tank fills at firehouses?

[superstar]

He might as well use the ladder truck to trim his trees as well.

I never thought of that but I do need some trees trimmed. After all, my tax dollers did pay for the ladder truck and I don't think it's ever been used except in a parade. It would be good training for the firemen to learn to deploy the ladder and swing their axes.

 

[Firefyter]

The sence of entitlement is not that I beleave I am entitled to a free air fill but everything that the firehouse has is payed for by the tax payer and the firechief feels he is intitled to as much of my tax doller he can get.

I never thought of that but I do need some trees trimmed. After all, my tax dollers did pay for the ladder truck and I don't think it's ever been used except in a parade. It would be good training for the firemen to learn to deploy the ladder and swing their axes.

If you're so worried about the way your tax dollars are spent, maybe you should ask for a refund from your local school district. It's pretty obvious that they did a poor job teaching you to spell.......

 

[superstar]

If you're so worried about the way your tax dollars are spent, maybe you should ask for a refund from your local school district. It's pretty obvious that they did a poor job teaching you to spell.......

I can spell perfect, my typing skills suck,

 

[Firefyter]

I can spell perfect, my typing skills suck,

Keep telling yourself that.....

 

[superstar]

Firefyter,
Thanks for being concerned with my lack of education due to the failure of the public school system, I am much more focused on the hockey game I am watching than my spelling at this time. I am sorry I opologize to you. If it would make you happy I will use spell check.
Now lets move on with the intended subject of this thread being firehouses filling out tanks.
The piont I was trying to make was the mayor thinks it would be ok for the firechief to fill my tanks because the equipment belongs to the community. The fire chief thinks different. I go to another firehouse that I am friends with the chief and he fills our tanks and is happy to do so.
I have nothing against firemen, my brother was a fireman untill he had to carry a charred infant from a burning trailer. He never recovered. I am also the alternate goalie for the fire/police dept beer league ice hockey team. Nothing against the fireman, only the tax dollars wasted on things like ladder trucks when we only have two buildings over 2 storys tall in our community.

 

[fire_diver]

Nothing against the fireman, only the tax dollars wasted on things like ladder trucks when we only have two buildings over 2 storys tall in our community.

That is an insurance rating thing. Your local insurance rates are based on many things. One thing the underwriters look at is available fire apparatus including tankers and ladder trucks. Not having them means everyone in the area pays higher insurance rates. There are also a lot of federal funds available for things like that, so don't just automatically assume is was all local money.

As for what your friend the mayor said, it means nothing. The Mayor isn't responsible for the equipment, the fire chief is. Your fire dept is funded by local tax dollars. That does NOT mean that anyone can use the equipment for anything they want. The dept is responsible for care and maintenance of that tax dollar funded equipment. More use = less time before it breaks and more funds have to be spent to fix or replace. So using it to fill your scuba tanks for free is not something a dept cares about.

Maybe your fire chief is an ass. Maybe you went in with a sh!tty attitude. I wasn't there so it's up to speculation. Based on your rantings about your FD, I will side with the chief.

 

[theduckguru]

I keep seeing posts that people get their tanks filled at firehouses. Is this normal or am I crazy?

You are not likely to get fills from the City of Columbus FD, but you would be likely to obtain fills from the more rural and more volunteer FDs. I have a free FD source, but seldom use it because I don't dive local much. Connections help and you might have to provide an adaptor.

 

[theduckguru]

It would be politically unwise (and in some cases illegal) for a public agency such as a fire department to offer a service that competes with commercial businesses. My wife works for a public transit agency that often receives requests to run a shuttle for a public event or something of that nature - but they can't do it because it would take business from a private charter bus company. I expect that a fire department willing to help out a private individual with a fill will want to keep it way under the radar.

I'm glad I don't live in your community. We'd have to tell the library they couldn't loan books and videos because they were hurting Blockbuster and Barnes / Noble. We have to close the public pool and golf course because they were competing with the for profit country club . I guess we have to close the rec center too - they compete with the gym clubs.

 

[Kiwi303]

I checked, no air from the local rural volunteer fire house, they don't have the kit, instead if they use their SCBA gear the local area co-ordinator from the nearest town does a shuttle run with a car load of full cylinders. They then take the empties/partials back to town a couple of hours away to be filled again and stored at the permanently staffed regional fire centre HQ. One compressor services a dozen rural volunteer services which might use SCBA three or 4 times a year each if they're busy.

They're more likely to use the jaws of life on a road wreck than to need SCBA in a smoky house.

 

[wedivebc]

One compressor services a dozen rural volunteer services which might use SCBA three or 4 times a year each if they're busy.
.

They don't do practices in SCBA???