We’ve all watched Houston firefighters simply get abused by Mayor Turner, and he refuses to stop. Luckily in Austin, Houston state lawmakers are now leading the charge for justice.

This fight is personal to me. I almost died in a head-on car crash.

You know the only reason why I didn’t? The firefighters and paramedics who kept me alive until the chopper came.

I have seen firefighters give their lives saving us after hurricanes and floods.

That’s why I think this FOX 26 investigative report is important to share.

“In 2010, the City of Houston had 4,100 firefighters and paramedics charged with answering an estimated 220,000 calls. Twelve years later, the firefighter’s union tells us HFD is fielding 3,600 first responders to contend with nearly 500,000 calls for service,” investigative reporter Greg Groogan said.

Fewer first responders than we had nearly 13 years ago, that’s shameful and dangerous. Ring the alarm.

It is no secret we have tried to help our firefighters in their fight for simple fairness.

We have been outraged as Mayor Turner has spent millions of your tax dollars to simply screw firefighter families with lawsuits.

“His legacy will be one of the worst mayors in history suing his own firefighters,” said Lancton.

Cheating firefighters while this same mayor allowed his housing authority to give away 74 million dollars in tax money in one year for a dubious, politically corrupt, affordable housing gravy train.

We will lose billions in tax dollars over a lifetime as a result. Money that will be needed to pay firefighters, including possible backpay now.

The Texas legislature is now trying to fix what our mayor simply refuses to. The guy leading the charge is John Whitmire, who wants to be our next mayor.

“That is the reason for me bringing Senate Bill 736 to this Senate floor to tell the Houston firefighters that we will not forget them and hold the city to the wishes and the voters of Houston desire,” states Whitmire.

The Texas Senate has already weighed in, unanimously passing a bill to require forced arbitration between the mayor and the union going forward.

“29 ayes and no nays. The bill has finally passed. Thank you Senator,” stated Dan Patrick.

“Thank you, Mr. President. On behalf of the firefighters and the people of Houston, we thank you,” replied Whitmire.

In the Texas House of Representatives, Mary Ann Perez is taking the baton in the fight for our first responders. Her son is a fireman.

“The Houston fire department is at a breaking point, and it is well past time for the city to come to the table and resolve this six-year impasse for our dedicated firefighters,” said Representative Mary Ann Perez. 

The vote in the full house comes any day. The mayor’s council buddy Dave Martin would rather keep the firefighters waiting. Is he looking out for taxpayers or the mayor’s legacy?

“This should have never happened. A real mayor would have compromised with the firefighters six years ago, but recent history tells you a lot about Mayor Turner,” said Wayne Dolcefino.

Firefighters helped Turner win in 2015, he then turned on them with a vindictive campaign that must end today. Every day we wait to settle this fight and reenergize our firefighters, this will get more expensive.

“We should never treat our firefighters the way this administration has treated them,” said Marty Lancton.

State Representative Ramon Romero asked a question we should all be asking.

“How long should Houston firefighters have to wait to sit down at the table to actually renegotiate a contract,” asked Representative Ramon Romero.

Houston City Council deserves some of the blame. They know the mayor is trying to run out the clock, so the next mayor has the financial headache. Unacceptable. There is no excuse.

“The city, I believe, should start telling the truth to the public and the media,” said Lancton.

Way too many Houston problems come before state legislators. They don’t like it, but we applaud Texas lawmakers for trying to fix this. Lawmakers understand the role firefighters play to keep us safe. It’s time to cut a deal or force a deal.

“We should never treat our firefighters the way this administration has treated them,” said Lancton.

The post Justice For Firefighters appeared first on Dolcefino Media.

You’ve seen the headlines—hundreds of Houston firefighters leaving because they are under attack by a clearly vindictive Mayor Turner. Now we have uncovered another threat to your family—90 percent of firetrucks are taking longer to respond to your calls for help.

The post Public Safety Warning: Flight Of The Firefighters appeared first on Dolcefino Media.

Houston Fire Station 67 is special to me.

Years ago, 13 Undercover exposed the broken ladder truck that was sent to a burning house.

Two children died. The result was a lot of new fire equipment.

Mayor Turner has said nothing about our recent report showing the fleet is in a crisis.

I wonder if he’s checked the fire station closest to his house, that very same fire station.

Records provided by the Houston Fire Department show the fire engine in Turner’s neighborhood fire station was taken out of service for maintenance 127 times in two years.

The fire engine was unable to respond to calls at the mayor’s house a total of 437 hours.

The story on ladder 67 was sadly just as bad. It was broken 61 times, the most in the entire council district. Twice there was no ladder truck for ten straight hours for the Acres Home neighborhood.

The mayor doesn’t deserve better fire protection than the rest of us, but we would hate to think that if he called for help, the neighborhood fire station would be empty.

You can see how your neighborhood fire station fared from aging and broken equipment clicking on State of Emergency: The Cost of a Broken Houston Fire Fleet.

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Houstonians’ safety is being compromised every day by a fire fleet so broken neighborhood fire stations are often empty or unable to respond to calls for help.

Now, for the first time, you can see how your neighborhood fire station is being harmed.

Dolcefino Consulting has spent months analyzing thousands of individual pieces of data to prove how many hours fire stations are left empty or disabled. We now release this report, State of Emergency, the cost of a broken fire fleet, as a gift to Houston taxpayers and a warning to the Mayor.

Dolcefino Consulting began looking into the state of the Houston Fire Department as we watched the nightly news reports of broken fire equipment. The idea that we are sending firefighters to save lives with aging equipment and broken air conditioning systems is unacceptable, especially in the heat of the summer.

“We were shocked by the true magnitude of this crisis, and it is a crisis,” says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting. “When Houstonians drive by their fire station and see it empty they assume the firefighters are out saving lives. This investigation proves that it may simply be the truck is broken and missing. Even if the truck is in the station, it may be unable to fight a fire.”

Over the last two years, Houston Fire Department data reveals first line Houston fire engines have been missing or unable to respond to fires a total of 21,000 hours, a staggering cost to response time when seconds matter.

Engine 55 in District D is located at 11212 Cullen Blvd in south Houston. Engine 55 had 168 breakdown events in the two-year period, with a truck out for more than 400 hours.

“What should also scare Houstonians is that the Fire Department fleet management didn’t even know this. They don’t even track the hours fire stations were left empty until a backup reserve truck could arrive to help. If their records are accurate, some stations may have been left empty for days,” says Dolcefino. “How do you run a fleet management department and not know this?”

Fire Department records provided to Dolcefino Consulting show Station 104 had an engine out of service for nearly 8 days in one incident. Station 29 had a ladder out for 10 and a half days during one event.

Fleet Management records show that when the day begins, sometimes more than 15 percent of the first line Houston fire trucks are in the shop. On some days, more than 20 of the 100 first line engines and ladders are broken.

Dolcefino Consulting has taken the raw data and created a database, so you can now see the truth about the fire truck in your neighborhood, by fire station and by council district.

“Every single city councilmember should read this document and what it means for the safety of their residents. It is time to put the name calling aside and get these heroes the equipment and the pay they deserve, says Dolcefino.”

The broken fleet is costing precious seconds when seconds count.

One example was an apartment fire on January 20, 2018. Fire Engine 10 started smoking just as it left the fire station. It could not respond. It took four and a half hours for a reserve truck to arrive at the station. It is one of many incidents that Houston firefighters are now making public on social media. Instead of acting to fix this emergency, critical firefighters are being investigated.

“If you call for help and your neighborhood fire truck can’t respond, no one can tell you it doesn’t affect the response time,” says Dolcefino. “It is incredibly sad that the response from the fire official in charge of emergency response, Executive Assistant Fire Chief Isaac Garcia, is to try to silence the men and women we count on to save us in an emergency who are begging for help.”

The June 21 memo from Garcia to all employees says that no member of the HFD should be speaking to the media.

The difficulty in analyzing this data exposes another problem. Broken Houston fire trucks go to the same centralized mechanic shop as every other city truck. That should end. We need specialized repairmen for life saving equipment. The current system requires the Houston Fire Department fleet management to be at the mercy of another city department. There is too much bureaucracy.

Where can you see how your neighborhood fire truck fared? How many hours was your fire station left empty or disabled because of an aging fleet?

Click here for the State of Emergency: The Cost of a Broken Houston Fire Fleet site. You can download or view the full report and the supporting documents. We have fleet reports from the HFD as well as raw data that can be viewed for specific breakdowns on any date in 2016 and 2017.

The final analysis documents explain the size of the problem in a form that is easy to understand.

If you have tips showing how this State of Emergency affected the call for help to your home, you can contact us on Dolcefino.com.

“We offer our help to the Mayor and City Council to discuss this investigation at length if it helps them fix this problem before someone gets hurt or dies because of a broken fire truck. We all want to know the help will come fast, and from first responders who are respected for the lifesaving work they do,” says Dolcefino. “It is time to treat this as a State of Emergency.”

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