[Officers] Letter of Concern - From Rob Delaney

[Rob Delaney]

Officers:


Below is an email draft that I have been sitting on for well over a month
now. I had originally drafted this to the general membership, but after
much debating, I have decided to hold off on that. In all honesty, I am not
sure what sending it to the membership would accomplish. On the flip side,
I didn't want to let this go without making my concerns and my feelings
know to someone. Not sure what else I can say but hopefully this explains a
lot. If anyone wants to discuss this or hear more, please feel free to
call, text, or email me.


Thanks,

Rob

lostboysmotorsports at gmail.com or rdelaney at automate.com

518-461-8597 (Cell)



"To all the members of the East Glenville Fire Dept:


I apologize in advance for the length of the email. I feel that what I am
about to say is worth the read, and I hope you stick with me. I have been
trying to find a way of writing this for a while now, but have not known
exactly the words to say or how to say it. I have come to the conclusion
that I just need to get this off my chest and deal with how the pieces fall
afterwards.


First, for those of you that do not know me well, I joined EGFD in the fall
of 2013. I had previously been a member and past Lieutenant of the
Morrisville Fire Dept, where I served 4 years +. After returning to the
area, I joined Harmony Corners for a short term before work got in the way.
I took a couple years off before applying to EGFD and I was very excited to
finally get back into a new station and join a new family.

I can honestly say that since joining the department I have not been nearly
as active as I had planned, and for that I am deeply sorry. I have had
multiple deaths, serious illness, and many complicated surgeries, come
tearing through my family over the past year or so. But I feel there is
more to it than that.  Something I couldn’t explain until very recently.


A little ways back I sat through a firematics committee meeting, where we
discussed a number of rising issues and concerns. It seems as though most
of these topics circled back to one thing; culture. The term culture was
thrown around a lot and was the scapegoat for many things discussed. Nobody
in the meeting could say exactly what the problem was with the culture of
EGFD, but for the most part, they all agreed that there was a problem with
the culture of our department as a whole.

Some may view this as an excuse; others will share in this view. I feel
that in any fire dept, be it paid or volunteer, there is or should be a
certain culture. We have all heard people refer to members of the fire
service as part of a family. Fellow fire fighters are part of the
brotherhood or sisterhood. But what does this mean? An article by Bob
Capaul in Fire Engineering (12/12/2013) defines this as “It’s a feeling you
can’t explain; it’s in your heart and soul. It’s a love of the job and the
people who make it up.” Another article by an unknown author on
firecritic.com (4/5/2010) states “It is what makes you a firefighter and
you must not for any reason let personal feelings hamper and decision to
help another “Brother”.”


Thinking about these quotes and about all the talk of firehouse culture got
me thinking about how I personally found myself part of the “Brotherhood”.
What was it that made me want to be a part of this? In the fall of 2005
when I went to Morrisville State College I met a guy in the auto program
and became good friends with him. I lived right across the hall from him
and his roommate who were both members at MFD. Every Tuesday night,
regardless of what we tried to plan, he was at the firehouse. If we were
doing something and his pager went off he was gone. I finally asked him
what was so great about the fire house. Why was he so hooked on it? He
brought me down to the station with him one Tuesday night and I quickly
figured out what all the hype was about. Here I was 19 years old in a town
where I knew a handful of people at best. I walked into a small brick
building and met a rag tag group of guys that would turn out to be some of
my best friends. I hung out with them a couple times and watched them run a
few calls before I decided to take the plunge and join.


After becoming a member and going through a fair amount of harassment and
ball busting, I became one of the guys. A couple of the older guys took me
and another new kid under their wing and started showing us the ropes. We
spent every Tuesday and most weekends at the firehouse learning everything
we could. We learned the in and outs of every truck and every inch of the
station. We helped with maintenance, we polished light bars, serviced
equipment, performed truck checks, and when it was all over, we did it
again. I went through every course I could get my hands on trying to soak
up as much as I could. A couple of the guys even convinced me to become an
EMT. These guys even sat through EMT class with me for nights on end (even
though they tested out for the recert), and spent countless hours with me
going through everything they possibly could. My first code I was alone on
the rescue as the only “certified” person. I had just gotten my card and
this was my first major call. I panicked and thought I was going to lose
it. My chief and lieutenant calmed me down, and walked me through it. After
losing my first patient, I was pretty down in the dumps. I knew it wasn’t
my fault and I did everything I could, but I still thought I couldn’t
handle it. My mentors picked me up, reassured me and got my head back in
the game. These guys were my family. They knew I needed help and guidance,
and they delivered it with no questions asked.


I quickly went from “rookie” status to a fully fledged member of the
family. As the crews started to cycle out and the veteran members started
to take a back seat, it became my turn to take the next step as an officer,
and to take on my own group of “probies” and “rookies”. Some were members
coming from other departments, and some were brand new people looking to
find out what the fire service was all about. But everyone got treated the
same way. It didn’t matter if the people coming in had never seen a fire
truck, or if they had years on the job. They were new members to our direct
family, and it was my job to show them the ropes and show them how we did
things. As a “senior member” of the dept, it was now my job to pass on the
traditions, practices, and “family virtues” that had been instilled in me
by my mentors. I felt honored to carry this on.


We knew Tuesday night was firehouse night. We didn’t care about “top
responders”, or LOSAP points, or whose “job” it was to do this or that, or
who did something we didn’t like. After drills we all went out to pizza and
beer at the local bar. We’d show up with no notice to our lieutenant’s
house with ribs and beer and have a BBQ. If someone had a baby, got
married, engaged, bought a new house, or anything else, we were all there.
Even if someone didn’t ask for help, they still got it. If someone wasn’t
seen at the firehouse or heard from for a few days, we showed up on their
door step to make sure everything was OK or at the very least they got a
few calls / texts just to check in. The point of all this isn’t to brag or
to blame or anything like that. I am just pointing out how this department
truly ran as a family.

After leaving Morrisville, and not having the time to be part of Harmony
Corners, I sort of fell away from the fire service. I still kept in touch
with friends from MFD, but wasn’t able to see everyone as much as I would
have liked to. I knew I missed it but didn’t know how much. I got a call
while on the road for work one day that one of my mentors had passed away.
I was shocked. He had been dealing with depression and an addiction to
alcohol. After a long time of fighting, he lost this battle. Text messages,
phone calls and emails starting flying around containing details about
services, times, who was coming, and from where. I was asked to “rally the
troops” from the eastern side of NY and get as many people there as
possible. When we arrived, I was shocked at the amount of people that were
there and how far they had traveled. We had people from all over NY, and
some that flew in from South Carolina and other states. All of these people
were family. The eulogy alluded to this fact and talked about all the
different uniforms that were present and how the “brotherhood” stretched so
far.


Shortly after this a lot of things started changing in my life. One thing
was for certain; I missed the fire service and had been away for far too
long. When I joined EGFD I was so excited and couldn’t wait to get back
into the fire service. Again I was so excited to join the family.
Unfortunately over the first few months a number of family things came up
and I was not able to come around as much as I had hoped.


I also started to notice things. The culture here at EGFD was totally
different than what I was used to. I noticed that not everyone came to the
firehouse on a certain night. The whole station didn’t get together for
beers or BBQs on the weekend. This isn’t required to be a good department,
but the relationship building that comes from this little stuff certainly
helps.

I also noticed there was a vast disconnect amongst the department. This
group didn’t talk to this group and these guys are mad at these guys. This
person thinks this person mad a bad choice and this person did this. There
were constant discussions about whose “job” it was to do something or to
check something. I felt and still feel like there are certain groups in the
department. We are not one unified body. I was really kind of shocked to
find all this out. My first few calls and drills, the only people that
bothered to talk to me was the guys I had already known. Now was I openly
out going and running up to people to introduce myself? No, but I didn’t
really feel like I needed to. I was the new guy and perhaps a little shy. I
was kind of hoping someone would do for me what I had come to expect. Take
me under their wing; show me the ropes of EGFD and the family. Again, I am
not blaming or pointing fingers, but I want everyone to see a perspective
from someone who is still pretty new.


Circling back to the firematic committee meeting, I mentioned some of this
and explained how I felt as a newbie. A comment was made that had I been
here 10 years ago, I would have had the experience that I expected. My
response to this and my question to you all is this. What has changed?


What in the past 10 years has driven the EGFD family apart? Is it the
introduction of the LOSAP program? Is it the beer being taken away? Is it
the officers changing? Is it the lack of motivation from the new members?
Is it the lack of motivation from the old members? Is it the announcing of
the top responders every month? I have heard so many different excuses
about why things are the way they are and why it’s not like it used to be.
But you know what my response is? Who cares? I don’t care what has happened
in the past ten years. I don’t care who did what, or who said what, or who
voted for beer, or who voted against beer. WHO CARES? Let’s put it all
behind us and more forward as a department.


The only thing that I care about is that we have members leaving, members
stepping down, and members (me included) that don’t have the motivation to
be as active as they could be and should be. Personally, I don’t need LOSAP
rewards, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc. I did not join for that. I joined to
be a part of the brotherhood, to be part of a family, and to share
something I love with others that love it as well.


So now that I have officially stirred the pot, started a shit storm, and
singled myself out, I hope that you will do the same. I hope that you can
all relate on some level to what I have said, and I hope that we can all
come together to fix the culture of our department.



Respectfully Yours,


Rob Delaney"
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