Fire chief: ‘It was a very successful rescue’

Last updated on: April 13, 2012 at 9:53 am by Fred Clark

Fire chief: ‘It was a very successful rescue’ 2012-04-13T09:53:41-04:00 Fred Clark

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1. Just because someone runs into a burning building, risking his own life to save others, doesn’t mean that this person is necessarily also qualified to serve as mayor, governor, senator or president. After all, firefighters do this for a living and not every firefighter is someone who would necessarily also possess the skills and abilities that would make them an effective mayor, governor, senator or president some day.

2. Having said that, personal heroism speaks to character, and character matters. Courage matters. The ability and willingness to put the needs of others ahead of one’s own safety and convenience matters — perhaps more than anything else. Yes, we can think of characters like those played by Denis Leary in Rescue Me or by Dustin Hoffman in Hero and remember that heroic people can also be deeply flawed. But when put to the test, those characters also showed that at some level they have a better and more accurate understanding of fundamental humanity than, for example, anyone who voted for the Ryan budget.

3. Politics depends, in part, on popularity and “likability.” Rushing into a burning building to rescue someone from the flames seems like it would be the sort of thing that would boost a politician’s popularity and general favorability, and thus that politician’s ability to advance his or her political agenda.

4. As a practical matter, personal heroism creates a thorny tactical and strategic difficulty for the political and electoral opponents of any politician whose credentials include having rushed into a burning building to rescue another person from the flames. How does one go about campaigning against such a person? It’s probably prudent for such a person’s political opponents to create and memorize a list of Metaphors and Figures of Speech to Avoid when campaigning against him.

5. Wonkette’s Rebecca Schoenkopf chimes in with a hilarious, pitch-perfect spoof of how the right-wing spin machine might respond to this sort of story.

6. Newark firefighters, like all public employees, have faced a struggle in recent years to defend the benefits and pensions they have earned. On balance, I imagine it helps their cause that they can now discuss their dangerous duty of rescuing citizens from the flames with a mayor who can understand exactly what it is they’re talking about.

7. All of which is to say: Wow. Newark Mayor Cory Booker is kind of awesome:

The fire started in a two-story building on Hawthorne Avenue in the Upper Clinton Hill neighborhood, shortly before the mayor arrived home after a television interview with News 12 New Jersey.

Five people were taken to the hospital for treatment: the mayor, a woman from the house and three members of his security detail. The woman was listed in stable condition at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston with burns to her back and neck.

… Newark Fire Director Fateen Ziyad said after the mayor arrived home he saw flames and smoke from the second floor of the building next to his home, and no residents outside.

Booker rushed in and his security detail followed him, Ziyad said.

As fire and EMS arrived, they administered oxygen to Booker and his security detail and took the mayor to the hospital. Newark Fire Chief John Centanni was at the hospital with Booker and said the mayor and his detail were “banged up” but would be fine. The residents of the building also appeared to be okay.

Centanni said the mayor executed a professional rescue and possibly saved the life of one resident.

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