Stop looking away

I have been reading, with interest and disgust, about the search for a new Bangor fire chief. I am interested because my father was a fire chief and I have been told many times, a great fire chief. He knew every inch of Bangor: the fire prevention strengths,the weaknesses, and the men. It was his city and his city rested comfortably in the knowledge that, for many years of serving through the Bangor Fire Department ranks, he had learned how best to provide its protection.

It seems almost a failing on the part of the present chief to be agreeable to an outside search for his replacement. Has he failed properly to train a replacement within his force? Has he failed to recognize talent and knowledge within his force? Given the proposition to my father that no one in his force was trained and capable to replace him, I would have hated, and the city of Bangor and its council and its manager would surely have cringed, to hear his expletives.

Firemen are dedicated men. I know. Firemen in the Bangor Fire Department have always been better educated, better trained, more knowledgeable of their city than any outsider. Stop looking away; look inside. Barbara N. Bouchard Brewer