Lake Worth Firefighter Fatalities

[Guest guest]

Gentlemen,

I learned of this tragic event at 18:00 hrs this date when I arrived at the

Levelland Fire Department for one of our bi-monthly meetings.

I was saddened and teary eyed when I read an email that the volunteer assistant

chief gave to me from Greg Higgins telling of this event.

The prayers of everyone at the Levelland Fire Department are with the

firefighters families of both those killed in the line of duty and those who

were injured.

This incident brought to my attention as an officer on the fire department and

as the training and certification coordinator that all of us need to concentrate

on safey of our own. It also brought back my officer development class from A &

M this past summer in which the instructors were from Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano

and other large cities. These people are always putting firefighters on roofs.

And they will fight with you when you argue otherwise.

My line of thinking is if you can do it any other way let's keep them off the

roof, because it's just too dangerous.

I personally have 5 children and I always tell everyone that no one will get

hurt while I am in charge because I do have 5 children and I am going home

tonight.

This is for the high ranking officers of the large departments that might read

this. Everytime you want to cut a hole in a roof to ventilate-------rethink it

and think about the deaths of feb 15, 1999---and do it some other way before

more firefighters DIE!!!

Sincerly,

Max Fugate

Captain

Levelland Fire Department

Levelland, TX 79336

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