Privatization Run Amok

Did you know that there are at least 200 private companies that offer firefighting services? AIG has "Wildfire Protection Units" in 150 zip codes. The fire department of Rancho Bernardo, where 365 homes burned in October, does not meet minimum accreditation standards, yet a private firefighting company saved 200 homes there - homes that rich people were willing to pay for the services of this private company.

More and more cities and towns are outsourcing their firefighting obligations. Isn't firefighting a role for the government, you know that group of people who band together so that a group (government) can do things that can't be done by individuals but they are things that must be done (like fighting fires)?

When are we going to smarten up?

The News Cycle

Only two weeks ago I wrote about the privatization of firefighting services across the country. The lead article in today's Boston Globe makes you wonder whether this phenomenon will become popular in Massachusetts.

The article highlights the city of Gloucester as it discusses a deadly fire to which the city was able to send only one ladder truck with the driver comprising the total crew. Finances are tight in Gloucester and requests for a larger fire department budget have been repeatedly rejected by the voters. To generate revenue the department has become the group that responds to all emergencies, not simply to fires. When the department takes a heart attack victim to the hospital, the insurance company usually reimburses the department. But when the department transports someone to a hospital, the firemen doing so are not available should a fire arise.

Should Gloucester revert to a volunteer fire department?

A Firefighting Life

Why not tap federal disaster funds?

Another huge fire out West becomes a media article at least twice a month now. In the 20th century we would lose less than 5,000,000 acres each year to these huge fires. Now, it's more like10 million acres annually. These fires wind up sterilizing the soil and leading to extensive post-fire flooding because there is no vegetation left to check rainwater runoff.

It does not look as things will be getting better. Winters are getting shorter and warmer; summers are hotter and dryer. Therefore, we have a longer fire season. The Western forests have become more vulnerable; they are dense, lack species diversity and are overpopulated with older, diseased trees susceptible to epidemics like the bark beetle infestation that has left behind 40 million acres of dead trees. Dense underbrush and dead trees are fuel for extreme wildfires. And, with our typical belief that nothing bad can happen to us, nearly 40 percent of recent development in the West has been in wildland fire zones.

The Forest Service now spends almost  50% of its budget on fighting these fires, but it is not enough. Lately, much of this money comes at the price of other necessary activities. A bill will come before Congress to change this situation; The bill would draw money from federal disaster funds when firefighting costs reached 70 percent of the 10-year average. 

It's a much more rational approach to a basic problem.

Incidents at Fukushima since April

 Mari Yamaguchi lists the incidents that have occurred at Fukushima in the last 7 months. Note the increasing number (1 in April to 5 in October).  Are the workers just too tired? Here is the list:

• Oct 20-21: Heavy rains wash contaminated storm-water over protective barriers around storage tanks at six locations, before workers finish setting up additional pumps and hoses to remove the water.

• Oct 9: Six workers remove the wrong pipe, dousing themselves with highly radioactive water. TEPCO says exposure for the workers, who were wearing facemasks with filters, hazmat suits and raingear, is negligible. An estimated 7 tons of water almost overflows the barrier around it.
• Oct 7: A worker mistakenly presses a stop button during a power switchboard check, stalling a pump and cooling-water supply to the Unit 1 reactor for a split second. A monitoring device for Units 1 and 2 and a building ventilator also fail briefly until backup power kicks in.
• Oct 2: Workers overfill a storage tank for radioactive water, spilling about 430 liters (110 gallons). The workers were trying to maximize capacity amid the plant’s water storage crunch. Most of the spill is believed to have reached the sea via a nearby ditch.
• Oct 1: About 5 tons of contaminated rainwater overflows when workers pump it into the wrong tank, most of it seeping into the ground.
• Sept 27: A piece of rubber lining mistakenly left inside a water treatment unit clogs it up, causing it to fail hours after it resumed a test-run following repairs. The fragment is removed, and the unit returned to testing.
• Sept 19: A firefighting water pipe is damaged during debris removal, and 300 liters of non-radioactive water spurt out. The same day, TEPCO provides Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a hazmat suit for a plant visit with the wrong Japanese character for his family name on the nametag. Spotting the mistake halfway through the tour, an apparently displeased Abe peels the sticker off.
• Sept 12: A water treatment machine overflows, leaking about 65 liters of contaminated water, when a worker doing unrelated work nearby inadvertently shuts a valve.
• Aug 19: A patrolling worker finds a massive pool of contaminated water spilling out of a protective barrier around a storage tank. TEPCO later concludes an estimated 300 tons escaped unnoticed over several weeks.
• April 4: A worker pushes the wrong button on a touch panel, temporarily stopping one of three water treatment units during a pre-operation test.