Fire Captain Says Cuts To Blame For Injury

February 28, 2011 11:59 PM

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SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – A Sacramento Fire Department captain who broke his back in a fall while fighting a house fire over the weekend says a lack of manpower directly led to his injuries, but department officials disagree.

Fire Captain Gene Dibble said a ladder tilted back while he tried to climb to the roof at a Rancho Cordova home Saturday night, throwing him to the ground and jamming his equipment into his spine, breaking it.

Captain Dibble said he was the last man to climb the ladder, and nobody was available to hold the ladder steady.

“We literally ran out of people. Ordinarily we would have had someone there to anchor the ladder. There was no one left,” he said.

At least 50 firefighters have left the department and haven’t been replaced due to budget cuts over the past three years, Dibble said, and rolling brownouts have kept fire engines out of commission for 24 hours at a time to save costs.

Dibble said he is expected to recover from his injuries, but “I could have easily been a parapalegic.”

“If we’d have had the adequate resources that usually would have been there, this certainly would have been avoided,” he added.

Sacramento Fire Department spokesman Captain Jonathan Burgess disagreed with Dibble’s criticism, saying the amount of firefighters dispatched has not changed over the years.

22 firefighters were at the Saturday night fire, but some additional units may still have been traveling to the scene when the accident happened, Burgess said.

The fire department hopes to end rolling brownouts soon thanks to a $5 million grant from the federal government last week, which will be used to hire 27 firefighters.

Dibble will begin rehabilitation next week.

Fire Captain Says Cuts To Blame For Injury

George

He sounds an awful lot like the Tucson sheriff. It’s always the public’s fault when something goes wrong. And, by golly, the conservatives who criticize big government or seek to cut government bloat are the chief culprits.
Mike M

Her was seriously injured because because he failed to follow a standard safety protocol – end of story.

Ron

Thank you. Fight like you train and train like you fight. SOP. Ron

Fearless Bystander

How many firefighters does it take to hold a ladder? Apparently, more than the 22 who were assigned to this single residential fire.
Sparky

The 3 fire districts around our place are all volunteer. Those guys are the salt of the earth. I get that wouldn’t work everywhere, but it works well in our community.
Winston III

How pathetic!
ron…

Why train and not perform like you trained. Fight fire like you trained to fight it (with a ladder tender person there). Why train and not perform like that. It’s all about choices and priorities. Dicipline your folks to react like they were trained and hold them to the exact standard they trained for. Excuses are like you know what. Sorry this happened, prayerfully lessons are learned and training will be held to the standard. Ron…
weewayne

Not enough union mmebers to hold the ladder with him and his heavy laden pension bucket on it.
Token

Cry cry cry. Each time the public complains about police of fire personnel and their bloated pay some police or fire employee complains about the public being envious. Of what? Your unions greed and corruption buying off, behind closed doors, politicians who assigned these bloated salaries and retirement packages that are significantly underfunded? “We run into burning buildings”; “we face armed bad guys” AND? You took the job if its too scary or dangerous for you quit some other GED graduate will take your place. The point is CalPERS is underfunded by about 1/3, the amount is staggering. Pay raises went out of control 2000-2011, especially for safety and upper management public employees. Retirement at 50 with up to 90% of your pay? Disgraceful. California needs to cap retirement pay at $90,000 max per year no matter what an employees one highest year was at the time. Also safety needs to contribute substantially more to their retirement; they contribute something like 0% – 10% to the PERS program the public pays the rest through the general fund pot. Then give employees a 401(k) option and the option to get a reduced Social Security.

I don’t think anyone with any brains can seriously disagree with the fact that bloated “City of Bell” type packages statewide are damaging CA’s fiscal health.

danohfiveoh

But why nis it underfunded? You never mentioned that cities sometimes for years never contribbute a penny. I know that in the private sector, employers will do a matching fund amount right? Public employees have 457′s not 401K’s. I am a conservative that makes Rush look like Maxine Waters! If you complain or hate it when liberals are class envious of the rich, then don’t complain that a public employee gets a good pay check. Its kind of like the old saying,when they took away the Jew I said nothing, when they took away the cripple, I didn’t speak up, and when they came for me there was no one to complain or speck up! You can’t have it both ways. I careless what my neighbor makes…good for him! If he can pitch pennys against a wall and get paid a million dollars, amen bro and more power to him! If a Harvard Grad can make a phone call and then press a button, and get paid a 100 million amen Bro! As long as it is legal then who cares! When people say, “no one is worth 100 million dollars” they are wrong. That person created with his brain, or hands, a value/idea/product/service that is worth what he got paid. They also created jobs, investment, opportunities for others, they spend that money which creates more jobs and more money for evereyone …. This is how it works. Now as far as public employees are concern, we are subject to what the public wants, they are the market driver. But if the public is envious they might just be throwing the baby out with the bath water. The “City of Bell” happened not because of public employees, it happened because only a very few people even vote in “Bell” and the politician and the City Manager went unchecked! Is that the Firemans job to police the city officials? I took the job becuase I LOVE IT! you did not take the job because you would rather have someone else do it for you. Your kinda like the liberal PETA member who is afraid to eat meat becuase something has to die for you to enjoy a steak. But, he has no problem letting someone else kill the cow that provides the leather for his berkenstocks shoes, and then you complain that the guy that made the shoes is charging you a healthy fee. Then you get even angrier because the guy that made the shoes is a high school drop out who drives a BMW. Get over it

Carrieann

Why doesn’t he complain to the Governor about budget cuts? If Jerry would only cut all the monies going to the illegal aliens in CA — we’d actually have money for our own citizens and their needs and for ALL the FIREMEN!! Somebody has to start talking about the elephant in the room!
ryan

If firefighters took a cut in pay, then there would be more firefighters available for the same cost. Union greed broke his back.

danohfiveoh

Wrong! It would mean less firefighters. These firefighters then would have to work overtime to fill the empty positions, and then you would complain that they make to much money! I work 72 hours in a seven day period with no extra pay for hoildays. Most people work 40 hours, 5 days, a week with overtime for extra time over that 40 hours. You see the politicians would cut the position but never cut the overall money spent on the budget. They would take that savings and spend on something stupid.

catherine

The man broke his back while trying to save a burning structure….what is wrong with all of you?? I hope that those of you criticizing the firefighters never need their help because quite frankly…you don’t deserve it!!!!!
Wish i could be sympathetic

Suck it up Captain you violated a industry safety standard that as a crew leader you were responsible for following. If you were the last up why did your crew not secure the ladder from the top? I’m guessing your one of those been there done that Captains who regularly bends the rules. This time it bit you in the back. Sorry I would not wish that on anyone. Don’t ask for political support for a injury your were directly responsible for. You give us all a bad name
John C

The difference between ideology and reality is the difference between “what if” and “what is”; and the reality is, when you don’t have enough money to
budget the number of firefighters you’ve become accustomed to having, you have to do with less. If that’s not acceptable with the Chief, he has the choice to resign and seek other employment.
Bob Cooper

This is what liberals do when they are at fault. Always blame someone else for their own stupid decisions. I am sorry that a firefighter got hurt, but if this guy is a captain level, he should have known better than to climb the ladder without adequate support. He made a foolish decision that is going to either retire him or put him in a limited desk job. Sorry you got hurt, but your are a real doof.
300 lb gorilla bob

Essential services should go away. In much the same way that when freedom is taken from this country all the sheeple will suddenly appreciate what they didn’t realize they had. We should keep propping up any fringe politically inferior group (illegals) (Gaze) that has clout, support and the administrations ear. Oh and I am a private sector guy. Business owner for 25 plus years. No unions or bennies here. I FULLY support all essential services however! I do not support all the self righteous non contributors to society that permeate this discussion. What have you done for someone lately?

danohfiveoh

get over it

SChmit

Sharp, You nailed it right on the head!!!!!!
steve

Just another govt worker mentality that is looking for a reason to sue someone.
Miguel

Where in the hell are all of the people’s comments which were here earlier???!!!

Is channel 13 afraid of the people’s views??!!

RobertK

It reads there are 188 views, but damned if I can find all of them.

RobertK

I mean comments.

Dean Fuller

They are not all displaying for some reason.

FiremanBob

What is an old lardass capt. doing on a ladder anyway ????

MIles Monroe

Someone had to get the box of donuts.

All Burned Up

Eliminate the Firefighters and Police. Lets go back to bucket brigades and a single county Sheriff. Heck, close the prisons so we won’t need correctional officers. Let the city burn and go wild!

Give me a break people!

dan

Why is the federal government taking money from responsible taxpayers in states like Montana and South Dakota and giving it to irresponsible leftwing union leeches in California? That is criminal.
danohfiveoh

After reading guys like 330lb Gorilla bob or Bob Cooper I feel better. Not everyone is like Mike. Mike is like the towns people in the movie “High Noon” they loved the Sheriff when he was able to handle everything by himself. But the moment “John Miller” comes to town with his gang, they run and hide! We need to watch the budget, spend only on what we can afford, and limit the role goverment has in our life. To me this means essential services. Police, Fire, streets, water, and code enforcement. Everything else is a luxury and if we can afford it then we pay for it. And to those employees that are in public safety we should take care of you with good pay, decent benefits, and if you dedicate your working career to the city, you should receive a decent retirement for the risk you were willing to take. They should be able to go to work, lay it on the line without hesitation, and if they should die trying to protect the people they can rest assured that their wife and kids will be cared for by the community they served. Mike even though you are an idiot I would still run into that burning building and save your tail from a horrible death….its what I do man!

Jim G.

I agree with you danohfiveoh. I am a former firefighter, and no matter what a persons idiotic reasons for spewing out garbage, I to would save his life. And there are pleanty of luxury areas of the budget that can get the ax. Jusy look back at what was being funded back in the 50′s and early 60′s and compare that to now. Back then we had great police protection, great fire protection, plenty of money for schools, roads, etc. So if we all would just get back to the basics, we would be better off. As far as entertainment ? We had only the Memorial Auditorium and the State Fair Grounds. Any other entertainment usually delt with family things to do….. Not to bad back then………

mike

danoh……..didn’t realize you were drafted into the job; I thought you probably joined of your own free will…….calling someone an idiot doesn’t effectively offer a response to the points made
Jack Kennedy

unions – your excessive pay and pensions are to blame for my losing my house and going bankrupt

like with the rest of America, union pukes have broken me and WE ARE BROKE