Keeping Our First Responders Safe - Guest MINDSETTER™ Tom Kenney
Guest MINDSETTER™ Tom Kenney
Keeping Our First Responders Safe - Guest MINDSETTER™ Tom Kenney
I have also been a vocal critic of Mayor Jorge Elorza and his Commissioner of Public Safety, Steven Pare. And while it has become a personal battle with the Commissioner at times my first and foremost focus has always been on public safety and the health and well-being of firefighters on the street.
I believe that the health and safety of the citizens of Providence and those that will visit Providence when this pandemic begins to slow the infection rate and people begin to come out of their cocoons depend on the effectiveness of Providence’s Public Safety employees – EMS, fire, and police. This being the case it is essential for the City to do everything in its power to protect these valuable assets. If these workers are infected they will no longer be on the front line of the battle to keep one step ahead of this crisis. Likewise, if a member of their family is infected it stands to reason that these workers would stay home to care for their loved one.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIf there’s anything that’s become apparent during the progression of this emergency it is that we need to be pro-active and not reactive. Once we find ourselves on the back end of the curve we are in a losing battle. Therefore it is apparent to me that there should be some sort of plan to shelter off duty firefighters who do not want to take the chance of bringing infection home to their loved ones. Once the genie is out of the bottle…
With this in mind and after talking to many of my friends on the PFD and finding out that there is no such plan currently in place for this purpose I felt the need to reach out to Commissioner Pare to suggest such plans be made. As I stated if this type of plan is not implemented before firefighters begin to show symptoms of Covid 19 infection the damage would already be done and many public safety personnel would be lost to the City for an extended period of time.
I texted Commissioner Pare last Monday, “A “real” Chief of Department would provide alternate sleeping arrangements for his Firefighters (via an arrangement with a local hotel which is probably empty) to keep them from bringing the virus home to their families.”
He replied, “Good idea. Who is this?” to which I responded, “Your biggest fan…Capt Kenney.”
I have not heard anything from my PFD friends that any such plan has yet to be put into place and I worry that if it is done at all, it may be too late to be effective!
Our nurses and doctors and other front line hospital workers have been the real heroes who have stepped up during this unnerving time and I applaud them from the bottom of my heart. We need to provide them with the proper equipment and PPE to safely get their jobs done without unnecessarily putting them in harm’s way. Our first responders deserve the same and are a vital link in this public health crisis as they are the ones on the street dealing with possibly infected citizens and going into their homes to assist those who are sick.
I am hoping that a plan of this type is already in the works, but if it is not maybe some pressure from the outside will spark some type of action.
Stay safe, and continue to practice social distancing and isolation in your homes. We’ll get through this together!
