Letter: Fire Fighter Union President plays with data not fire

At a joint HMBFD and PTMFD board meeting 9/14, Ed Hawkins, president of fire fighter’ unions stated that "A 72 hour workweek is very dangerous to residents". Obviously attempting to insinuate a fact out of an opinion without supportive data in an attempt to influence board action.

It has always concerned me when facts and data are mixed with personal opinions and manipulated into a pre-desired outcome. Neither side of a discussion gains from that. Facts and data don’t lie. They may tell a story one doesn’t want to hear, but reviewing / analyzing them all will lead to the right decision for all concerned. Selective data usage benefits no one. It just creates mud slinging opportunities.

The attempt to imply 72 hour work week is dangerous for fire serive, offers absolutely not one iota of proof. It doesn’t indicate the contributing factors of a 72 hour schedule that would make it dangerous. Nor does it indicate what a non dangerous amount of hours are. Under what work schedule do the conditions that create a dangerous condition go away? And how do number of calls and type of calls enter into the dangerous calculations.

By itself the opinion offered by Mr. Hawkins has as much value as the much earlier opinion that "the sun revolves around the earth" It’s an opinion, and while we are all allowed to have them,  having them doesn’t make them the truth.

I truly look forward to the data Mr. Hawkins plans to present to board to find out what he considers the center of our solar system is.