i dont post here much but this is something i feel pretty close too. as a firefighter i have been on a couple of incidents which involved friends. i was off duty but more than happy to help. also this was a chance to keep up my trama skills. i hate seeing people injured either by stupidity (more the general public) or by accidents beyond thier control (murrphys law). although when it does happen in front of me im more than happy to help. the thing is as a firefighter i do regular training to meet our monthly requirements. which are just the minimum required. most of the time though im just sitting around the station waiting for something to happen. so if something happens or not the general public still pays for our services. buricrats dont realize this. when we have a call we add up all the fuel and equiptment used (such as splints, ivs, and so on), how many people were on duty and thier pay during the time spent on scene. we calculate all of this up and get a number. the only cost the injured causes is the replacement of equiptment. not the whole $100,000 in this incident. also i hope that if i ever have an accident that the public services would be more than happy to help me as i have others. they have the know how, and a duty to act since they are on duty getting paid by us with our taxes. in turn i have spent more than enough tax dollars on buricrats like this that shovel thier snow when they have a known heart condition. one of which prior to passing away was bragging to friends that he hadnt taken his heart medication in over a week and was feeling fine. whose high blood pressure cause a aortic anurism while playing basketball. one more thing that someone brought up with the 2 inch ice comment. i cannot tell you how much the coast guard here in detroit has spent saving ice fisherman traped on ice floats becouse they drove thier snowmobile on the ice then the ice broke. they have all the money to buy the equiptment but no common sense to realize the ice was melting. at least we check the weather and calculate our risks. not to mention most of us wear safty pads and other gear such as good boots. while these ice fisherman go out in the ice with only a coat on. not the $600 anti-hypothermia suits we put on to save thier foolish behinds. i have no trouble with them ice fishing. but they should better calculate thier risks and check the weather better. like i and my fellow base jumpers do. in final im sorry to rant so much just thought since the editor didnt bother researching the subject i just thought i would give the opinion of a public servant.
