Comments on: Escambia Ups County Fire Tax $15 Per Year To Staff South-End Stations

By: Fed Up

Fed Up — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 15:09:27 +0000

This is laughable at best……. The West Pensacola Station has 20 members and a building that was flooded and took over a year to fixed. County officials knew of the damage and sat on rears and did nothing to fix the problem. Members run calls but when you are left in squalor and filth people do not want to be in those conditions! the IAFF Union has their agenda Chief Grace has his own. Learn facts before believing the people that are in charge.

By: correcting ignorance

correcting ignorance — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 20:59:06 +0000

To sw citizen, you live in the “pleasant grove” area of escambia COUNTY. Pensacola, the CITY of, has no interactions with thr COUNTY. They have their funds amd resources the county has theirs. You have a 24/7 ALS engine that serves your area. Advanced Life Support, like an ambulance but can’t transport a patient. And as far as the Navy responding to the county, all hay can change with a change of command of the base. And the Navy doesn’t get any incentive to respond, in other words, no compensation monetary or otherwise.

Sis, nobody is being thrown under the bus, if there is no response to calls that are dispatched then what’s the point of having a statiin with engines and equipment that doesn’t respond? If the data supports the actions of the station it wou
D be foolishness for the BOCC to not man those stations. And as far as the fact they are volunteering goes, they get paid as well. A colunteer is a person whom provides a service for free. By the way, a number of the paid on call firemen work as firemen at other depts and are members of an IAFF local. And how would you feel if you lived in a district wih little to no response from your local station.

And the msbu is budgeted where the need is according to the BOCC, Public Safety Director and Fire Chief not the union. Please investigate the facts before going off on amy side of the issue. There is a brotherhood but that doesn’t pit out fires or anything else for that matter.

By: FF Sis

FF Sis — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 18:47:57 +0000

Any house fire in Escambia county is going to deplete at least 4 surrounding fire stations. That house fire isn’t getting 4 trucks from the same station. its a community effort or at least its supposed to be. and just when things are going good…the union throws the vollys under the bus bc they aren’t there. Same old story different date. Until our union stops slamming our vollys and persuading our glorious local tv station to report half the story, we remain doomed. way to go brotherhood!

By: Ferry pass resident

Ferry pass resident — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 12:49:17 +0000

@a resident of SW Escambia County. From your description of where you live, it sounds like you live in the warrington area which, if I remember correctly, was fully staffed with a paid crew several years ago. That would mean that you do in fact benefit from county tax increases because your station would not be leaving to cover a volunteer district Like west pensacola or myrtle grove that isn’t responding to calls.

By: chris in Molino

chris in Molino — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 23:04:19 +0000

Sorry, but i was born and raised here and i just can’t recall the last forest fire up here that warranted Pensacola FF to come.

By: A Resident of SW Escambia County

A Resident of SW Escambia County — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 15:40:29 +0000

I sympathize with all yall living in the Northern part of Escambia County. I live in the SW part of Escambia County, NOT in the city limits so I have NO benefits FROM Pensacola either.

Having said that, Myrtle Grove and Innerarity Point DEFINITELY do NOT get ANY benefits from Pensacola either. West Pensacola I’m 70% sure is NOT in the city limits either and the other 2 remaining areas of Escambia County I’m really not sure but I don’t think they are in the City limits either.

I live less than 2 miles from the front gate to the Naval base so I’m not IN any of those areas but we do have a fire station here that has mostly Volunteers working there. If there are not enough FF’s available when needed, the base sends THEIR FF’s and equipment to the fire. We don’t benefit from the COUNTY TAX INCREASE either, but we gotta pay it.

Now think about this for a moment… if there’s a “forest” fire up in the Northern part of Escambia County, ALL of the fire stations will have their FF’s and equipment up there fighting that fire. At some point in time, we ALL will need a fire department to help us out in some way, shape or form. I just bite my tongue, usually, and pay up because ONE DAY, I’m gonna need them, maybe from another part of the county too.

God Bless America!!

By: eddie

eddie — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 18:59:33 +0000

im so tired of this wasteful crap

By: citizen

citizen — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 14:29:16 +0000

First thing ( Ben ) firefighters paid,vol,retired ar all ” professional ” as you say. People all the time degrade and talk down to vollys because they think we have a lack of knowledge of our job. The vollys have just as much knowledge if not more than any paid firefighter. With that bein said i have seen some of the Escambia professional Paid Firefighters do some stupid stuff like try to run a scene 25 miles away. Anyway back to the subject at hand you people are talking about the tax and poor vol numbers but here is my biggest question WHY DONT YOU COME VOLUNTEER ?

By: sniper

sniper — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 05:51:43 +0000

***Jeremy Sasser
Bob C., it has nothing to do with the tax cuts. All the Fire Houses mentioned have a poor volunteer turn out. That’s why they are putting paid Fire Fighters in.

The county is hiring all of the volunteers….thus poor volunteer turnout. Its poor business and until someone realizes the root cause, MORE TAX. They are already in the process of increasing taxes at least $30 more dollars next year. Sad thing is, the volunteers have to pay that tax as well. Way to go BOCC!!! hip hip hooray!

The fire stations in question are the largest in the county so what does that mean for the smaller ones that aren’t in question? Can you see what is about to happen? Full paid staffing at all stations. Say goodbye to the volunteers until the county bankrupts itself. No one is taking into consideration what happens when these firefighters start retiring…where are we going to get the funds to pay for those benefits????? Or when are we going to have to hire more chief officers to keep all these new hires in check????? hmmmmm…..

By: sam stewart

sam stewart — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 00:44:51 +0000

I think the raise in fire tax should been voted on by the citizens.Or pull half the county commission salary.the hole county going to crap