It's the Smoke

Typical volunteer "fireman":

It was suspicious when Footville volunteer firefighter Dustin R. Bentivegna was among the first to respond to routine reports of gas odors, calls he might normally ignore from his home miles away in Janesville.

“He never appeared to be begging for a call or that kind of thing,” Fire Chief Joe North said. “He wasn’t all excited and gung-ho or all that.”

It turns out, Bentivegna might have loved being a firefighter so much that he made phony 911 calls to relish his role. He is accused of using his cell phone to make four false reports of a gas odor within his fire district, Rock County Sheriff’s Capt. Jude Maurer said.

“He just admitted that he wanted to go out on a call,” Maurer said.

A bit of advice from someone in the industry: if you in live an area where the first response fire department is volunteer, get a sprinkler system installed in your house.

I realize that may sound self-serving considering what I do for a living. If you doubt me, however, I urge you to take a little trip down to your local VFD the next time they are running hose drills. Watch for a few minutes. Then tell me whether you want one of my sprinkler heads protecting your kid's room, or would rather rely on Fat Ass and the Twelve Stooges, with their collective I.Q. of 3.

There are some genuinely competent people in some VFDs. But they are the exception, not the rule. Most are arrogant, under-educated, testosterone-overloaded losers who fancy themselves strong-jawed heroes. I'd fight my own fires with a garden hose before I'd rely on a VFD.