Letters: Tell dead kids' parents that delays don't matter

The outrageous editorial ("Playing politics," Thursday) on Philadelphia firefighters is dead wrong on the facts, betrays a near-total ignorance of the speed of fire, and continues an indefensible "overtime" slur against courageous and hardworking firefighters. The Editorial Board should be ashamed to suggest that firefighters' concerns over staffing cuts are about anything other than saving lives.

Two innocent kids died in a fire last week at a time when a fire engine sat empty in the nearest fire station, because it had been "browned out" by the Nutter administration. A fire truck from farther away had to respond instead, causing a delay. That's a fact. Another child died in a fire last year under near-identical circumstances. That's two deadly house fires, two browned-out fire trucks, and three dead kids. Facts.

Your editorial suggests that the delay in getting fire trucks to the Olney fire was too minimal to matter. That's just wrong. Fire expands exponentially, doubling every 30 seconds. Every lost second counts.

We can never know for certain that the brown-out delay last week directly caused the deaths of two kids. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to do the math here: three dead children at fires when the nearest fire station sat empty. Tell the parents of those kids that Mayor Nutter's cuts didn't make a difference. Tell them that another minute wouldn't have mattered.

Bill Gault

President

Local 22, International Association of Firefighters

Philadelphia