RE: Fire Rescue

Dear Editor:

The voters are ignorant when it comes to the Deerfield Fire Department [Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue].

They claim some 1,000-plus calls and other calls to justify increased costs to consumers. *

They receive exorbitant salaries, the highest retirements in the nation over the average person, work very few actual hours responding to calls, and enjoy the good life. Yes, they occasionally save lives, but their duty is not nearly as dangerous as a police officer.

I have observed the Fire Department responding to a call where someone is ill, fell off a chair, or where there is a minor fender bender and yet they send an ambulance and a fire truck when the fire truck is not needed. This justifies a call and personnel even though they are not needed.

We should go back to an all volunteer Fire Department with the millions in equipment available to volunteers and save the taxpayers millions of dollars.

It won’t happen because the Fire Department has the city commissioners in their pocket.

Charles Laser

Deerfield beach

*Editor’s note: Despite reported increased costs, Deerfield Beach’s Fire Assessment Fee is tentatively set to remain the same – at $175 for Residential — for the upcoming 2015-16 Fiscal Year that begins Oct. 1.

Public hearing on Fire Assessment Fee is slated for Friday, Sept. 11 at 9:30 a.m. in Commission Chambers at Deerfield Beach City Hall.

A new contract will be negotiated between the city and Broward Sheriff’s Office before the beginning of the new fiscal year, in October.