I rarely talk about this to anyone…. PTSD

I know I don't attend gatherings in Dolan and didn't hang around the fire station after calls and training. 
I hope this explains why. I tried to tell Chief Bonnee, he said he totally understood and then complained that I didn't hang around the station.

This is a copy of a message sent to Chief Bonnee

Jay Fleming <leapspeaker@gmail.com>	Oct 16, 2019, 5:45 PM
to Chief

Tim

I rarely talk about this to anyone and don't want it getting around so I'm sending it to your 
personal email

Tim

I rarely talk about this to anyone….

I’m sorry I don’t hang around the station when we have training. 

Working undercover as long as I did really screws up your ability to get close or 
trust anyone. I don’t know how to explain it other than it’s a dirty business and what 
we do to people isn’t right. You get close to people and their family during long term
 operations. At the end when their whole life is destroyed it’s not anger in their eyes, 
its disappointment.

When I came out from undercover the shrink asked me if I thought anyone was 
watching me or wanted to hurt me… When I showed the newspapers he wrote this…

It just takes me some time…

timothy bonnee <t_bonnee@yahoo.com>	Oct 16, 2019, 7:48 PM
to me

I totally understand I have been diagnosed also with ptsd from my career I understand and I am ok
with it all just glad to have u volunteering for us thank you but I do know what it is like it’s hard for
me sometimes I have to leave and take a drive to meadview or around Dolan to escape it

Sent from my iPhone

Volunteer Fire Departments and EMS

This article is a little off topic but the point is that 80% or more of the calls in the LMRFD are medical calls for ambulance transport and not fires. 

Yet the two LMRFD volunteer's that took the 80 hours of EMR training allowing them to assist and drive the ambulance were never used by Chief Bonnee. If you had to wait an hour or two for an ambulance ask the chief why? If someone had a worse outcome or died because of the delay please contact me.

Women are better caretakers, my opinion.

I've said many times that we need to separate the ambulance and firefighting portions of the LMRFD. Very few women have any interest in being a firefighter. Only about 4% of firefighters are women, yet women make up more than 50% of private EMS.

Chief Bonnee won't say he agrees me, but he hired a female paramedic who worked shifts as a firefighter but didn't fight fire.

 What about the Firefighter I Firefighter II requirement? This was ok on EMS calls but sucked for the taxpayers and her partner on a fire call if they needed to do a rescue in a structure fire. She's gone now.

The regulations... NFPA 1500 and OSHA requires that a minimum of four firefighters be on the scene before entering the hazard area at a working structure fire. Two of these firefighters must be outside the hazard area ready to rescue or help the team entering the area. This is commonly referred to as the two-in/two-out rule.

In an article by Joseph V. Maruca writing for the National 

Volunteer Fire Council in Fire Engineering, Volunteer Fire Departments: Bait-and-Switch and a Question of Identity 

He says "there’s a major difference between what firefighters do every day and what everyone (and that includes us) thinks that we do". We think of ourselves as firefighters. The public sees us as firefighters. But the reality is most of what we do have nothing to do with firefighting. And people don’t think they can or should volunteer with our departments because they don’t picture themselves as firefighters.

Finally the article...

LINK to the rest of the Fire Engineering Article

Fire Chief say's “We can’t abandon our community that is paying for our services” FD's first responsibility is to town

Fire Chief David Strayer from the community of Florence Arizona apparently understands his responsibility to taxpayers in his community better than Chief Bonnee.

Fire Chief David Straye says what I've been saying for years. “We can’t abandon our community that is paying for our services” to respond to areas that have been repeatedly told they have no service, and have actually rebuffed attempts to provide them fire coverage, Strayer said. “Our first duty is to our citizens.”  
Sound Familiar? Read the Article HERE

What Are We Doing?
When the LMRFD does respond outside the fire district it takes so long to get there the only thing left is the foundation. When no lives or other property are in danger, why respond? From the people I've talked to who live outside the fire district if they get a bill for putting out their smoldering foundation the'll tell them where to put it. What would you do?

Is this what the LMRFD does to families outside the fire district who just lost everything?
An Arizona couple recently left homeless when their mobile home burned to the ground couldn’t believe their eyes when they received a bill for nearly $20,000
READ the Article HERE

There is no mandate for a fire district to respond outside of its geographic boundaries

Why does the LMRFD provide free fire service for people outside the fire district leaving taxpayers with no protection? 
How many of these calls has the fire district been paid for?

 “In Arizona, there is no mandate for a fire district to respond outside of its geographic boundaries,” Barger said. “And while some people could work out a subscription arrangement with an adjacent fire district, the district has no obligation to do so because the primary concern of a fire district is the protection of those who agreed to be in the district and pay the taxes to protect them.” Robert Barger, Arizona State Fire Marshal https://www.tucsonlocalmedia.com/news/article_940304a2-7b50-11e0-b832-001cc4c002e0.html

When all the fire districts resources are 30 miles outside the fire district and your home is on fire or your family member has a life threatening medical event two miles from the fire station, was responding outside the district worth your home or family members life?

People need to step up and pay property tax to the LMRFD or not expect them to respond. 

Taking Your Suggestion

I just wanted to tell the letter writer thank you for the information, and I'm looking into it with friends...

Jay

The Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire District is a Special Taxing District Do We Need a Vote?

The Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire District is a Special Taxing District

A fire district is a form of special district of the State, formed for the protection of persons and property (Arizona Revised Statutes – Title 48 – Special Taxing Districts). Special districts deliver only the public programs and public facilities that their constituents want. Cities provide multiple programs, some of them mandated by the federal and statement governments. 

Special districts provide focused service delivery throughout their boundaries providing a single service (i.e. emergency services) allowing them to concentrate and excel at that activity unlike municipalities which provide a variety of services throughout their boundaries. Special districts provide the public services that the public wants and localizes the costs and benefits of public services.

FROM the Arizona Fire & Medical Authority, the North County Fire & Medical District, and the South County Fire & Medical District web page..

Currently the LMRFD responds outside the 144 square mile fire district for fire calls leaving the people who pay tax to the fire district without fire or medical services.

If White Hills and the other areas outside the fire district want fire service join the LMRFD or start your own.

We have a lot of new property owners in the last few years.

We need to ask them if they want our firefighters responding outside the fire district?
We need an accounting of how many times the district gets paid for these out of district responses and how much we've been paid?

Americans are obtaining more ham radio licenses as the LMRFD has no backup communications

The number of Americans obtaining their ham radio licenses is soaring as the country comes to grips with the coronavirus pandemic. Almost every fire district including GVFD and NACFD have ham radios available for emergency communications.

Just as shoppers are hoarding necessities and food in panic buying, more people have quickly studied to become amateur radio operators to ensure they can maintain communications with others in emergency situations and disasters.

LINK to Article

Truth is the LMRFD is in big trouble as far as emergency communications because our fire chief doesn't have a basic understanding of two-way radio systems let alone emergency communications.

The Dispatch Agreement between LMRFD and Kingman Fire Department basically says Kingman Fire will provide dispatch services and record radio traffic, period....

There is NOTHING about providing communications assistance during a disaster.

There is NOTHING about providing additional radios or personal assistance during a disaster.

Mohave County Emergency Services has very limited communications resources that would go to other more populated areas......

So Again I ask Chief Bonnee how would the LMRFD communicate if local emergency service repeaters and cell phones should go down?

Answer: We Couldn't

I get nothing for my property tax paid to the LMRFD so I'm looking into annexing OUT of the LMRFD

I get nothing for hundreds in property tax I pay the LMRFD so I'm looking into annexing OUT of the LMRFD.

If you live in the NACFD and call 911 a paramedic can take your blood pressure or give a breathing treatment and you can refuse transport by AMR. The call costs you nothing if you're not transported.

If you live in the LMRFD and call 911 a paramedic can take your blood pressure or give a breathing treatment and you CAN NOT refuse transport or you get billed $2000 anyway.

White Hills and Meadview City pay no property tax and get the same fire and EMS services.

Chief Bonnee doesn't understand the law just like he didn't understand the law pertaining to EMR's driving our ambulance.

I have hundreds of hours more training in EMS and firefighting than any other volunteer. Yet I was fired as a LMRFD volunteer for not agreeing with Chief Bonnee. So why pay property tax?

More Shortcuts? Three out of four in the photo can't use a SCBA to rescue you...

The chief a LMRFD firefighter and one volunteer in this photo couldn't get a good seal on their SCBA breathing apparatus if they needed to enter a burning building. This puts your life at risk as well as their life!

NFPA 1500 clearly states in 5-3.8, "A growth of beard or facial hair at any point where the SCBA facepiece is designed to seal with the face shall be prohibited for members required to use SCBA." 

Occupational Safety and Health Standard 29 CFR 1910.134 – “…shall not permit respirators with tight-fitting facepieces to be worn by employees who have:” Facial hair that comes between the sealing surface of the facepiece and the face or that interferes with valve function; or Any condition that interferes with the face-to-facepiece seal or valve function

Much of the equipment the LMRFD uses is outdated. I was issued a SCBA mask made in 1984 that's a 36 year old mask that your life depends on in a structure fire. Also a fit test is REQUIRED but not done.

Always Amazed the World Reads This Blog

Views last 30 days

United States	1068
Canada	21
Unknown Region	17
Vietnam	12
France	8
United Kingdom	8
Portugal	8
Hong Kong	4
Indonesia	4
Ireland	4