Let’s call this an addendum to the last post. That post was taken from Riots to Renaissance. This little add-on comes from Changing the NFD and was brought to mind by Chief Grehl’s comment about radios.

This post is really a shout out to all the guys who made chief. Face it, even with all the little idiosyncrasies of each individual chief, whatever little irritant that would pop up in the family, when you were on the fire ground everyone who went into a fire building entrusted their life to the man on the outside with the radio. That is not always understood, especially by the public.

One of the reasons for compiling the oral history has been so people had a better understanding of our profession. With that in mind, here is a short story told by Chief Grehl about how the public can misunderstand what goes on at a fire:

When I first came on there were no radios. The only ones who had radios were the Chief’s cars. Of course, there were no radios for individual companies. No portable radios. The radios in the cars were in the car. That’s what you used. Then they put them in all companies. Today companies have portable radios. They’re tremendous. You can do an awful lot.

One of the things that shows people don’t appreciate radios is a fire we had over on Chadwick Avenue. En route I could see the thing was going good, two or three homes. I sent a second alarm from the car. When I got out of the car, I have to start directing these companies. I can’t have them all come in from Avon Avenue.

I stood in the middle of the street with my uniform cap on. I didn’t have rubber goods on and I had a radio in my hand. I directed the companies where to go. Once we had things settled, I put my rubber goods on and continued my job.

Well, the next first day in I got called to City Hall. Caufield had us there. It seemed the neighborhood group, community group, had complained about the guy in the white hat who stood in the middle of the street and did nothing. So, I says to the Director, “You have to be kidding.” It was a woman who was the spokesperson. “You have to be kidding. Don’t you explain to her what I do at a fire? Don’t you explain to her about a command post and it’s my job out in front of the building?” “Well, she seems to think you did nothing.” I said, “Wait, before we go any further. Call upstairs and get a tape down from the fire.”

So, we got the tape down and we played it for them. Well, of course she heard that I had sent for a second alarm before I even got there. Then she heard all the radio talk about assigning companies. I said, “Lady, that’s my job. That’s what my job is to do. My job is not to pick up a hose or anything else. My job is to make sure they all coordinate.” But that’s what happens when the public sees you doing nothing. They think you’re doing nothing. Radio, radio’s what did it.