My wife and I were at a diner recently getting breakfast. At one point during the meal there was a smell. It wasn't pleasant and smelled like something burning, but it wasn't otherwise cause for alarm. We didn't see any smoke/fire and no one seemed to be reacting to anything concerning or leaving. We continued with breakfast.
As we're paying our bill at the register (the smell had dissipated by then), FOUR COPS come in the front door: "is something wrong we got a call"
TWO COPS coming in from the back door on my other side. We walk past the cops as I hear the manager explaining that there was some smoke coming from one of the vents in the back and so they called it in.
As we get outside, FOUR FULLY-OUTFITTED FIREFIGHTERS come walking in with giant crowbars. Outside there are at least a dozen cop cars and my wife counted five fire engines.
You would have thought that someone called in an active shooter throwing Molotov's. But no, just that we have like a billion cops and firefighters with nothing better to do.
I looked up my city budget. In order:
Police: 45% Fire: 20% Public Works: 8% ... ... Parks and Rec: 3%
:marx-goth:
Pets and irreplaceable belongings are a pretty good reason for being staffed for offensive firefighting at residential buildings, especially apartment buildings imo.
You are correct, and you can't simply let one apartment burn without letting the rest of them burn for no reason. That's why sprinklers need to be installed in all building like apartments . Very effective at saving lives and containing fire. If you have ever lived above the second or third story in a building without sprinklers, you are living at risk because developers bribed the government to not include sprinklers in the code.
There is no such thing as irreplaceable belongings, and pets I'm sad to say but I don't think human lives should be risked for pets