• MMNT@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    They did at one point set houses on fire though. I listened to a podcast on the history of firemen in the US. Mad stuff. Can’t remember the name of the podcast though.

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      There’s a nice scene in Gangs of New York, where rival Fire teams would fight it out whilst robbing the houses they were “saving”

      • thanks_shakey_snake@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        Firefighting shenanigans go all the way back to ancient Rome: Marcus Licinius Crassus formed Rome’s first fire brigade, which would basically extort the owners of burning buildings to buy them on the cheap. Per Wikipedia:

        The first ever Roman fire brigade was created by Crassus. Fires were almost a daily occurrence in Rome, and Crassus took advantage of the fact that Rome had no fire department, by creating his own brigade—500 men strong—which rushed to burning buildings at the first cry of alarm. Upon arriving at the scene, however, the firefighters did nothing while Crassus offered to buy the burning building from the distressed property owner, at a miserable price. If the owner agreed to sell the property, his men would put out the fire; if the owner refused, then they would simply let the structure burn to the ground. After buying many properties this way, he rebuilt them, and often leased the properties to their original owners or new tenants.

    • Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      When you get paid to stop something bad that is happening, prevention is not in your best interest.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      If you guys wanna defund the fire dept because some GqP says it sounds edgy WHILE saving tax money for the rich, then please let me not live there. Having lived through a devastating house fire, I’d like to not repeat the experience.

    • lyricanna@ttrpg.network
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      2 months ago

      Terrorists and school shooters. Frankly, if cops were as gun happy towards Nazis as they are everyone else, we wouldn’t have quite the fascist problem.

      Now, I’m not saying an idiot with a gun is the best solution to those issues, but it would be a solution.

    • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      When?
      When guerrilla warfare attacking another sovereign nation (so not on home soil)?

      No, I don’t think there is a problem I want solved that way (the “murderous” part I mean).

        • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          Yes, sufficiently improbable!

          But the og reply I’m replying to said “correct” (not best, or appropriate, or practical), that’s why I don’t want a raging natural murderer doing any murdering (not even as executioner).

          That’s why you don’t usually have hero movies where heroes heroically kill people & enjoy it - but rather heroes that oppose killing (but still kill a buch of evil™ people).

            • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              Well, since it’s not exact science we are talking about the “correct” can only mean something totally subjective.

              So I might not think ever the correct solution to use a murdering idiot with a gun.
              Not least because that implies having (and keeping) murdering idiots.
              That’s one example why I would label that as an incorrect solution.

    • thanks_shakey_snake@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      I assume that’s a reference to what the book-burners in Fahrenheit 451 are called, and not a weirdly misogynistic gatekeep, lol.

  • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    Like I know firefighter put out fires, but in the US at least departments are often instrumental in making sure city streets are as unsafe as possible so they can drive their enormous trucks down them.

    They will even do shit like narc out renters who have too many roommates in single family neighborhoods to city authorities, like they’re not cops but some of them try really hard.

    Like an order of magnitude more people die in car crashes than house fires, and more often than not fire departments are just responding to some dumbass crashing their car.

    • Dr. Bob@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      That’s the Fire Marshall. They are the enforcement arm of fire services. Do you think there is a reason so few people die in fires and maybe its tied to a strong regulatory regime? Like make sure occupancy limits are respected and fire exits aren’t blocked?

      • desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 months ago

        Do you think there is a reason so few people die in fires and maybe its tied to a strong regulatory regime?

        we should make houses safer, AND prevent firefighters from interfering in housefires.

        • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          You know how we make houses safer from fire? Fire Code and the IBC. Know how who enforces Fire Code? Fire Marshall.

          And it’s not only fires that require emergency vehicle access. If an ambulance is called to your house, the FD needs to know they can actually get it there.

          And what if there’s a utility outage and an excavator and crane are necessary? What if the street needs repair and a concrete truck has to get access? There’s all kinds of reasons large vehicles need to access homes.

          And none of that makes the streets less-safe. It increases visibility and gives more maneuvering room in an emergency.

          • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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            2 months ago

            I don’t think the FD is responsible for the ambulance getting there. They are often the first responders because the locations are more distributed than ambulance dispatch.

            • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Paramedics generally work for the fire department, and ambulances are dispatched from fire stations. The driver on the ambulance is often just a regular fire department chauffer who drew the short straw and is working ambulance duty that shift.

                • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  There are private ambulance companies, but those usually aren’t the ones that respond to a 911 calls.

                  In most areas, private ambulance companies either handle non-emergency medical transport or have contracts with places like nursing homes where they’re needed often enough that they can offer a less-expensive ride.

            • resonate6279@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              It depends.

              A lot of FDs run the ambulance, a lot don’t.

              In my area ambulance is seperate from fire, but fire crew responds to lift assists and certain other calls where we may need a driver or another set of hands for CPR. Some departments respond with a pickup/brush rig, and other respond with the full engine, just depends on manning.

              St Louis City is one FD I am aware of that runs their own ambulance.

      • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        Making sure city streets are wide as a highway lane is integral to fire safety, maybe if they narrowed streets they would be responding to fewer grisly car crashes

        • otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          Are you high AF? You start off sane enough, but rapidly scatter into wtf territory in multiple irrational directions at once.

          Maybe come back to this thought after a rest. 🤓