Firefighters Charge that Brownout Policy Has Killed

The New Dark Age is here. LaRouche PAC has been documenting how the budget crises and the bankruptcies of the states are gutting the capacity for emergency responses in firefighting, police protection, and emergency services. With the 50th annual convention of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) just wrapping up in San Diego, General President of the association Harold Schaitberger declared, "This is a critically important convention for fire fighters as we confront the toughest economic cycle in decades." He was also quoted in an August 26 New York Times article on the nationwide pattern of cuts, saying he had "never seen" cuts in fire houses and fire fighters "so widespread."

On August 10, the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted Schaitberger's letter to Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia after a 12-year old autistic boy died following delayed reactions to an emergency call. "The members of Philadelphia Local 22 are willing to risk their lives to protect life and property in their community, but this plan compromises their ability to perform safe and effective fire and rescue services," the letter said, and Schaitberger added, that the boy "might still be alive if your city had not shut down the closest fire company that day."

A similar incident occurred recently in San Diego, the Aug. 26 Times article reported, in which a two-year-old boy choked to death on a gum ball that blocked his breathing. Though a fire station was "only 600 steps from the front door" where the boy was visiting, the station was empty: "its engine was in another part of town, on a call in an area usually covered by an engine that had been taken out of service as part of a brownout plan."

Javier Mainar, the San Diego Fire-Rescue chief said that the brownouts led to the delay. "'You can just lock everything down and look at it sequentially, chronologically, as to what occurred .... There is no question that the brownout of Engine 44 resulted in Engine 38 having to take a response in that community, and because of that, Engine 38 was now out of position to respond to something that happened just down the street from their fire station,'" the Times reported.

Meanwhile, the cuts in school budgets and unemployment benefits continue to devastate communities—despite the impression given that Congress gave temporary relief on these issues before they recessed. As leaders of the "99ers Strike Back" effort point out, the extensions of unemployment benefits are not provided in all 50 states, but only the states with the "highest" unemployment rates. But these figures are lies, as the latest EIR article by Paul Gallagher reveals. And the town and city budget shortfalls are so extreme that teacher salaries and educational programs are far from secure.