Fire Critic An Unadulterated View of the Fire Service
This 2014 photo provided by the Glendale Fire Department shows Jonathan French, 25, who was killed Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2014, while putting out a vehicle fire along an interstate when a semitrailer slammed into a fire truck. (AP Photo/Glendale Fire Department)
#ShutItDown is much more than a simple hashtag. It is a movement to get roadways shut down so that Firefighters, Police, and EMS can work in a safer environment at incidents (my words). The movement has a Facebook page and a Facebook group created for the cause.
The #ShutItDown movement was recently created after Lt. Jonathan French (Glendale FD) was killed when a semi crashed into a scene were firefighters were extinguishing a vehicle fire. French was killed and his mother (a firefighter as well) was injured.
In just 3 days, the FB page has 3100 fans and the group over 1400 members.
I can speak from experience when I say that of all the locations I respond to in my line of work, the interstate is the most uneasy experience of all of them. We simply cannot control the motorists who speed by, rubbernecking, and not paying attention to the person in front of them. It isn’t just the interstate though. I can’t count the amount of secondary wrecks that have occurred at wrecks because people aren’t paying attention.
This isn’t the first time a firefighter is killed by another motorist on the scene of an incident on a roadway, but the @ShutItDown movement could make it the last.
#ShutitDown is a group that was created both in honor and to raise awareness to motorists to prevent future fatalities when firefighters are operating on the roadways please share this group with friends and pass the word. In memory of our fallen Kentucky brother and the Glendale, KY Fire Department.
#ShutitDown is a group created in honor of Lt. Jonathan French of the Glendale, KY Volunteer Fire Department. For Jonathan “We Vow to #SHUTitDOWN.
