NEAFC 32nd Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS
CHIEF d~LLETAG: I have no answer to it. I have plenty of men at all
times; they are not paid, so that I have no answer for that question.
MODERATOR WOOLLEY: He has a volunteer department. Now, let us
come down to Chief Flynn.
CmEF FLYNN: Well, it is a problem to have the proper help in these
times, and shorter hours; but, I think that it means a further responsibility
on the Chief, to,,see that the men he has. and will get are properly trained. I
think that a mar who is properly trained and rightly trained in the work of
the Fire Department can accomplish a great deal, particularly at this time,
when it is so necessary that everybody be aware of everything to do with his job.
So that the shorter hours, to my mind, while training will not provide
another pair of hands, it will give the men you do have the know-how to go
ahead with the kind of work that we want them to perform.
MODERATOR WOOLLE¥: Thank you, Chief.. There is an intelligent answer.
d~ CHIEF FROM CONNECTICUT: We have volunteers; we are working
fifty-six hours, now. What do they want, forty hours? Our paid men are now
working, fifty-six hours.
MODERATOR WOOV.LEY: We will have another volunteer department tel1
us us about his town; at least, he is partly volunteered. Let us hear from
Chief Keefe.
CHIEF KEEFE: Roi, this problem doesnt affect me on that basis. We
are practically all volunteers, and we do not have the problem too much. They
are always there.
CI-IIEF MESSER: The minute you start cutting down the hours, then the
o rrio"re men that you need will cost the community more money. You have to
watch out, from the financial end of it, as well as the man angle, and you
have to try to keep the men more etlicient. We have found out that it takes
seven men to run two jobs, on the basis of 1940 or 1942.
CHIEF FRATES: They get less hours. If they do get that, I. would like to
see thirty hours.
MODERATOR WOOLLE¥: Now, with those remarks from the Panel, we
are ready for your discussion from the floor.
CHIEF GI~OTE, Chester, Conn.: I am very much insympathy with the
gentlemen on the thirty hours. Some volunteers, are working those long hours.
But, it isnt a question of man-power; let us get in there and do our duty. That
is the life of a volunteer.
CHIEF SCANLON: I might say that if industry is getting forty hours,
and if police officers are getting forty hours, then what is wrong with giving
those same hours to the firemen? I don’t know of anybody who works any
harder than the firemen. I don’t, know of anybody, or any body of men,
who take their lives in their hands more often than the firemen do. I am
all for the shortest possible working week, for the firemen, with consideration
for the City to carry the load.
I am also very much in favor of the replacement of man-power, and,
.is .Chief Flynn has well said, there are ways out of it. Inch and a half-lines
215