Link to 'Glass Houses' editorial: http://www.thecommunityjournal.com/news/2006/0818/Opinion/011.html

Do you still think we're overpaid?

To the Editor:

The following is to defend the members of the Ashburnham Fire Department regarding yet another ignorant comment that came from Selectman Chris Gagnon.

In reference to the fire department, Chris Gagnon stated in an article of The Community Journal (Issue 33, Aug. 18, 2006 'Glass Houses' editorial ) that he was, "...sick of that department. Everyone there is overpaid and they don't do any work."

Although a comment such as this is seen as idiotic and completely absurd to the average citizen, I still find a need to publicly address it.

I recently went through the statistics gathered from fire department attendance records for hours on-call and calculated the total number of hours that were volunteered in the first seven months of 2006. Between the 15 current Auxiliary members, there were a total of 770.5 hours that they volunteered their time to the department.

The current 37 on-call members had 402.5 hours volunteering. The total between the two is 1,173 hours, meaning that at the $11 hourly wage for a firefighter or emergency medical technician (EMT), the town would have paid out $12,903. And remember, this is only for the first seven months of the year.

Do you still think we're overpaid? I don't. If you think that $11/hour is a lot to risk our lives day after day, then you are insane.

As far as not doing any work, I guarantee that there is never a day that something doesn't get accomplished at the stations. There are truck checks done everyday in which all 13 pieces of apparatus are thoroughly tested to make sure they are in the best possible condition. Members take away hours of their lives on weekends to train on trucks and equipment so they can perform their duties more quickly, efficiently, and safely.

Smoke detector, carbon monoxide, and oil burner inspections occur almost daily. State and federal grants are applied for, replacement parts are ordered and installed for apparatus and equipment. Automatic boxes are kept in working order, all while responding to an average of 14 calls a week. There are numerous other jobs and responsibilities performed, this is just a brief list.

Before concluding, there are three things I would like Mr. Gagnon to know:

1.) Firefighters, Paramedics, EMTs, and all other emergency personnel are not in their profession for money, but for the satisfaction they get in helping others.

2.) Firefighting is one of the most physically and mentally straining jobs there is.

3.) If Mr. Gagnon is so sick of the Ashburnham Fire Department, then he can leave because we are not going anywhere.

The Ashburnham Fire Department will continue awaiting an apology from Mr. Gagnon, however; we don't expect him to own up to his mistakes anytime soon.

Jake Zbikowski, Firefighter/EMT,

Ashburnham Fire Department