Subject: One small stop for man, One Giant Leap for Mankind |
On Thanksgiving Day 2001 after seeing firefighters in the
open bay of their fire-station, I thought, "Its Thanksgiving,
someone should say 'Thank You' to them", so I turned the car around
and stopped
"to say thank you". Many other stops
"to say thank you" have been made since that time, and I have
started a website called "to say thank you" (www.ToSayThankYou.com).
As I have learned more about the fire service, I have discovered an ISO
Class rating system, which goes from 1 to 10--1 being the best, 10 the
worst. When the Houston Fire Department joined the ranks of the very
small group of ISO Class 1 fire departments (44 of 44,898) I discovered
that $47 million had been spend to achieve that status. I inquired,
hoping that they have achieve some benefit for that $47 million. The
answer a $401 million savings, which is per year and would
apply each year of the rating difference. But, that was not the complete
answer, the $401 million was for homeowners, and the estimation was that
the commercial property owners would see three times that saving, all
through reduced insurance premiums—a $1.6
billion total savings per year. I have thought that if less than 1% of the population of the United States could make that kind
of savings, what would happen if you changed the scale to all of the
fire departments across the United States-- $231,057,316,977 per
year, or $2.3 trillion over a ten year period--possibly even greater
savings than that. I have wondered why someone else was not brought this up, and
I see a lot of the same reasons that were in play with the September
11th attack. Sharing knowledge, separation of powers (different cities
and towns), level of authority (just another one of the city departments
or divisions), a lot of fires to put out already (literally), budget
problems (fighting and in many cases losing for what they already
have--Cleveland, Ohio for example), and complexity of the ISO rating
system. Standing were I am, which is supporting my fire department, as
well as, a supporter to all firefighters/fire departments drives me to
do what I can to bring this to the attention of people that could help
change the course of human events. I have put together a webpage, which I hope will be helpful
to anyone that cares to learn more www.ToSayThankYou.com/ISO/,
and the special webpage for the CASPERS ISO Initiative www.ToSayThankYou.com/CaspersISOInitiative.htm. I am not asking for my country to do anything for me, but I
am asking for you to do something for the country. Thank you for your time, Gary Caring
Aiding
and Supporting
People
in Emergency Rescue Service |