Firefighters Fiddle While Roseville Burns

by Steven Greenhut
Oct. 25, 2010

I hear endlessly from firefighters who typically earn pay and benefit packages of $175,000 a year here in California that they are heroes who put their lives on the line to keep us and our property safe. Yet, so often when tragedy strikes, these heroes act in ways that certainly are not heroic.

For instance, on Thursday a major fire consumed a good part of the Roseville Galleria, one of the largest malls in northern California, while firefighters basically waited outside to allow the fire sprinklers to do the job.

As the Sacramento Bee reported, a "troubled" 23-year-old man walked into a game store, claimed he had a gun, ordered everyone out and set fire to the store. Everyone was evacuated from the mall without incident, according to the Bee, "But because he left a backpack behind, and because no one knew if it contained explosives, firefighters waited outside while a bomb squad went in looking for the back pack."

The authorities figured the sprinklers had the fire under control, but when the bomb squad got into the building they found out that "the fire apparently smoldered and grew" and then "it burst out of control, roaring through portions of the mall roof and sending the bomb squad retreating … . The result was a fire that raged into early evening." It caused massive damage including a roof collapse.

The Fire Department heralded its decision to withhold firefighting from the mall. As the department spokesman said, "As it turns out, it was a good decision from the firefighter safety standpoint." As we see here and in virtually every other case involving fires and police efforts: The safety of the firefighter or officer is the primary – at times it seems, the only – concern of public safety officials.

Read More












All original InformationLiberation articles CC 4.0



About - Privacy Policy