A change is needed
Firefighting is tough, dirty and dangerous. Unfortunately, there are events where fire personnel are killed or seriously injured protecting lives and property. One example was a multiple alarm fire in a large vacant hosiery mill in the Kensington section of Philadelphia in April of 2012. This tragedy took the lives of veteran Fire Lt. Bob Neary and Firefighter Daniel Sweeney, and injured two others.
At the time, the top commanders of the fire department were accused of serious omissions of the Incident Command System, particularly safety accountability involving fires in large, unstable and vanact buildings.
Separate investigations were conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety and the Phildealphia Fire Department to determine what went wrong. These facts should then generate lessons learned for appropriate training measures.
The NIOSH report was published on Oct. 10, 2013. It is a professional, comprehensive report and cites 16 detailed major reccomendations. To date, it appears that none of these have been implemented.
It has now been 31 months, and the Philadelphia Fire Department has yet to issue a critique, nor has it issued a formal report in order to prevent similar tragedies from happening. These omissions occurred and were condoned by the previous fire administration with an “Atilla the Hun” mentality.
An evalutation of the department by the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, using Berkshire Advisors, produced a long list of problems and reccomendations for remediation. The department failed to initiate any changes for reasons unknown during the past two and a half years.
The newly appointed fire administration now has the perfect opportunity to begin a process for positive change. Commissioner Sawyer, tear down the walls of deceit, mismanagement, training lapses, dishonesty, favoritism, lack of responsibility, poor morale and resistance to any change by the Ayers administation.
Reach out to labor, IAFF Local 22, and collectively work on solutions for the myriad of serious problems facing the department. Working together is the best possible way to achieve needed changes. The citizens and fire personnel deserve nothing less and the members who paid the ulimate sacrifice demand it.
Roger M. Ulshafer
Retired Fire Commissioner
Thank you to Mike McGeehan for his service
On behalf of the Major Artery Revitalization Committee, we would like to take an opportunity to thank state Rep. Michael McGeehan and his staff for their service to our Northeast Philadelphia community over the last 24 years.
Mike and his staff have been instrumental on so many issues that we have collaborated on throughout the years, most notably his guidance in helping the Major Artery Revitalization Committee (MARC) become a non-profit in 2002.
Among the MARC endeavors completed with Mike’s assistance include the neighborhood murals in Wissinoming, Tacony and Holmesburg; the annual garden and Christmas wreath seminars that have been attended by hundreds of our residents over the past 12 years; beautification projects at various sites throughout the community and most notably, the recently completed Torresdale Avenue Project.
The project was a long time in the making, and involved paving over the old trolley tracks and new lighting in the shopping district. The final phase included sidewalk replacement, new line striping, handicapped ramp upgrades and banners hung along the commercial corridor.
Without Michael’s support, we would not have been able to accomplish these and many other projects that benefitted our Northeast Philadelphia neighborhoods.
We would also like to take a minute to recognize his staff: Chief of Staff Nancy Hartey, Dave Wyszynski, Rose DeGatis and Jim Tangert for all of their hard work during the course of Michael’s time in office. You will all be missed.
The MARC Board of Directors
