What would you be willing to pay?

[Curly]

This was a fire in the Tallyville area the other day:



Ballymeade Fire # 1 - YouTube

Now, answer the question. Would you be willing to pay an extra 60 to 100 dollars a year in property taxes to fund a 24 hour manned Fire Department? In the City of Wilmington, which has a paid full time 24/7 fire department, we can be in front of your house within 3 minutes of you hanging up the phone. Volunteer or paid, which would you prefer? Times are changing. I post this with all due respect to the volunteers, I wouldn't do it for nothing. As for the people and SOME of their idiotic comments, if they were that concerned, they would have been pounding on doors and alerting everyone around the fire building to get out. Also, cars don't blow up like they do in the movies. The tires do pop and scare the shit out of you though.

[Missy]

I would absolutley pay ..not even a question i would hesitate on.

[Curly]

For the record, I wasn't at all impressed with the first arriving engine. Within a minute that supply line should have been charged and water flowing on the fire and protecting the exposures. Yes, I work with a very aggressive bunch of adrenaline junkies. Also, from what I'm hearing (he said, she said), fireboard was dragging their feet on dispatch which I find hard to believe. In other words, the finger pointing has already started. We'll see.

[EpicWin]

[Curly]

Epic, you need help. lol

[Roogle]

Giving up a few dvd's a year is more than worth me losing everything.

[motherof3]

Unfreakinbelievable....and yeah I'd pay extra in my taxes for sure. That family just lost everything in under 15 minutes. I've seen first hand how fast a fire can move. Scares the ish out of me to this day. I used to have nightmares when my kids were little and we lived in a two story house about trying to get all three out by myself in a fire. I was so glad when we moved into a ranch house. We had a fire plan from day one.

[Chase]

my buddy was there the other night, last name coupe, he was talking about it this morning when we were at Arners for Christmas breakfast.

[Mark]

I was there before any depts. arrived. I drove by and then got out of the car and hurried over. By the time I was there I saw that people were already comforting people that lived in or next to the house. The house on fire was completely engulfed before the first truck arrived.

The house is a few miles from any fire department. Claymont, Talleyville and Boothwyn (PA) are the closest and they are, from a time standpoint, several minutes from the location.

It is a shame what happened. I am not a firefighter so I can not comment on how they responded. What I did see is some neighbors helping neighbors in a time of need.

[Missy]

after watching that video, i have to agree Curly i would have been banging on neighbors door and making sure everyone was out not sitting back talking about someone should...

[Silver Eagle]

I thought that the city of Wilmington already had Paid fire company's. And the County backs them up if it's large enough. What we need is a paid county run fire dept.

[Mark]

another thing I wanted to mention, that from what I saw, it didn't matter how fast the fire department got there. It moved very quickly. I also didn't see the person filming this. I would have been off screen to the right of the person holding the camera and I was also on the back side.

[Bellicose]

I am by no means a firefighter so I really should not comment, but what did take the first engine to get the flow of water going to the house, and surrounding areas?

I would not mind paying some extra if it meant saving lives, or someone losing everything they own.

WTF were the people doing rather then just standing around , how about you go knock some doors down. Everyone says it all the time, that they would do this or that in this situation. Yet most people never do anything, but stand around and talk while recording what is happening. I would have been trying my best to get some people out of their house for sure, that I know is a fact!

[EpicWin]

I am by no means a firefighter so I really should not comment, but what did take the first engine to get the flow of water going to the house, and surrounding areas?

I would not mind paying some extra if it meant saving lives, or someone losing everything they own.

WTF were the people doing rather then just standing around , how about you go knock some doors down. Everyone says it all the time, that they would do this or that in this situation. Yet most people never do anything, but stand around and talk while recording what is happening. I would have been trying my best to get some people out of their house for sure, that I know is a fact!

[Curly]

Vollies have staffing problems too. Sometimes the truck goes out with only two on board instead of four. Don't get me started on the so-called "firefighters" who only join just to put the stickers on their cars. When the shit hits the fan, they shit their pants. Basically worthless.

[max1]

Horrible fire for sure, as for the volunteers I have to say down here we have a few paid EMTs and a lot of volunteers who live in the neighborhood. A number of times when there were medical or fire emergencies on my street some of these folks would be running down the street as soon as the call came in. I'm not willing to pay anymore taxes to have paid fire fighters, although it wouldn't bother me to have some of the taxes I already pay go to some type of paid service.

[longnecker]

In northern NCC I think it would be great and well worth the additional cost. Down state where things are really spread out I don't think it would be much help simply because of the driving distance from the firehouse to the fire.

[Curly]

I know some or most of the vollie stations have a paid crew for ambulance and some paid drivers for the engines but I'm not sure of the details. They're having trouble with recruiting and holding on to people. A lot of political bickering and the old timers don't want to give up their power. I'm not a vollie, never was but most of my coworkers are and some of the stories I hear make me think WTF? Anyway, these districts around here are growing big time with residential properties and commercial. Times are changing where volunteer fire departments won't cut it anymore. As for people living in the sticks where properties are far and apart, a paid department isn't feasible.

[Tralee]

I would happily pay a yearly fee. $200 would not be too much to pay for guaranteed protection.

[Chase]

Welcome to the site Tralee!