TKC BREAKING AND EXCLUSIVE NEWS!!! CONTROVERSY EXPLODES OVER MAYOR SLY'S KANSAS CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT FASHION STATEMENT!!!
The JJ's Inferno news is being extinguished by snowfall stories today . . .
But there's one last aspect of this hot mess that's worth discussing . . .
MAYOR SLY JAMES TURNED MANY HEADS RECENTLY WITH A SURPRISING KANSAS CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT FASHION STATEMENT THAT SPOKE TO THE POLITICAL DENIZENS OF KC PROPER!!!
We talked to more than a few insiders regarding the mayor's KCFD haute couture and here's what they had to say . . .
"The Mayor sent a clear message yesterday. He's on KCFD's Team and he won't be challenging their strangle hold on Kansas City's finances any time soon. We can now forget about pension reform for the next 6 years."
From a media perspective . . .
"If (Former Kansas City Mayor) Funkhouser would've name dropped the Mayor of LA and spent most of the press conference joking around during a deadly fire situation . . . How would the media have handled him vs. the way they're treating Mayor Sly James?"
Finally . . . A neighborhood volunteer had this to say . . .
"Mayor Sly seemed so calculating and separated from the real story of a neighborhood and workers in crisis. He put on firefighter gear in what seemed like a desperate attempt to gain acceptance and because he still doesn't seem confident as an elected official. The Mayor could have led the effort to help the neighbors or workers but he chose to play firefighter and defend corporations. In a time of disaster, Mayor Sly James was looking for someone else to take a leadership role."
Strange . . . I used to joke about Council Lady Cindy Circo showing up in fire fighter gear in Council Chambers and now it seems that KCFD running City Hall and marking a top elected official as one of their own is now a reality under Mayor Sly's leadership or lack thereof . . .
DEVELOPING . . .
Not EVERYTHING is political TKC.
ReplyDeleteYou need to grow up.
ReplyDeleteSligger
ReplyDeleteSlygger
ReplyDeleteSlyverback
What I find incredible is that the Fire Department, with all of it's highly trained emergency responders and it's responsibility to protect the public, would defer control of a clearly dangerous scene and abandon it to a single utility company worker.
ReplyDeleteIf this is the stated policy and written procedure of our FD, it clearly needs to be changed. And the Mayor should be acting like a representative of the public interest by leading the charge for change, instead of acting like an attorney preparing for litigation and defending certain political interests or the private businesses of his pals.
Its federal guidelines...like it or not
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ReplyDeleteDid Sly talk about Kyle and his Polar Bear Hunting photo?
If he wants to put out fires, he should start with that one.
8:12, everything is political. You need to grow up.
ReplyDeleteBefore the City defers responsibility for emergency response and publc safety to MGE for natural gas leaks, they sure as fuck need to make sure MGE can get a crew to the site in a timely fashion. An 18 minute response time by MGE is unacceptable, especially in cases where there are multiple reports of a major break.
ReplyDeleteAnd the crew that MGE sends needs to be more than one guy who can only babysit the break while waiting for other employees to get there, in this case 37 minutes after the initial call.
The City and MGE both clearly need to shoulder their fair share of responsibility for the injuries and loss of life at JJs.
Sly showed what he really is, a lawyer who was making a statement of who is and is not legally responsible for this. He did that instead of focus on people because that is who he is. Has anyone ever accused Sly of being a people's Mayor? No way. The people can't afford the price of an admission ticket to get an appointment with him. When is the p[ress going to dig into the common whisper behind the scenes about his staff setting the donation price for meetings?
ReplyDeleteWorst Mayor and Council in a long time. They are dumb, lazy and have no political instincts. Look how often they brag about not holding meetings and their trips to do International business when not one of them (Taylor maybe) has any experience in the field. They don't have the sense to keep it quiet like prior councils have.
ReplyDeleteThe Mayors staff are thugs and the previous poster is right about "Pay to Play".
The City Manager has bottom feeders, drunks, perverts under him except for maybe one woman.
We are in deep shit.
first emergency incident Sly has been to.
ReplyDeleteJesus, the shit you all get your panties in a bunch over is pretty sad. Ooooooh, the mayor wore a FD shirt. Scandalous!!!!
ReplyDelete9:55 + 1. You people are crazy.
ReplyDeleteI love to make fun of you guys but I really don't see how this is a story.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Your "tipsters" are crybaby losers. It's a shirt. Get the over it. If it was an argyle shirt, I'm sure some crybabies would be whining about that.
ReplyDeleteIf you're curious, KCFD is a city agency, and Sly is a mayor which means it's under the oversight of the mayor.
If it wasn't a big deal, 9:55/10:09, why, after 2 years in office, did he choose yesterday to wear one for the first time?
ReplyDeleteHey, 10:19. The FD is also under the oversight of 12 Councilmembers. Which of them are out parading around at press conferences in their bunker gear?
ReplyDeleteNever seen Sly wear a Neighborhood & Community Services shirt. Or for that matter, any other Department's gear.
ReplyDeleteSly is supposed to represent the citizens of Kansas City- not just a single City Department. And especially not one with a seriously flawed response that contributed to a major event.
ReplyDeleteSly is total "Pay to Play"
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ReplyDeleteI really wish that a group of ballerinas had first-responded to the fire at JJ's.
A Slyverback Ape in a Pink Tutu media show would have been ICONIC.
10:19 Wrong! The Mayor doesn't oversee any city departments; the City Manager does. Sly oversees nothing but the proceedings of the City Council.
ReplyDeleteSly needs to oversee his kid "Polar Bear Hunting".
ReplyDelete10:37, oh, so if the mayor tells the Chief he wants something done, the chief is going to ignore him, right? You idiot. Your world must exist only on paper.
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago the council tried to cut personnel assigned to pumper trucks. fuck all these council folks. Fire personnel always come thru when needed. I say let the fucking city burn. Let crime run amuck, then maybe the council will stop trying to screw over the public safety people
ReplyDelete"Seriously flawed response"?
ReplyDeleteI read the newspaper - you know, not a blog -- and what actually happened was the FD evacuated just in time and saved a lot of people.
Talk all the shit on their union, or their douchebag behavior you want but the facts are clear, more than 50 people were saved by their actions.
"Seriously flawed response"?
ReplyDeleteI read the newspaper - you know, not a blog -- and what actually happened was the FD evacuated just in time and saved a lot of people.
Talk all the shit on their union, or their douchebag behavior you want but the facts are clear, more than 50 people were saved by their actions.
11:11, you have it backwards. The mayor does what he's told by his boss, the fire chief.
ReplyDeleteNo, by IAFF #42.
DeleteMayors all over the country put on ceremonial jackets, FD after big fires, PD after big police events.
ReplyDeleteJeez, there a a bunch of really petty people in your town.
LOL @ talk shit on their union.
ReplyDeleteIt was the operator at Heartland Midwest a union member?
12:18- then you better read it again.
ReplyDelete"The question on many people’s minds centered on why someone in authority did not order an early evacuation of the restaurant, and perhaps nearby buildings, immediately after firefighters arrived (reportedly at 5:04 p.m.) or after the first MGE person got to the scene at 5:16 p.m."
FD bailed 1 minute after MGE arrived without making ANY quantitative or qualitative assessment of the situation.
And it was MGE employees are the ones who "asked" folks to evacuate- just a couple minutes before the explosion, and long after FD had turned tail outta there.
Fucking revisionist history won't save FD's ass from the facts.
KCFD did not send adequate personnel or equipment before the blast, so that poor woman burned alive.
ReplyDeleteBut I guess some Local 42 members got to finish their computer games, and which is really more important?
Local 42 is populated with the bravest souls in the city, as long as you define brave as standing around in front of polling places intimidating voters and campaign volunteers as "brave."
ReplyDeleteThe news says the gas level weren't high enough to warrant and evac when the FD was on scene and that the scene was turned over to MGE, who is the agency repsonsible for gas emergencies (since the FD doersn't have back hoes and you know, gas line repair equipment).
ReplyDeleteIn the 45 minutes it took MGE to shut down the source, more gas leaked and and explosion occurred.
Doesn't sound like any body did anything wrong. Sounds like excellent work and common sense kept fatalities to one in what could have been a disaster.
Didn't the city try to shut down the fire engine that covers the plaza just last year?
ReplyDeleteSure did! Who needs pumper 32, nothing bad happens on the plaza
Delete2/21/13, 12:50 PM
ReplyDeleteYou need to talk to firefighters in other cities of about the same size, and you will hear them say the response was inadequate to the point of negligence. There is a lot of head-shaking going on in other departments.
Other city fire departments would have taken charge of the scene, sent more equipment and shut the place down with a forced evacuation of all civilians.
First talk of evacuation started at 5:15 with FD still on the scene. They were there for 15 minutes, found no imminent threat, gas levels were slighly below the level that protocols say to evacuate a building at, and the FD was released by MGE, who are the experts in gas emergencies.
ReplyDeleteIn between when the FD left and the explosion, gas levels continued to climb and something ignited the explosion.
There is no implication that the FD did anything except follow protocol, and the manager says evacuation was discussed while the FD was still there, deemed unnecessary by the MGE representatives and the FD was gone for 45 minutes, having been sent home by the gas company before the explosion happened.
No wrongdoing by the FD and no reason anything should have been done differently.
Other FDs in major cities would have handled the situation nearly exactly the same. I worked in one, and can assure you, gas leaks are handled this way by department policy. The difference is the media and the anti-FD anti-union echo-chamber in this town. This happens in StL, where I was a firemen for 15 years, the story is that "miraculously only 1 person died".
ReplyDeletein a lot of other cities/ suburbs that whole block would be burned down
ReplyDeleteNo joke. Kcfd kicked ass to not let the buildings that JJs was attached to burn as well. I'm amazed they stopped it where they did all things considering
DeleteLook at all the empty lots lees summit and overland park make when a balcony catches fire...count your blessings in KC..
Delete"Richard Kuprewicz, a pipeline safety consultant in Redmond, Wash., said federal law holds the utility responsible for deciding whether to evacuate, but assessing the risk isn't always easy."
ReplyDeleteArmchair quarterbacks that weren't there need to shut their man pleasers. The only people who can talk with anything other than retard speculation are the people who were present that day at that moment.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of you need to stick to the most important decisions you make daily -- soy or skim milk with your coffee.
He'a PR Hack
ReplyDeleteThe guy has absolutely zero public service experience. He's a total douche!
ReplyDeleteHey fucktards! When there is a major gas leak, the fire dept. calls the gas company. The gas company has special equipment and monitors that show levels of gas. If the gas company tells the fire dept. that the levels are ok, then the fire dept. goes back in service. The gas company takes the scene over. After the explosion, the fire dept. was there within a couple of minutes. There is not any magic dust that can make the fire dept appear at a scene within one second. Now that you know how the system works, go back to your computer and try and sell your magazines. Quit coming on a blog and act like you know how things work. I bet you think it's the fire depts. fault that it snowed so much. Get your dumb asses out of the way when you see an emergency vehicle coming your way. Total Fucksticks!!
ReplyDeleteFederal guidelines make it the gas company's responsibility....glad that we have kcfd and not the idiots who have one hand stroking their meat in their parents basement and the other one posting on this blog hammering on kcpd and kcfd...
ReplyDeleteGood work kcfd. Im proud of you guys.
ReplyDelete2:59 + 1
ReplyDeleteI guess the entire fire department was put to work placing comments on here this afternoon -- too bad they were not as efficient on Tuesday evening.
ReplyDeleteI sent a link to this post and several Star articles to my brother in Cleveland who is a firefighter.
ReplyDeleteBased on what is reported, the assessment at his station is that the KCFD fucked it up. They are hiding behind the acceptable levels of gas bull shit.
There are no acceptable levels of gas.
You take charge in that kind of a situation unless you are dealing with one insurmountable problem: YOU ARE SCARED.
The assessment in Cleveland was that KCFD was scared and they ran.
Now they are trying to poor the yellow liquid out of their boots.
2/21/13, 2:33 PM Federal guidelines set minimum standards. They do not preclude the using your brain.
ReplyDeleteEveryone in charge right up the chain of command should submit their resignation.... not retirement.
I've run high hazard sites in KCMO for 30 years. Radioactive materials, biological agents, nerve agents, energetic materials, compressed gasses, you name it, we used it.
ReplyDeleteEVERY time KCFD ran calls on my site, whether fire, medical, chemical release, whatever, KCFD NEVER relinquished incident command to me or my staff. Their Captains ALWAYS directed the incident response- even though we knew more about the site, the materials and the processes than they did. Granted, the Captains kept our guys close, and often accepted and acted upon their advice, but KCFD NEVER gave up control of the incident or the site until the hazard was abated.
KCFD did a very good job fighting the fire. But they screwed the pooch on the gas leak.
MGE, KCFD, etc. should be damn glad for ths snow storm. The short-attention span media is off chasing that stick now instead of digging in to the JJ's story.
ReplyDeleteListen to 5:14 - This is going to come up in court. The City will have to pay for this mistake.
ReplyDeleteDearly.
I really do not care. I raised lots of money from both the rank and file firefighters union and the Chiefs' union. They can do as they please.
ReplyDeleteIt was a drone strike, not gas explosion.
ReplyDeleteIf you smell gas, you're supposed to get out of the vicinity of the smell. You don't leave, you might die. Darwinism at its finest.
Eh dat ol Sly inna jaihouse jumsoo ?
ReplyDeleteCleveland firefighters have no idea how things work because they sit on their nuts all day. I'm sure the guy is a volunteer. What a stroke bag!
ReplyDeleteProbably some Cleveland suburb.
ReplyDeleteThe Cleveland FD is not exactly known as being the greatest public servants and I know for a fact they get called to routine gas leaks all the time and turn it over to the gas company. Its protocol everyhwere.
He looked like a giant tomato
ReplyDeletePffffft. He's just seeing how it is gonna feel when the citizens demote him to fire dog.
ReplyDeleteyou know, Rudy Giuliani made wearing FDNY work good for him after 9/11. Sly probably thought the same. Man, he missed that one by a mile. What a shit head! Joking on live tv in the wake of a tragedy. Really?
ReplyDeleteIn my estimation, the KCFD effed up in one of 2 ways, either they had their thumbs up their asses for 15-20 minutes during their wait for MG&E or they were negligent and didn't give MG&E a full siutation report when MG&E showed up. How could they have, they were there only a minute. They should have stayed at least until the 3rd gas company person showed up, even if it was to help with an evacuation or to take simultaneous readings for the gas man. Letting themselves get blown off or worse still actually blowing off the MG&E guy is potentially criminal.
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