Fire Service

Critics of Baltimore Fire Chief William J. Goodwin Jr. call for his resignation but provide no substantive reasons for retiring him. And without compelling reasons, the criticisms begin to sound like complaints for the sake of complaining. He has his detractors, but the chief has shown he can make tough, unpopular decisions to improve the fire service - and that's what's required of a leader. An investigation found that a Feb. 9 training exercise in a vacant rowhouse violated 36 national fire safety standards.

BEFORE HOWARD COUNTY had a centralized fire system, $$ six independent companies served different portions of a still largely rural jurisdiction. Folks in Elkridge paid for one company, people in West Friendship another. Quality of service varied depending on where one lived.Those days are gone, but the antiquated system of funding firefighting in Howard isn't.County residents still pay separately for property and fire taxes. Moreover, people in the semi-rural western area pay a different rate than those in the more populous east side.

MARYLAND FIREFIGHTERS met in Ocean City last week to discuss a matter of great public importance: how to help the volunteer fire service survive.It is not news that volunteer firefighting has run into serious challenges as communities have changed. Suburbanization has brought newcomers with little time and affinity for the fire station. Children of volunteers, who refueled the ranks until now, are more likely to relocate. The desire to congregate at a community hub has lessened. Professionalization, not volunteerism, is the trend.

It's a desire that seems hard-wired into so many young brains: to be a firefighter, to have a life enlivened by danger, bravery and rescue.Usually it dies out, but not always. Some go on to transform the fantasy into adult reality. If you want to know how they turn out, stop by the 14th annual Firehouse and Emergency Services Expo, currently at the Baltimore Convention Center.This combination trade show and old home week has been held in Baltimore for 12 of the last 14 years. It is sponsored by Firehouse magazine, "known," editor Harvey Eisner says, "as the Time magazine of the fire service."

Seven months into the job, the first Howard County Council ever to have a Republican majority appears long on symbolism and short on action.But it is symbolism with clout.Just before adopting the budget for the new fiscal year, the council managed to alienate the school board, give people the jitters about fire protection and foster angst within the arts community -- all without cutting any money."The debate over arts funding, the fire service flap and whatever we did at the end with the Board of Education -- that was not so much a change of the budget as it was the sending of a message," says west Columbia Democrat Mary C. Lorsung.

Support for public safety took center stage last night at a sparsely attended hearing on County Executive Charles I. Ecker's $328.5 million proposed operating budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.The Police Department's $25 million budget proposal "is neither overly austere or inflated" and should be fully funded, said William Volenick, chairman of the department's Citizens' Advisory Council.Crime -- especially juvenile crime -- "is going to grow," he told the five-member County Council.

Fires are not what they used to be in Anne Arundel County. As a result, rank and file firefighters aren't getting on-the-job training they need to become officers as quickly as they used to, fire officials said."

County officials are offering local volunteer fire companies $1.6 million to help pay for repairs, maintenance and equipment, provided the volunteers relinquish some of their authority to the county fire administrator and Fire Advisory Board.The agreement, contained in contracts signed by 22 of the county's 23 volunteer fire companies, could end decades of bitter squabbling between paid and volunteer firefighters, Stephen Halford, county fire administrator, told the County Council yesterday.

Howard residents may have to settle for a fire service that is slower, responds with less equipment and allows firefighters to occasionally "let the building burn," County Council Chairman Charles C. Feaga said yesterday."

The Howard County government is still racking up costs from the effects of last week's ice storm, officials say.The ice remains so thick on some streets that the Bureau of Highways is continuing to plow and sand each night, adding to the cost of overtime and materials.From Jan. 17 through Tuesday, the Bureau of Highways spread 2,225 tons of salt and 3,175 tons of cinders on county roadways, and put 11,116 gallons of fuel into 50 county vehicles.During that period, employees racked up 2,332 hours of overtime.

The Baltimore Fire Department, in turmoil over budget cuts, has begun charging a fee to prospective firefighters, becoming the only city agency to charge job applicants. The fee, $10 for city residents and $30 for nonresidents, was added for the recruiting period that ended this week to offset costs associated with the recruitment process, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a department spokesman. Those costs include a new written examination that puts less emphasis on experience, which fire officials hope will attract more city residents.

Danelle England-Dansicker, Baltimore County's first career female firefighter, died Tuesday of complications from autoimmune disease at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Pikesville resident was 52. "She blazed a trail for a lot of people," said Baltimore County Fire Chief John Hohman. "She earned the respect of those you would have never expected to accept a woman. She made it easier for us to diversify this department." Anida Danelle England was born in Baltimore and raised on Milford Mill Road.

The emergency pager woke Donald and Shirley MacLean about 2 a.m. on a recent Sunday. Within minutes, they had dressed and driven the short, familiar route to the fire station in downtown Bel Air. From there, he rode the ladder truck to a two-alarm fire at an industrial park in Forest Hill. She soon followed with freshly brewed coffee and iced sodas for the firefighters battling the blaze. Once crews had the fire under control, he checked equipment. She returned to the firehouse and made breakfast for several dozen volunteers.

In an effort to retain its volunteer firefighters, Harford County has lowered the age of eligibility for a monthly benefit by five years to age 55. County officials signed into law last week a bill that offers $300 a month to fire service personnel with 25 years of continuous service at age 55. "This is a valuable retention tool," said Dave Williams, spokesman for Harford County Volunteer Fire and Emergency Services. "It is an incentive to stay in the service." As middle-aged volunteers juggle demands of family and career, they are often forced to limit or relinquish hours they can spend in the fire service.

Critics of Baltimore Fire Chief William J. Goodwin Jr. call for his resignation but provide no substantive reasons for retiring him. And without compelling reasons, the criticisms begin to sound like complaints for the sake of complaining. He has his detractors, but the chief has shown he can make tough, unpopular decisions to improve the fire service - and that's what's required of a leader. An investigation found that a Feb. 9 training exercise in a vacant rowhouse violated 36 national fire safety standards.

John R. "Jack" Frazier, a retired Baltimore firefighter who rose to bureau commander and was still working as the department's legislative liaison in Annapolis, died of a heart attack Friday at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 71 and lived in Idlewylde. The son of a firefighter, Mr. Frazier was born in Baltimore and spent his early years in Waverly before moving with his family to Frederick Avenue in Southwest Baltimore. One of his earliest memories as a child was being given a shiny red pedal-powered fire engine at Christmas, family members said.

A recording of the radio dispatch call echoed off the stone walls of the cathedral. "Eastern Avenue ... person trapped on the second floor ... Engine 41 ... Engine 5 ... Truck 20 ... 512 South Macon Street ... two people trapped." Not all of the words were clear, but the message was. This was the call for a fire that claimed the life of Allan M. Roberts, a 19-year veteran of the Baltimore Fire Department early last Tuesday. And they were the last he would hear from a dispatcher before heading into a burning rowhouse with two rookies by his side.

Baltimore County volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician Connie C. Bornman was treating a patient - on her sixth run that day - when she died in May. After working the overnight shift at the Dundalk station, Fire Specialist Thomas F. Brown had just finished battling a house fire and helping with a cardiac-arrest patient when he died of a heart attack in December. And Maryland Line volunteer Richard A. Jones had completed a shift - one of many in his nearly 50 years of fire service - when he died in January.

A Winfield firefighter posthumously followed his father into the county firefighters' Hall of Fame yesterday during the Carroll County Volunteer Emergency Services Association's annual convention. Ronald Legore, a 32-year member of the Winfield Community Volunteer Fire Department who died two years ago, was one of three inductees into the Hall of Fame. His late father, Howard Legore, a founder of the Winfield fire company, was inducted in 1996. Ronald Legore died in early 2002, just a few months after his father.

IT WAS A FIRST in 50 years - an all-white class of recruits at the Baltimore City Fire Department training academy. What set this year's class apart also alerted department officials that something was wrong. The class was the logical outcome of an outdated hiring system that had made it more and more difficult to bring minorities onto the force. Yesterday, as complaints reached City Hall about the all-white class that began training in February, Fire Chief William J. Goodwin Jr. announced an overhaul of the department's employment process with the hope of boosting minority hiring.