What does it mean to be a corrupt Fire Department? – While none of these indicators singularly means corruption, a Fire Department guilty of most of these practices is certainly suspect, if not corrupt.

"Corrupt" for a Fire Department essentially means they serve themselves first and not the public or their community.

Corrupt means they no longer attempt to put out building fires and save property. It means they cut a hole in center of roof for a focused and accelerated fire, and a quick safe burndown. It sacrifices the victim but is safe for firemen and usually protects adjoining property.

Corrupt means they stop training to actually put out fires and save property.

Obvious signs of corruption:

1. A corrupt Fire Department has leadership that is not honest about what it does or how it does it.
2. A corrupt Fire Department is worried only about firefighter safety, pay, and benefits not citizens’ property, possessions, or valuables.
3. A corrupt Fire Department lives off the hard work, courage, and discipline justly earned by legitimate Fire Departments who do go inside buildings and fight fires.
4. A corrupt Fire Department has firemen who do not know that their first priority (after firefighter safety) is to put water on the fire as fast as possible – even ladder trucks, if they are first on scene at a fire can deploy a preconnect to fight the fire instead of just waiting.
5. A corrupt Fire Department will have meetings before the leadership writes their narratives to co-ordinate what is written to insure there are not "differences." They are supposed to write narrations independently as soon after the fire as possible then have meetings to go over the fire. (A super corrupt Fire Department will stop writing narratives entirely.)
6. A corrupt Fire Department will actually claim credit for firefighting it did not do!
7. A corrupt Fire Department does not prioritize putting water on a fire promptly. Often they delay putting water on the fire to have a better fire.
8. A corrupt Fire Department will generate lots of overtime without any firefighting emergencies. They will also deflect questions asking about unnecessary overtime incurred.
9. A corrupt Fire Department has leadership that serves itself and not its community, but always loudly and proudly proclaims the opposite.
10. A corrupt Fire Department will claim credit for cutting holes in roofs to let the smoke and hot gases out but will neglect to tell you they are not supposed to cut holes in roofs except as part of a coordinated interior attack. (The hole accelerates and focuses the fire – It increases the heat and gases!)
11. A corrupt Fire Department will allow existing firemen to become paramedics and train on-the-job rather than hiring experienced fully-trained EMTs or paramedics.
12. A corrupt Fire Department will use its job openings to buy false testimony or other favors from firefighters who want the job the corrupt Fire Department has to offer.
13. A corrupt Fire Department claims experience and knowledge they do not possess – Then when the knowledge is needed, they fake it at the expense of the fire victims and the community, afterwards lying about what they did to cover their lack of experience, relevant training, and actual expertise.
14. A corrupt Fire Department requires a Fire Marshal who will not expose misconduct and will participate in any cover-up or glossing over of inappropriate Fire Department practice and behavior.
15. A corrupt Fire Department follows underground policies that it will not put into print or admit to. Example: Refuse to go into structures that are on fire because "it’s dangerous" but claim the opposite.
16. A corrupt Fire Department does not follow its own published rules and procedures at fire scenes then afterwards claims to have done what they should have rather than what they actually did.
17. A corrupt Fire Department will try to generate as many useless activities as possible. This creates the illusion of useful activity when needlessly chasing ambulances only creates dangers, wastes time and money and substitutes for meanful activities that they should be doing.
18. A corrupt Fire Department thinks following ambulances replaces preparing plans to fight fires in our major public buildings and elsewhere in our community.
19. A corrupt Fire Department will use plastics and modern materials as an excuse for not rushing in and promptly dealing with a fire.
Plastics burn poorly and emit poisonous gases. With SCUBA equipment, it is no issue of firemen safety. Modern materials and plastics with fire retardant actually create a less dangerous fire scene than previous times and are not an excuse used by actual firefighting Fire Departments.
20. A corrupt Fire Department will always attack and disparage any person or group who tries to alert the public to the problem with the corrupt Fire Department!

Fire Departments who fight few fires do not easily gain experience.

Leadership without experience is afraid of engaging fires because they fear their inexperience might get a fireman hurt.

There are three ways to deal with this issue –

1. THE RIGHT WAY: Extra training by experts from other experienced Fire Departments to instruct, do practice burns, use a “doll house,” and other techniques to gain experience and fire savvy knowledge – Most buildings are saved or partially saved if they act quickly and try.
2. THE WRONG WAY:
   • Refuse to enter building to fight fires or delay until you can't go inside.
   • Claim you still do fight fires.
   • Wait until fire can be fought from outside using the overhead ladder truck hose and ground hoses – All buildings are destroyed. (This protocol risks the public finding out the fire is not being fought if a hard-to-burn structure is on fire.)
3. THE CRIMINAL WAY:
   • Refuse to go into buildings on fire.
   • Still claim you go inside and fight fires.
   • Actually take actions to intensify and promote the fire to ensure the roof burns through fast so the overhead ladder trucks can put out what is left of the fire without the public realizing what's going on – Building will be totally destroyed
   • This eliminates the risk of the general public discovering no attempt is made to save the property as a big hot fire is quickly produced by aggressively cutting draft holes in the roof to excite and expand the fire. The public is fooled into thinking it was just the fire, rather than the Fire Department actions that are causing the fast moving and big fire. Once the fire is “big,” the public does not question Fire Department actions and there is little they can do.
   • Firemen who are already in the habit of assisting fires by cutting draft holes in the roof can easily rationalize starting a “backfire” inside the building to get the fire over faster, which is their primary goal and the agreed upon end result anyway (even when they could have put out the fire)
   • Once you stop saving buildings and realize that, no matter what, the structure will be destroyed, what is the harm of starting a few new “backfires” inside the building to cause the fire to reach its predetermined conclusion more quickly? The faster the fire burns everything, the safer and less exposure to risk for firefighters.