Thanking the Firefighters and Other Observations at Station 27

My daughter’s Brownie Troop 808 out of CanyonView Elementary is a can-do bunch of young ladies that leave me positively optimistic for our country’s future.  The Santiago Fire came within less than a mile of our homes in Irvine’s Northwood Pointe.  The brave firefighters at Station 27 were instrumental in saving our neighborhood.

The girls were inspired to do more than draw a picture or send cookies (the firefighters told us “please, no cookies”).  So with some help from their troop 808 leader Sandy Cowles, a teacher at Northwood High, and all of the great parents in the troop, the girls of the 808 made dinner for the firefighters last Saturday night and delivered it to Station 27 in Portola Springs. The firefighters there were joined by three men from Station 55.

The firefighters were very humble about their work and the gratitude from the community.  They appreciate the outpooring of signs, cards, letters and kind words they got from the community.  And they let us look around the station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a taxpayer, I was very impressed by what I saw.  The station is well-designed, spotless and downright spartan.  There is not a lot of wasted space.  The men have a large kitchen with adjacent dining space.  A comfortable TV room, sizable bathrooms and showers, and hostel-styled bedrooms with lockers, a single bed and a built in desk for a laptop or TV.  There is an exceptional workout facility on site and these guys are in shape, even the older ones.  I feel like our money was well-spent on this facility.

What struck me though is how barren the walls were; there’s no art or photos to speak of.  And while someone from Saddleback Church donated multiple copies of Rick Warren’s “A Purpose Driven Life,” there were not a lot of books there.  I wish I had known this before hand because it would have been nice to organize a book drive for this fire station.  But the hard part is where would they keep them?  Shelves would have to be donated to. 

So if there is any other boy scout den or girl scout troop looking to do something nice for the firefighters, might I suggest a book drive.  But do call ahead first and make sure it is OK.

We had to pry the girls out of there so the men could eat while the food was still hot.  My daughter beamed in the backseat. “Daddy, we’re so lucky.” I asked her what made her say that. “Because we have the best fireman in the world to protect our homes.”  I honestly couldn’t agree more. 

 

3 Comments

  1. I agree with you Dan. We did a school program for my children at our local fireshouse and I had the same observations.

    I can only shake my head at Steve Greenhut’s continued whinings about police and fire personnel being overpaid. There is a poster on the Orange Punch who has challenged him to bring the same scrutiny to private companies that exist only because of government funding and enjoy monopolistic protections because of government regulations. I doubt we’ll be seeing the same types of criticism of that group and its compensation policies any time soon. Something tells me the CEO of the Boeing Corp. makes just a bit more than our local fire chief. Yet we never hear about fact.

  2. Let’s see….The CEO of Boeing manages just a handful more people than the local fire chief. The Boeing CEO also manages more projects, more property, a larger budget, and a lot of other things.

    I don’t know if the Boeing CEO is over or under paid, but I do know it is ridiculous to suggest that the local fire chief should be paid as much as the CEO of Boeing or that the CEO of Boeing should be paid as little as the local fire chief.

  3. You miss the point genius. The point is that Boeing executives make far greater sums than any public servant. Yet moonbat conservatives complain public servants are overpaid almost daily. All those hunting, private jets, and lavish corporate Hq’s enjoyed by executives working for defense contractors are paid for by the same tax dollars conservatives believe are taken by force.

    Yet we never hear anything about those excesses because there is a veil of private enterprise.

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