My follow up with the city et al concerning the near drowning at the South
Ave dam has made it's way through some (most probably all) of the ranks. An
Assistant Chief of the Toledo Fire Department contacted me yesterday to hear
my side of the story and shed light on what his men's side of the story was.
I feel that it was handled very well, I am very greatful they made the
efforts that they did in such a timely manner, and plan to follow up in
another letter emphasizing my gratitude.
I think Mr Binkley had it dead on in his response on the list... They got
there and I'd already done what they were prepared to do, so yeah, they
_could_ relax. The Assistant Chief said that sure, it would have been nice
if they would have offered _something_ of a creature comfort... But that it
wasn't on their minds. For the last five minutes they had it in their minds
that they were going to be getting in the stream and pulling a child out of
it. When they saw this situation has dispersed, it was back to status
quo... And they're rescuers... Not nurturing care givers :)
He also noted that they didn't have a blanket, as what I was thinking of a
"blanket". They only carry thin plastic "element barriers" on the trucks..
Again, they could have offered a coat or something, but that wasn't what
they were there to do. They were there to pull a kid and the crazy fishguy
out of the water. ;)
I was very satisfied with his explaination, paired with his emphasis that
the force is very aware of this site, that he is in fact the fast water
rescue "guru" of the force, and that this may be a good opportunity to go
over the site again with the surrounding stations.
I hope that I emphasized enough that my outstanding concern in the whole
matter was that they weren't familiar with the dangers surrounding this
location, and not that I thought they were rude and not doing their job.
The primary concern has been reasonably waylaid by our conversation. I will
emphasize this in my return letter of thanks.
The Assitant Chief has also offered to bear witness to the danger that is in
Highland Park, to give credibility to any action I attempt to seek out for
securing the site. It's apparently up to the Metroparks to do anything
about the site... He's offered to serve as a reference. I was very pleased
with his offer, and hope to at least get a fence in place around the
portions of the structure that could put anyone in danger.
So we'll see if we can't get some definate positives to roll out of this
situation.
I thought I should update you all.
Todd
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