Shouting “theater” in a crowded firehouse

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Wow.

Nice graph–especially good that they go back to 1980 (it would be better to go back even earlier but maybe it’s not so easy to get the data). One could argue that the numbers would be better per-capita, but the patterns are clear enough that I don’t think there’s any need to get cute here.

My only criticism of the graph is . . . what’s with all the fine detail on the y-axis? 0, 5 million, 10 million, 15 million: that would be enough. What do we gain by seeing 2.5, 7.5, 12.5, 17.5 on the graph? Nuthin. Really, though, this is a very minor comment. It’s a great graph.

4 thoughts on “Shouting “theater” in a crowded firehouse

  1. yeah, I'm often impressed by the NYT. I disagree, btw, on the 2.5 million steps – I think at leat the first one really helps to place the "Fire" part of the graph.

    One of my favorite NYTs graphs is the regular one in the business section where they graph long and short-term trends of various stocks – usually in a given sector – I can't find any of the online, but I love how much information they convey with a relatively simple graph.

  2. I'm with Sebastian; you need the 2.5 line to set context for the fires data.

    For some graphs you could put both of them on a relative scale and lose the axis detail, as The Economist often does with their "Jan 1 1980 = 100" graphs, or by putting one Y axis on the left and the other on the right. But here you want to show both the relative and absolute relationships, so you need the same scale, and therefore more detail than normal.

    It is indeed a great graph, though!

  3. "Hooray for fire-proofing technologies!"
    _________

    Yes, the incidence of fires is way down due to better materials, smarter construction, stricter building codes and smoke alarms

    But the number of firemen increases due to strong labor unions and obsolete municipal formulas for calculating how many firemen and fire stations are actually needed. Fire insurance companies don't care because all the costs of any excess firemen are paid by private citizen taxes.

    The dramatic surge in "medical help" runs is also artificial. Overgrown fire departments with little firefighting to do– expanded their "mission" to justify their expensive existence… taking on a new 'medical mission', previously handled by hospital ambulance services & private medical services.

    Municipal fire departments across the nation also 'pad' their emergency-call records… by dispatching fire-engines & crews with the primary ambulance/medic vehicle on routine responses; come budget time, firemen get to claim lots of (unnecessary) emergency runs to justify their funding & expansion.

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