Let’s start by prefacing this as I often times do, that not all volunteer Fire Fighters are bad, just as all Police can’t be lumped in with one or two bad ones. Now that it’s out-of-the-way…

You may recall my post of July 27th about the escalating craziness to raise money or get extra federal funds for responding to as many calls as possible. It seems there was a reason for the extra activity in our area with all the screaming sirens and vehicles. I’ve never heard this many sirens in the city, they are constantly running up and down the road here. Some are legitimate vehicle crashes and brush fires.

It seems the Assistant Chief of a Volunteer Fire Department located just a few miles away, who just happens to have the same last name of the Fire Chief but no one is confirming relationship at this time, decided to drum up some extra fire calls. In August (right after my earlier post) there were 4 suspicious fires of vacant homes. Now it seems that the Assistant Chief has been charged in August with at least 1 of them.

Kind of creepy feeling when you depend on them to provide service to you in time of

need. While researching that Department this morning relating to the Arson I noticed that in the same month (August 27th) that the Assistant Chief was arrested, the Treasurer and her husband were arrested for misuse of Department funds.

The investigation was led by Lt. T. Evans, who said the two are accused of using a fire department debit card to pay for personal matters, such as their house needs and utilities.

Where do they find these people. I remember while working in a small Police Department for a short time one of the officers reporting for duty remarked about a grass/brush fire at the edge of town. He jokingly asked the Chief why he hadn’t stopped to lend a hand. The Chief without missing a beat said he was afraid he would have had to arrest half of them on outstanding warrants. Now THAT is funny stuff.

Meanwhile the Little Chaplain 1 truck is still trundling around out here responding to trash fires in backyards (since we are under a fire ban). I don’t think it is even from our area or our Volunteer Department. I need to find out where it is assigned to. I still wonder “why” you need a pickup truck for a Chaplain, or is that thought better left unfinished. It has no firefighting equipment in it other than maybe a small hand-held fire extinguisher and someone designated as a Chaplain after having attended classes.

Comments welcome,