Jumpline magazine OCT 2022-pages - Flipbook - Page 8
8
1403 Officers
Paul D Blake, Ret.
Treasurer
TREA$URER’$ Report
Since our last edition of the Jumpline
I had the opportunity to attend, along with other member of
your executive board, the IAFF Convention in Ottawa, Canada. I didn’t know if we would make it considering flight cancellations were becoming all too common. The convention
reaffirmed how lucky we are as it relates to our CBA and the
fact that we have collective bargaining. There was one horror story after another heard when discussing an increase in
funding for the EDF – emergency defense fund. Whether it
was firefighters from Alabama who were told to work extra
shifts and not receive overtime to East Chicago where the
mayor switched firefighters from a 24/48 schedule to “Crazy
8s.” A ridiculous rotating eight-hour shift. A judge would
eventually rule in favor of the East Chicago Firefighter, two
years later, but during that time many East Chicago firefighters left the department for other departments
As a result of convention action, there will be dues increases, in the beginning of October. This isn’t solely because of per-capita increases, but because there is a 3%
raise coming to MFDR employees. The new base rate for
dues will be $41.19/pay period, up from $40.10.
Speaking of the “Jumpline”, there was a great deal of information provided. Whether it was the interview with our
very own Captain William Gustin, or of course, my article.
The “bravest” article of them all were the interview with Doug
Keller and Jason Blasi. They shared their struggles with
substance abuse. Job well done. They have taken it one
step further with interviews that have been uploaded to MDFRNET.
There was also an article written by John Lancaster regarding our “Resiliency Foundation.” I serve as one of five
trustees on the foundation. If you are struggling with a bad
call or issue, please make a call to speak to a therapist. It
helps to talk to someone, in private. I wish this had been
available back in my day as do many others. You want to
be able to remember the good times as well as the formative
years of your children and not have them blocked from your
memory, because that same memory contains the many
bad calls you will have handled through the
course of your career. The phone number
is 786-551-4911.
There is so much to be learned of how
members got to where we are today. It
didn’t just start as a system of our size
with minimum staffing of four on suppression units and three paramedics on rescue. TRT, Haz Mat, Air Rescue were all
programs developed by our very own. Not
only do we have a system where ideas
become reality, but a system where those
very ideas get a chance to show their worth
on actual calls.
Thirty years ago, Hurricane Andrew ravaged our community. South Dade endured the most of the damage. Many
of our members’ homes were destroyed. It would forever
change us as well as building codes in South Florida. There
are many stories. I have my own. After Andrew, the Union
operated a disaster relief operation which would be adopted by the IAFF as their Disaster Relief Fund. The primary
beneficiary of Hurricane Andrew was South Broward where
many communities would eventually house “Andrew’s refugees.” To quote Allison Hess Fontana from her Facebook
post: “The best memory…the comradery and brotherhood
of firefighter from near and far just showing up with gear to
help.”
I am hoping that we will be able to capture our history by
those who helped create it. In future articles, I hope to share
our “history.” Much of it will be from Facebook, which is the
primary means of social media for many of us who are not
savvy with Twitter, IG, Tik Tok, Tinder or any of those other
social media sites. The capturing of our history needs to be
more formal, maybe even a project for somebody; sooner
rather than later. In the meantime, if any of you would like to
share your stories, feel free to email history@local1403.org.
Shortly after retiring, I was able to get a part time job as an
EMS Liaison at a local hospital. I enjoy being able to “jaw
jack” with crews when they transport to the hospital. What
I really enjoy most is researching patient outcomes. I mean
we have some amazing saves. Not just saving lives but
quality of life.
It could be the elderly female that was pulled from a canal by our divers, CPR performed, and several weeks later
discharged to home. It could be the suppression crew that
performed a breach delivery and resuscitated the newborn.
Maybe it was air rescue flying out to the middle of the Everglades for a patient complaining of chest pain at 0200 in the
morning. On that incident, they hovered, lowered a medic
who then hoisted the patient into the helicopter. Patient was
having an anterior wall MI, was catheterized at the hospital
and discharged a day later with a host of medications. Maybe it’s just the simple transport where the crew is holding the
patient’s hand, assuring them that everything is going to be just fine. Not as dramatic for television news as ducks being
pulled from a storm drain, but just several
calls of the several hundred thousand we
respond on an annual basis.
Hundreds of new members have come
on board in the past few years, yet we still
have struggles getting members to “answer the call.” Changes to FRS, protecting our service area just don’t happen with
a snap of your fingers. It takes members
assisting. What makes our organization
October 2022 | JUMPLINE Magazine
