Things the public need to know about the SFD and Corporation #1

• Public safety is really in mind here - The chief stopped alerting volunteers for all calls. When approached by Chief Polidore requesting that we at least get alerted for medical emergencies like nonbreathing, cardiac arrests etc. and the chief said No. He felt as though they were not important enough to him to alert an emergency responder that could be across the street from the incident. The mayor said that there was 105 volunteers in the city. Which means there is a chance there are people scattered all throughout the city and parts of the county at all times of the day. They could have been closer to someone having that medical event than what the nearest Fire Truck or Ambulance was. Every minute that goes by the chance of saving that person rapidly deteriorates. 

• Nutter’s Crossing the city has proved they don’t care about you. The Chief and Mayor said If Station 1 wants their own territory they can operate outside the bypass. The city doesn’t get enough calls out there to justify our time or revenues. Look at a map Nutter’s Crossing you are outside of the bypass that is what the city thinks about you. 

• Retired Chief Brezler – He was the one who got rid of SFD’s Tankers during his first year or so in service. He can be quoted as saying we are in the fire service not Tanker business. These tankers were needed and still are needed for our County area. I hope Nutter’s Crossing likes listening to him in their community meetings. By the way the only Tanker in the city has now been taken out of Station 1(where it was needed the most) and put downtown surrounded by fire hydrants. Brezler retired from the city when it needed him the most. He singlehandedly stirred up more controversy and then when things started to point at him, he simply tucked in his tail and ran away. What a great leader he was! 

• This is not nor has it ever been a career vs volunteer situation as now being reported by various news articles. Why did the city wait 4 months to say that is what it was? 

• Parsonsburg needs to open their eyes too and stop supporting the City of Salisbury! The chief has it in his 5-year plan to have a station out by Perdue Stadium. That is why they annexed in RT 50. Your territory is next to be taken if you don’t start helping fellow brothers and sisters out like you said you would. By the way thanks for your vote at the Chiefs meeting too. Chief Hoppes was happy to see you vote with 16, 7 and 11 against your own brethren. 

• Let’s talk about Parody within the City of Salisbury Fire Dept- 2 career Firefighters (James Jester & Zachary Bridges) were tried and plead guilty to either a DUI or DWI both have since been promoted to higher ranking positions. A volunteer plead guilty to Driving while impaired, in between the time of both career officers’ incidents, and was discharged from service. It was stated Salisbury could not be represented in a bad light. 

• A volunteer member of station 1 was discharged for not being able to meet with Chief during the hours of 8-5 Mon thru Friday due to the current work load from his full-time career. This member tried to meet the chief during more suitable hours and the chief declined them. Later then charged the member with insubordination for allegedly refusing to meet with the Chief all together. By the way this was all over a Facebook post when the Chief and other Career Officers ranted about the Volunteer Appreciation Banquet. Isn’t there a policy in the city about Communications on public forums? A volunteer member from station 2 was discharged for carrying a box out of the station. They could not provide video evidence but they just said there was some evidence and forced the member out. Does this sound like a place you want to volunteer your time? 

• Volunteers from Station 1 have handled calls all throughout the city when other stations (2 and 16) could not get out and the duty crew were all out on their own calls. 

• Chief Hoppes has been put on record in a county meeting that there are volunteers still at station 1. Why is Brian records being quoted to a SU news reporter saying there aren’t any volunteers there? Who is lying? • Throughout this event of station 1 leaving the city Those members have not been in the media trash talking in retaliation to what the members of the city have been saying. 

• Let’s address the chief so called scratch comments about the Station 1 volunteers. In the event they were realerted (which per the chief a city re-alert happens at 4 mins unlike the county station’s 5 min protocol) the career staff were automatically put on the call and the station 1 volunteers were told to remain in quarters and wait for the next call. His stats do not show that they did show up at 4 mins and 10 secs. It just shows they didn’t make it out in 4 mins. 

• While we are on the subject of response times let’s talk about how the city pads their numbers. Medics and certain other people can respond from their bunk room, kitchen and for all we know even the toilet. There is video evidence for this later to be revealed how a medic unit went responding but didn’t leave the firehouse until almost 3 minutes later on a patient who was going through multiple seizures. What this is doing is slowly killing people and or making it less likely that people will survive the medical event they are going through at that time. 

• The volunteers of the city were also told they are not allowed to respond directly to the scene. They were told if the incident was on their way to the firehouse they were to go past the incident and to the firehouse to get the apparatus out. In the county, they can respond directly to the scene and do a proper size up then have 1 person bring the correct apparatus needed for the situation. Which again increased station 1’s response times. 

• During the time of stations 1’s worst performance time was not all their fault. It has come to our attention that a lot of it could have been the cites in take process. It, during that time, was taking the city anywhere from 4 to 8 months to complete the intake process of new members. That was only if they didn’t keep losing the applications. There were countless applications that kept getting lost in the process. At the point of one person’s retirement there were a stack of applications found that were years old. During this time station 1 was at its all time low in membership. They only 17 members then let’s applaud those member’s efforts. 

• To continue with the cities intake process members are required to have Firefighter 1, Hazmat Ops and Awareness and EMT before they can count for minimum staffing. Which by the way the total hours to complete the necessary training needed is over 300 hours plus you must schedule ride-alongs, which it can take weeks to get the number of calls needed, in competition with all the others in your class, while you maintain your current job and family life. We are not arguing some of this training is not necessary but there have been some that have either been turned off by being forced to be an EMT, and others being refused the chance to ride and help where they can because they can’t complete EMT either do to the inability to pass the national registry or just can’t complete the course because the schedule change. Let’s face it not all of us can be a doctor, but some of those people can be a nurse. Allowing people to help where they can that is why we have volunteers right? 

• Plus, all new members are now being assigned shifts to work on. It doesn’t matter about your availability, you need to fill the shift yourself or find a replacement. If you don’t fill the shift there is disciplinary action leading all the way up to discharge. How is this volunteer? They are being forced to do the same job for free and the guy next to them is making a salary to do so. They work the required hours then they still must go to their other full time career. Again, while the guy next to them gets the next 3 days off! 

• Now allow me a minute to talk about this funding a new station. Where is this new station? The corporation of station 1 has always been funded by the county. It just looks different on paper this year because instead of each individual station getting a check, the county decided to group them all together and just give the check to the City of Salisbury. Why is the city getting the county funding that the volunteers are supposed to be getting? There is a reason that money went to the volunteers. The payment needs to be divided back up like it always was for the system of checks and balances. The county needs to give the corporation of station 1 the same amount as all the other county stations as well as station 2 and 16. 

• The Corporation of Station 1 has a plan to not only increase the number of first responders in their area. They also have a plan to increase water supplies in strategic places throughout their county assigned territory. The public is just not able to hear about it because of the city screaming about everything else.