Burn Page #4

nobody could swear more cutting

in a pipe flashing, this is

Doogie's enemy right here.

It'd just make you laugh, I'd give

anything to get him back here.

This isn't the easiest work,

but it's what we do, you know,

it pays a few extra bills,

because everybody knows

they don't pay you enough

to run into burning buildings.

The starting salary

of a Detroit Firefighter is

right around $ 30,000 a year.

I'd leave that wall alone.

Same thing?

Same thing, yeah.

So most firefighters

have a second job.

Because that just isn't enough

money today to feed your family.

Can we see the seasoning?

That seasoning is...

"WIC approved."

So I can use my food

stamps to buy these

but I didn't, I'm almost eligible.

If my pay goes down 20 percent more,

I'll be eligible for food stamps

but I think the Governor's

cut food stamps, too.

You know, I understand

in tough times everybody has

to take a haircut, but I'm bald.

We're all going bald now.

We're on our

way to a union meeting.

A special meeting that was called

to discuss a recent contract.

If they keep on chipping

away at the contract like this,

and any improvements we

gained over the last 20 years,

what's going to happen is you're

going to work till you're dead.

You'll never retire.

Times are tough,

and everybody knows it

but they're taking away our

pension, it's a tough thing to do.

Twenty-one years on the job.

I've had 11 years that I've

had a zero percent pay raise,

no one wants to talk about that.

They feel this country is being

run into the ground by the unions,

which is the furthest

thing from the truth.

It hurts that we're the scapegoats

for the country's financial

problems now.

I think that's the

political climate we're in right now,

I mean, we know nothing's perfect,

but if we didn't have unions,

a lot of people would be in a bad

position, even non-union workers.

So what I don't get

is when we became the enemy.

When the firefighters and the

police officers and the teachers,

the people that are trying

to make a difference,

all of a sudden we're

just costing too much,

and there's too much

expense out there.

And now, god, you'd think

you'd want to run away in shame,

because, "Oh, you're a public

employee, you're a civic employee."

I hear our new

commissioner's coming

to visit us this afternoon,

I've read a little bit about him

in the newspaper, I know he's from

Detroit originally, unknown quantity,

I'm sure we can all formulate

our opinions and jump

to our conclusions,

but time will tell.

I ain't got time to BS.

Somebody didn't do their job but

we can't be abusing our equipment,

pipe posts come up missing at fires,

axes come up missing at fires,

generators come up

missing off the trucks.

How does that happen?

If we're bringing good money in the

front door, and we're throwing it

out the back door, what

sense does that make?

Now you do know that 95 to 96 percent

of the budget goes to pay you guys.

Yes, yeah, we know that.

That leaves

four to five percent left

for everything else,

fuel and oil, supplies.

But there's a lot of stuff

here that I'm trying to figure

out why is it still broken?

I shake my head at some of the stuff.

I'm waiting for somebody

to say, "Smile!"

You're on Candid Camera!"

Sh*t rolls downhill and the Mayor

wants change, we better get back

in charge of our own damn department!

Trust me! I'm going to

do what I think is right,

I don't give a sh*t whether you

like me or not 'cause I ain't here

to make friends, I'm

here to be your leader.

Fire 23

service, report a disposition

at 000, at 1245.

Start getting into warmer

days, and then when school lets out,

it just seems like the

fire load increases.

A gallon of gas is still

cheaper than a movie ticket.

As soon as the weather

breaks, come May /June, ba-boom!

We was in the back

yard, smoke was coming out.

Got a barbecue going, eh?

Uh huh!

Okay, have a good day, now.

You too.

Bulldog!

He said he was

burning some rats out of a bush.

And they started them on fire,

and they ran into the tree.

That was f***ing horrible!

You got my dog out?

Did you get my dog out?!

You don't have to pay me, sir.

Is that a piece of steak?

I don't think we've been

to sleep for more than a few minutes,

I mean, this is typical of

a summer night around here.

Watch the wires, guys.

We got wires down.

It's really not that hot.

Whoa!

You know what saggin' means?

What it mean?

It means you're looking

for a girlfriend!

In prison!

It's weird.

The sensation's really weird.

Yeah, your perception is a little

off, and your first instinct

when you hit the bottom of anything

is to like, put your feet down

and kick yourself back up to the top.

You can't do that, so

it's kind of strange.

My line of injury is

basically between my nipple

and my belly button, because

that's where my sensation stops.

Since I've been here in therapy,

I can now consciously flex muscles

and control muscles way

below my line of injury.

I'm starting to gain control

over things I didn't have

control over when this happened.

It's relaxation, but at the

same time it's freeing your mind

from everything else.

You know, your only job is

to, is to float, don't drown.

And it definitely lightens up the

stress a little being in the water.

You always expect

things to be the same.

You always expect things

to last longer,

you expect to grow old together,

I never expected to bury my wife.

Just figured that I would

certainly leave before her.

Well... you know, it didn't

work out like that, so.

Just came out of the

funeral for Dave Parnell's wife.

She had a cardiac arrest last Friday.

It was kind of shocking,

and incredibly sad.

The last four years, Dave's

taken a lot on himself

to help rehabilitate his wife.

Dave's life changed

radically that day.

I know his planned retirement

was wrapped around his wife.

Thirty-five years just

wasn't enough, it really wasn't.

She did things like

this, she liked colors,

so she would make them

different colors.

It's like springtime all

the time, that was like her.

Always new, "You know,

hey, come here",

let me show you a little

something different."

Yeah, everybody needs a

Gloria in their life, oh, geez, Man!

We're heading over

to our apparatus division,

we have a lot of rigs that are

broken down and it was getting

to a critical condition in

the field for fire trucks.

Now the Mayor has challenged all

of us department heads to come

in on budget, and that's

going to be my goal.

Looks like we're over about six

million dollars between fire and EMS.

You know, a lot of our budget goes

to repair these rigs

that are broken down.

And I don't think the men

and women understand the cost

of things, you know?

Just happened?

It's one of those days.

Wow, so would your

assessment be that we tear up a lot

of equipment around here?

My assessment would be that

we tear up a lot of equipment.

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