one making 6-figures is the Fire Chief. Including a lot of overtime, my best year ever was $86,000. My base pay at retirement was under $70,000. I served as a Volunteer Firefighter for ten years. I was a paid Firefighter for 28 years.

Sorta resembles a Ford WT-9000 from the early 1970's.

I don't know what kind of "government agency" you worked for, but not all government jobs are the same. My agency is open 24/7/365 and the work is NEVER done, there are only slow periods between the real work. We are on duty for 24 hours a shift and average 53 hours/week, without any overtime. Overtime, when it happens, is usually in 12 or 24 hour increments. I have worked 60 hours straight, more than a few times. The nature of our work does not follow any schedule, it happens in real time. You never know what you'll be doing two minutes from now. Filling positions is done by a combination of testing procedures. We typically hire from a pool of about 100 applicants, of which about 5 are actually qualified. The process takes 3 to 4 months and often one or two of those actually qualified has found other employment before we make them an offer. The majority of those who don't make it are usually washed out by the "pee-in-the-cup" test. That test is also randomly administered throughout your employment. Training and Certifications are required and take up a fair amount of the workday (7-5), along with equipment maintenance. A fair amount of time goes into inspections of commercial/industrial properties and performing public relations activities. There are no scheduled, nor guaranteed, mealtimes or breaks. You take what you can, when you can. Pay is mediocre and raises are few and far between. If we get a COLA, it is usually 1 or 2 %. Our benefit package makes the whole thing worthwhile, specifically the pension that comes with the job. That pension provides us with a "comfortable", but certainly not lavish, retirement. I achieved my first promotion five years into the job, the least senior person to do so in the history of the agency. It turned out to be exactly the position I wanted and I stayed in it for the next 23 years until I retired. In addition to my normal duties, I tutored numerous younger employees to gain the skills needed to do my job and advance up the promotional ladder. I also led the team that wrote specifications for much of our equipment and apparatus.

Those were not MY figures, they came straight from the CDC! As Ditchdiggerjcf stated, "If you are elderly, and scared, stay at home."

Except the actual number of Covid deaths is nowhere near 1%, it's more like .26% and the vast majority of those who have died were NOT from the workforce! NO ONE is trying to stop those of you who are scared from staying home. Many of us have things to do that are just as important to us as your activities are to you. Our freedom to each pursue those things is what America is all about. If you choose to hide at home or behind a useless mask, that is YOUR choice, but you have no authority to stop me from pursuing mine. Living by your "rules" is not living at all!

WHO???

Anyone with a modicum of intelligence would get a second opinion!

During my short enlistment, I crossed paths with two of those "lots of stars" guys, one near the beginning and one near the end. The first was an old guy with five of them. The other was much younger and had four. Both treated me nicely. One even asked for and valued my opinion on something we were both involved in. I also encountered several that wore bars or eagles that were complete A-holes. Same can be said for several Fire Chief's I have met! Authority goes straight to the heads of some folks! As for the use of PPE, I have worked in occupations that the job actually required it and also in jobs where management-only required it. Those jobs that require it involve an IDLH atmosphere, yet sometimes it is not used. That is where risk management and common sense come into play. Sometimes leadership creates hazardous situations while trying to improve safety, usually through their own incompetence and lack of common sense. We had two conflicting rules on my job. 1.-Full firefighting gear was required to be worn whenever fighting a fire. 2.-A DOT-approved safety vest MUST be worn whenever working on a highway. Guess what? There are NO DOT-approved safety vests that are flame resistant. The result? Guys putting out a car fire on the Interstate had their vests melting to their firefighting gear! In most cases, PPE required by management-only is based on emotions and political correctness, not actual science or fact!

Because I have eyes and common sense! He was born a man. His mental illness doesn't change that!

Nope! That's a man!

Georgia is testing about 30,000 people each day now. An undocumented but significant number of people have tested positive only to be retested negative a few days later. Happened to one of my former co-workers. Five of our guts responded to a person sick call. One of the crew from the transport ambulance claimed she just KNEW that the patient was infected, so ALL 8 people were tested. One of the guys tested positive, but the rest, including the patient, tested negative. The guy who tested positive was given another test and it came back negative. Much ado about NOTHING! Covid 19 hospitalizations have not spiked and the death rate is declining here in Georgia. Only fools believe everything the liberal media tells them!

No State requirement for masks here in Georgia. Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, and all the supermarkets have been just as busy since this nonsense began as they have ever been, if not busier. Mask use is about 50-75%. We have 10.5 million people here and have had less than 90,000 confirmed cases and under 3000 fatalities. Georgia was the first state to open back up and it has been 7 weeks. There has been no spike!

You sure are gullible! Do you wear a tin foil hat too?

. If Nancy didn't lie, she'd never say a word!

More likely that NONE of them have the same Daddy!

"Black voters are something of a silent majority in that they're more conservative"??? Not here in the South! My job had about 80 employees. Roughly equal numbers of blacks and whites, along with one Korean, a couple latino's and an Italian from NYC named Sal. Out of all the black folks, both male and female, only ONE was a conservative. But you might be on to something. Guess where he is from? Minneapolis!

And the very same families are STILL living in them 4 decades later! Shortly after I got on the job, we responded to a call where a 15 year old was having her first child. Her 30 year old mother was there, as was her 45 year old grandmother, the actual occupant of the apartment. Fifteen years later, we returned to the same apartment where the "baby" from 15 years before was having her first child. All of the previous ladies were there, as were several other children of various ages. "Grandma" was now Great Grandma. Shortly after I retired, the guys returned to that same apartment, once again for a 15 year old girl having her first baby!

EVERYTHING I stated was the God's honest TRUTH! I witnessed it for 28 years and I know it is still happening! I found the last child to be brought out of that fire. When added up, the public assistance benefits for a single mother of three, including food, housing, utilities, and healthcare, exceed the wages of people who earn $15/Hr on a full time job. To top that off, she will pay no income taxes nor property taxes and no FICA taxes. Why would she ever work?

So, tell us who are all those generations of people living in government housing projects who have never worked a day in their lives? You know, the ones who have cranked out five or six kids since they were 15 and most of them have different fathers. The ones known in the EMS business as "frequent fliers". The ones whose goals in life are to "get high, get laid and get paid"! The ones who have an apartment fire caused by someone dropping a burning roach into a stuffed chair and not noticing it until it was fully involved because they were so high, and then they all ran out of the apartment, leaving five kids sleeping upstairs, then sued because HUD didn't put new batteries in the smoke detectors! Two of those kids died that night. The other three likely still live there. It was over 30 years ago. Even if it's a 40 hour week job, $15.Hr only pays about $31k/year. They get more than that sitting on their butts collecting welfare!

NASCAR has been turning left for many years.......