Just when we thought that the world had gone mad enough, we discovered an old article online about an old rumor.
A firefighter's job is seldom easy, but thanks to the wisdom of a selected few within the service, they had come up with a brilliant idea (in their opinion) on how to make our job a little bit safer. Yes indeed, they along with some 'high powers to be' were in full support of banning the 'fireman's pole' because it posses a "...health and safety hazard." Apparently, some unlikely soul may "...slip off and hurt themselves, turn an ankle, or receive chaffing to the hands or thighs..."
Uh huh. I can't speak for every firefighter and wouldn't even if I could, but seriously, the thought of sliding down the pole butt naked has honestly never crossed my mind. Damn, now why didn't I think of that?!?!
No worries, if these selected few ever have their way and the pole is ever banned, perhaps soon firefighters can respond to calls in a much safer fashion - six guys running full-tilt down two flights of stairs at once. WTF were they thinking when contemplating banning the pols back then?
I just can't see the banning of the fireman's pole. I do believe that they had been trying to take this route several times and have been unsuccessful in some places at some stations. Common sense tells us that vital seconds will be lost on a 911 emergency call. As you can all imagine, it only takes about a second or two or three to slide down a pole and at least 1-3 minutes to run down one or even two flights of stairs... more if you have a crew of 4-6 guys making that same exit, at the same time. To most, a couple of minutes may not seem like a long time, but on a 911 call, seconds do count.
Could they not see that using the stairs in an emergency will actually prove more dangerous in some situations than sliding down a pole? It seems a little crazy to say it's too dangerous to have a pole when the men/women make their living from running into burning buildings, etc.
The whole idea of banning a 'fireman's pole' is not reasonable in my opinion and I hope that they never bring this discussion up again and just lay this debate to rest forever. Poles are a huge part of the image of the fire service (just as poles are to strippers) and they are a necessity (a fireman's pole not strippers, although...) for those stations that are not single storey structures. I just fail to see the humor in such a debate.
But this is funny....
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Firegeezer
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