Rescue worker or possible thief? I realize that is a bit harsh but just because people are in public service, doesn't make them 100% good. How do you know that jewelry or wad of cash blew away in the wind? You see it on the news all the time. Just recently near me 4 cops beat a 60 year old man for parking in a fire lane. They beat him down like he was a child molester. Caught on tape but suppresses to a blurb on the local news. Anyways I am watching news footage on CNN and in a town with a mandatory evocation. They showed footage of rescue worker propping open screen doors at an apartment complex as they smashed open doors with a sledge hammers. Now I am sure this is some sort of " just gotta make sure no one is hurt" secenior. But dam. Who is gonna pay for that? People lock up on purpose to stop looters but don't worry. The rescue workers will open up your house for them. I would bet money they they do very little to secure the premises after they break all the door down. They should be obligated to secure it up as good or better then it was. I would be pissed if this happened to me. A rescue worker goes through your house smashing open every locked door, just in case. They are doing a job and I am sure they are told to do that. But who ever came up with it has some nerve. I guess it would be a good opportunity to go into houses they could never get a search warrant for. Anything rescue workers found would not be protected by search n seizer laws. I just thought it was wrong. Especially at an apartment complex where someone should have a set of master keys. Don't police and firehouses have master keys anymore??? Course smashing doors open is more fun. Not your house. Again I realize someone made this up for our safety but dam its seams like senless destruction in a mandatory evacuation zone. Maybe after an earth quake or big disaster where no one got out but they know 99.9% of everyone is gone. But just gotta smash open some doors to make sure.
You make some valid points. What I have a hard time with is the folks that say "We're staying put" once the warning to evacuate is given. This is of course why the authorities and rescue people have to waste valuable time searching for those that don't use their heads. Remember also there are older folks that live alone that can't get out even if they tried. Another need to double check. As far as busting down doors goes, there is no way you can cover that much devastation and have to worry about having a set of keys. Time is in short supply when they are searching for the injured. My question would be, what motivates people to build their expensive homes right on the edge of the ocean, given the fact that these violent storms are known to be coomon place? Most of them get their insurance money and build right in the same spot. Crazy.
The only thing I can say is that as a firefighter/paramedic, I believe most of us got into what we do to help people. Some people have strayed from their original choices; and quite a few get caught up in the moment which is easy to do. But alot of us haven't. I feel bad for alot of police and fire guys. We are placed in really bad situations. Whenever someone makes a beef, we are guilty until proven innocent in most cases. In the public eye, the press, and even our own departments. Philosophically I believe people are basically good, and hope they do the right thing. But you know how people are nowadays, and I agree you have a valid point. Tony
In all walks of life there are good people and bad people. I tend to like hanging with the good ones.
I do applaud anyone who goes into public service. Its a tough job that any perks get out weighed by the public eye on you 24/7 Just waiting to catch you being human. I think we put them up on to high of a pedestal as they are just human too. And humans are born flawed with our free will. I just didn't like what I saw. A clear blue sky and rescue workers smashing open doors just in case. I still have a hard time seeing their point of view on that. Oh well. Glad it wasn't my house. Id be awful pissed. -------- Though I do also agree that people who live in them places are asking for it. I really have no pitty for people who live in tornado alley, on a major river or on the cost famous for nasty storms. Sure people can chose where they live. But don't expect me to feel sorry for their stupidity. There should be some limit to government aid for the locationally challenged folks. I do realize people can't always chose where they live but come on. "Poor me I built my house on the side of an "inactive" volcano, in a tornado lane, on a coast famous for being pummeled by hurricanes, next to a major river but its so beautiful send me money and aid please. " Send them an IQ test and moving trucks. The locationally challenged folks need help.
It is funny. We get an opportunity to see life at its worst, which does make you not sweat the small stuff much. Everything changes in an instant. With the door thing: from experience, no one ever seems to have the right key. Especially management companies of buildings. They are numbered wrong, locks replaced, whatever. conversly if we didn't check every apartment, door, etc, and missed someone. Think of the story that would be. It is the old dammed if you do/dammed if you don't theory. Not everything we do may make sense, but usually their is a reason for it. We do have knox boxes on buildings with keys, but not usually on private residences due to cost. And the typical no one thinks about it until they have an emergency. I remember showing up to a house fire in our dive truck after a drill. We ended up being first on scene ( we were literally around the corner when the call came in). My crew and I were verbally berated by the home owner because we were not in an engine, and they called for a fire truck. Our response time was under 1 minute, and we put out the fire with an extinguisher. Regardless they couldn't get over that the engine showed up after us. I guess there are odd things about every job, just when its a public service, you get to see more of them. Also remember in a major incident you maybe utilizing people from many entities with various degrees of training. Usually though on the bigger stuff, the local and state police, along with the national guard do a good job of securing homes that have been forced. Not everyone may be as professional as the next guy. I saw alot of this in New York. We had people sneeking into the scene and taking our bunker gear as some type of souveneir. You learned never to set down any tools, gear whatever if you wanted to keep it. It was up for grabs for the first 2 days, but they eventually got a handle on even that scene. Funny thing is I couldn't imagine doing anything else. Take care Tony
