Guest MINDSETTER™ Kenney: Last Year’s Hero; This Year’s Trash

Monday, April 24, 2017

Guest MINDSETTER™ Tom Kenney

Last March, on a particularly windy day in the City of Providence, a fire broke out in the apartment of a couple of PC students. Whipped by the wind, this fire quickly engulfed the apartment, the 3 story building and two adjacent homes. The large volume of fire and the gale force winds swirling in the area resulted in almost every fire truck and firefighter in the city being forced to respond in a desperate attempt to quell the conflagration.

The efforts and hard work of all these members resulted in the suppression of this massive blaze with no other homes being damaged other than those that were involved when they first arrived. This was an amazing feat considering the head start the fire got and the conditions at the scene. Unfortunately a number of firefighters were injured during the fight, including at least three who were hospitalized with cyanide poisoning.

One of these members, Captain Joseph Fontaine, suffered from two collapsed lungs, stopped breathing and put in a medically induced coma in the ER. He spent three days in the ICU on a respirator. Things were touch and go for awhile until he finally regained consciousness and opened his eyes for the first time in days.

At first the Commissioner of Public Safety and the Mayor of Providence stated there were no injuries. In the coming days, as the media became aware of the seriousness of Capt. Fontaine’s condition, they (the media) stated that he was a true hero who put his life on the line to save lives and protect the property of the citizens of the City. Still deafening silence from the Commissioner and the Mayor. They never did acknowledge his injuries or his bravery.

It’s been a little over a year now and Joe is still suffering from the effects of the injuries he received due to his poisoning that day. He’s gone through hell attempting to rehabilitate himself well enough to return to the job he loves. He has suffered through extreme pain, endless doctor’s appointments, breathing treatments, medications, specialists, therapy and surgery. On top of this he developed asthma, endless coughing spasms and depression. He was told by his doctor that he will never be able to do fire duty again so he filed for a disability pension. He felt he had no choice.

This process takes a prolonged amount of time as he will have to see three separate doctors chosen by the City. There is no time frame that this needs to follow and there’s no guarantee that the doctors will agree with Joe’s doctor. In the mean time he’s an active Captain on the Providence Fire Department on injured status. The only real restriction to his duties seems to be pertaining to fire duty. If he chose to remain on the PFD, or if he is denied his claim for a disability pension, he could probably work a light duty job in an office environment.

One of Joe’s long-time ambitions, as is with most firefighters, was to be a Battalion Chief. This is as high a rank a firefighter can achieve on his own merit, via the testing process. It is considered the ultimate achievement. As an active Captain Joe has every right to participate in any function of the department not forbidden by his doctor. This includes taking a promotional exam for the rank of Battalion Chief. There was a test scheduled for earlier this month and Joe spent countless hours over the last 3 months studying the vast amount of material needed to compete in this exam.

The order of finished was released by the testing company and Joe finished high enough to not only pass the exam and be put on the Battalion Chief’s promotional list but high enough to be one of those Captains to be sworn in as a Chief before the end of the month! The list was released by the department as a General Order with Joe’s name in the proper place. A day or two later Commissioner Pare ordered that a new list be put out that didn’t contain Joe’s name. The Commissioner was denying Joe his rightfully earned promotion because Joe had filed for a disability pension.

As stated earlier, applying for the disability pension and being awarded the same are two different things. He could easily be turned down and forced to remain on the department in a light duty capacity. Also, this same Commissioner has decimated the PFD Command Staff (office duty), which is manned by Battalion and Division Chiefs. There were at least eight Chief level positions in the PFD office up until about a year ago – now there are none. These positions will need to be filled once again because the department is in blatant violation of the Federal NFPA 1500 laws which mandate fire departments in RI.
There are a number of reasons that Joe should be allowed to be sworn in to this position which he earned, the least of which is that he is in this position through no fault of his own but rather because of his heroic action. Also, there is no provision in the firefighters’ union contract that states a member on IOD status or one who has filed for a disability pension is disqualified from taking promotional exams.

I guess that in this new PFD, and to this Commissioner, last year’s hero is this year’s trash!

Tom Kenney
Captain, Providence Fire Department - Retired

Guest MINDSETTER™ Kenney: Last Year’s Hero; This Year’s Trash

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