Mr. Rennick,
With the many challenges we’ve all had to endure over the past year, your letter came across as utterly disrespectful and was not constructive or helpful.
“Firefighters are not heroes”, “It requires someone young with a strong back and not much else”, “A fireman’s job is not dangerous”, were only a few of the ignorant comments you made.
I hope the fire personnel have the emotional strength to stop your loved one from entering the burning building because they are distressed over their photo albums still being inside.
I hope firefighters have practiced their training recently, so they can quickly figure out how to retrieve you should you go through the ice on Lake Nipissing. I hope firefighters across the country continue to have patience with all of us while conveying the same simple basic fire safety messages after responding to an unattended pot on the stove, yet again. Or perhaps the house is no longer there because the smoke detectors’ batteries hadn’t been replaced.
I hope you remain safe while these brave individuals enter the suspected meth lab next door to you. I hope you never get a phone call telling you that you need to retrieve and attempt to revive your lifeless grandchild from the bottom of a swimming pool.
I genuinely hope we never experience a situation like 9/11, but if we do, are you trained and ready to be able to take care of all of us if so? I hope you enjoy your peaceful morning coffee while these men and women are woken up suddenly and expected to be fully alert in preparation for the unknown. I hope you do not have cancer in your family history, because the risk is so much higher for these individuals with all they are exposed to. I hope you sleep like a baby tonight, and every night, while the image of someone’s child haunts them every single time they attempt to.
Perhaps, Don, your time would have been better spent pointing out the lack of pay equity and transparency among many of the other vocations in our community, rather than targeting our fire fighting heroes.
There are so many inequities coming to light around the world. North Bay has its fair share too, and they do warrant our attention, but this is NOT one of them.
To go from thanking our frontline workers to a firefighter is not a hero is revolting. I hope they will rise above you and your opinion and still choose to help you should you ever need them.
