Fire Critic An Unadulterated View of the Fire Service
Video by: bobbybushae
As a member of the East St. Louis Fire Dept, we continue to struggle with manpower and equipment failure everyday. Our dept responds to the highest percentage of fires in the St. Louis metro east.
With over 150 firefighters that used to protect this city, only 53 remain due to budget cuts. Unfortunately the East St. Louis fire department is facing laying off 22 more firefighters in May 2013 which is extremely dangerous.
Most fire departments respond up to 5 engines, 2 Chiefs and 15 firefighters to a house fire. Right now only 2 engines and 6 firefighters respond to a structure or house fire in East St. Louis EVERYDAY which is well below the number required by the NFPA. This is not to mention the other fire calls that come in. If layoffs occur, that number could fall to 3 firefighters and 1 engine which will be catastrophic.
I ask you to PLEASE share this video with your fellow firefighters and others so we can let the public know what we are up against. The 2nd half of this video was filmed in @ a 4 month period with the Fire Cam 1080 Fire Helmet Camera™ from www.firevideo.net and is about East St. Louis Firefighters. But ultimately, it is about ALL of us and what we do everyday. Firefighters everywhere protecting life and property.
