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To the editor:

There is a real irony about life in Sierra Madre. At the same time that a dedicated group of people volunteer thousands of hours a year in training and service to their community, leaving their homes and families at all hours to protect the lives and property of their neighbors, even occasionally at the risk of their own lives, The Sierra Madre News, a so-called newspaper, can enjoy the right to incite community discord through lies, half-truths and distortion.

Recently, The Sierra Madre News invited the submission of photographs of Sierra Madre Fire Department vehicles in use out of the City limits in an attempt to insinuate misuse. The invitation also tried to allege that the members of the Fire Department are not volunteers.

Here are some facts:

• The paper recently claimed that we have a brand new, shiny, red hook and ladder truck stashed away somewhere. The Sierra Madre Fire Department does not have a brand new, shiny, red anything, and we haven’t for years.

• Hundreds of times a year, our ambulances transport sick and injured people from Sierra Madre to local hospitals, our firefighters participate in area training events, and our officers attend regional planning meetings – that are outside the city limits!

• Our vehicles, and volunteer firefighters, are a part of a regional mutual aid system which occasionally calls us to protect other communities – but only by participating in this system, can we request assistance in the event we might have a time of need.

• In asking an individual volunteer firefighter to sacrifice hundreds of hours a year, time that others enjoy in leisure and with loved ones, our Fire Department has to remind its members that family comes first, employment is second and the department is third – and that it’s a very difficult juggling act – but Sierra Madre citizens can expect to see Fire Department vehicles out and about, and parked in front of homes, businesses, schools, churches, restaurants and grocery stores because every hour of every day our volunteers are ready to leave whatever they are doing to serve to their neighbors, and all the while saving the residents millions of dollars per year.

• The Sierra Madre Fire Department is made up of volunteers. While there are two employees of the City’s Fire Prevention Bureau who also participate, all the members of the department serve because they want to help their neighbors.

• Salvatore Tesoro, who prints the so-called newspaper in question, has never visited the Fire Department to find out how we operate, never interviewed the Fire Chief, and never been bothered to seek and print the truth about our Fire Department.

We, the chief officers of the Sierra Madre Fire Department, believe it is a time for truth and honesty and for responsible journalism. We invite anyone who has questions to visit the fire station, and, as always, we stand ready to respond.

Fire Chief Roger Lowe
Battalion Chiefs Steve Heydorff, Michael Bamberger and Bob Burnett