The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Baltimore:
Fire Death Hypocrisy

Jan 7, 2013

At a press conference on January 2, Mayor Rawlings-Blake and Fire Chief James Clack praised Baltimore firefighters and emergency personnel for helping to reduce city fire deaths last year to an all-time low. They pledged, “We will continue to strive for a safer city when it comes to fire deaths....”

Yet on the very same day, Assistant Fire Chief Jeffery Segal ordered Advanced Life Support (ALS) equipment used by firefighter paramedics to be removed from city fire trucks!

The next day, after word of Segal’s order had spread among firefighters–and at least one local newspaper inquired about it–his order was reversed.

So much for the mayor and her fire chief continuing “to strive for a safer city!” In a city that has one of the highest fire death rates of any–three times the national average–it took some firefighters to raise a stink to get the order reversed.