How useful is our local fire dept????

As of about an hour & a half ago, Sturgeon bay fire dept responded to a report of heavy smoke at the holiday motel - right at the east end of the downtown bridge.



ARIAL PHOTO FROM 1992, SHOWING LOCATION IN QUESTION



Get this, they have 2 pumpers, 1 mini pumper, 1 tanker, 1 ladder truck, and 1 rescue truck from the city.... AS WELL AS 1 pumper, 1 mini pumper, and 1 rescue from the southern door fire dept...... And they have only started (as of this writing) to try and put it out!!!!! Even then, there are only 3 people actively fighting the fire - the rest are just standing around WATCHING!!!
WHAT.... THE..... F***!?!?!?!?!?! When did the fire dept turn wimps??? And WHY are the citizens paying for all these firefighters when they're not doing anything???

This personally makes me SERIOUSLY wonder about the usefulness of having a mostly part-time fire dept. It was as if most of them only responded so that they could claim another paycheck....

I was there, and managed to get 20 photos from different angles - as soon as I get the film developed, I'll post all of them over at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sturgeonbaygroup/

Anyone else that was there, you're welcome to come over and add your 2 cents worth.

Will also add a link here to any news articles as they become availible.


UPDATE===UPDATE===UPDATE===UPDATE===UPDATE===UPDATE
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THE PHOTOS ARE NOW UPLOADED AT THE "STURGEONBAYGROUP" ON YAHOO. (Gee, I never realized before that getting them put direct to picture cd could be so much cheaper versus getting prints - $3.10 vs about $7.00 for prints)


Door County Daily News:
http://www.doorcountydailynews.com/news/local_news.htm

Major Structure Fire Devastates Holiday Motel
By Nick Freimuth DoorCountyDailyNews.com
August 6, 2007

Traffic was redirected through Sturgeon Bay for three hours yesterday after a fire destroyed the attic and second level of the Holiday Motel. Sturgeon Bay Fire Chief Tim Herlache said no one was injured and the fire was put out before it swept through the rooms on the upper level. Herlache said because of smoke and water damage most of the motel will need to be gutted.
Manager Anna Sacks said the first thing on her mind when she heard there was a fire was the safety of those staying at the Holiday. The community support was beyond belief, according to Sacks.

Fire Chief Herlache said the emergency call came in at 11:19 a.m. The call reported that smoke was coming from the roof. When the department arrived there were no flames poking through the structure. Herlache talked about the department’s reaction to the smoke.

Firefighters used 5,000 gallons of water to extinguish the blaze. Herlache said the American Red Cross went above and beyond again. He also thanked Stone Harbor for hosting the displaced Holiday Motel residents.
The Southern Door County Fire Department and Door County Emergency Services provided mutual aid at the scene. Southern Door sent three rigs and 15 firefighters and 25 responded from the Sturgeon Bay department......

the Door County Advocate article:
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070805/ADV01/70805020/2011/adv

Fire damages Holiday Motel

By Chuck Carlson
cecarlso@doorcountyadvocate.com

A fire, which may have started in a second-floor bathroom and spread to the attic, damaged the Holiday Motel on N. Second Avenue in downtown Sturgeon Bay, Sunday morning.


Thick, brown smoke poured from the attic on both sides of the motel around 11:15 a.m. and grew thicker over the next hour, blanketing much of downtown Sturgeon Bay in a haze.

The hotel was full at the time, according to owner Pat mAcdonald, and several people had to be awakened and told to get out of the motel.

No one was injured.

More than 30 firefighters, including many brought in off-duty, responded from the Sturgeon Bay Fire Department with support from Southern Door.....

I posted a comment on the Advocate story at: http://forums.greenbaypressgazette.com/viewtopic.php?t=14626

.... And it apparently pissed off one of the local firefighters, who in an attempted post on the "sturgoenbaygroup" resorted to name calling and retorted:

if dont have anything else to do besides criticize someone
else, how about you strap on all that gear and try it yourself. I bet
you couldnt last a minute with one of those guys in a fire. Sounds
like you know a lot about this department, maybe you dont know all the
facts. Do you think it is possible in your little mind to understand
what actually takes place at a fire.

I guess that's to be expected from such people - and he didn't even try to explain their reasons for standing around shooting the breeze instead of fighting the fire....



If anyone reading this feels like trying to drag an explaination out of him, the email he used was gonzales1269@yahoo.com - although he DOES have a charter internet account, his IP# being 68.191.191.62