Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:25:26 -0400
From: Pennsylvania Fire & Emergency Services Institute
Subject: FIRE COMMISSIONER CALLS SAFETY A PERSONAL ISSUE---SEEKS LEGISLATIVE INVOLVEMENT
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BY KELLY MONITZ
STAFF WRITER, Republican and Herald
kmonitz@standardspeaker.com
Published: Friday, June 27, 2008 4:31 AM EDT
HAZLETON -- State Fire Commissioner Edward A. Mann always pitches safety when he talks to
firefighters throughout the commonwealth because he doesn't like to deal with what happens when
unsafe situations occur and someone doesn't make it home, he said.
"We got to have the courage to tell people when they're doing things the wrong way," he said
during the 105th Six-County Firemen's Convention at the Southside Station in Hazleton on Thursday.
Mann told delegates from Luzerne, Lackawanna, Northumberland, Montour and Schuylkill counties
that they should speak up when their colleagues aren't wearing their seat belts or not using a
spotter when backing up a fire truck.
They should also get physicals, even if their fire company or insurance won't pay for the exam, he said.
"You have to have some responsibility for yourself," Mann said.
Preventing line-of-duty deaths is something that he takes personally, he said, and wonders how
many deaths could be prevented if everyone took them personally.
Mann remembers one firefighter who told him that they had rolled their rescue truck, and everyone
walked away because they were wearing seat belts, or the firefighter who went for a
physical and found a serious heart condition.
A physical detected a potentially serious heart rhythm in his 14-year-old son, a junior
firefighter, he said. Another crew member is now controlling high blood pressure and diabetes that he didn't know he had.
Mann at one point doubted that the "Courage to be Safe, So Everyone Goes Home" program was
making a difference, but a friend told him that he may never know how many lives have been saved.
But safety wasn't the only thing on Mann's mind. He also urged delegates to go back to their fire
companies and rally their members to get legislation affecting the fire service passed.
Among the pending legislation are bills giving active volunteer firefighters a $500 tax credit,
and a 50 percent reimbursement on tuition, he said. Other bills would give a $1,000 tax credit
to employers who hire volunteers and allow them to leave work to answer a call, Mann said.
Still other legislation would pay workers' compensation to firefighters and others
responding to a mutual aid call, or presume that a firefighter who gets cancer developed it as a
result of being a firefighter, he said.
These bills need a push, and a grassroots effort from firefighters would help, he said. Mann told
them to e-mail their legislators and those across the state.
"They've got to hear from you," Mann said. "You have to go back to your organization and fire them up."
If the older folks don't know how to use a computer, he urged them to get their children or
grandchildren to show them how.
This year, the state added language regarding fire and emergency services to township, borough
and city codes. The amendment, in part, makes municipalities responsible for providing these
services and determine appropriate financial and administrative assistance.
Some local governments and fire companies have never talked or worked together, but this law
will bring them to the table and allow them to negotiate with each other -- giving each leverage, Mann said.
The Six-County Firemen's Convention continues today with a Memorial Mass at Trinity Lutheran
Church at 11:15 a.m., and culminates with a parade on Saturday at 2 p.m.
(DON'T FORGET TO VISIT WWW.PESLA.ORG TO REGISTER
TO COMMUNICATE TO YOUR LEGISLATORS AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE!)