Open Letter Re: Fire Station Closures

I recently sent this OPEN LETTER to the listed recipients. Guess what NO ANSWERS so far. It has been 10 days since the 27/12/12 when the letter was sent. Should it take this long to get a reply? Open letter to Mr Michael Gallacher MP NSW & Mr Greg Mullins AFSM Commissioner FRNSW Mr Gallacher, I am concerned that the policy of closing NSW Fire Stations will end up in the death of some innocent person. Even the Commissioner Mr Mullins understands that if you live close to a fire station that is closed that you are in a situation where you are at greater risk { I refer to a webcast that Mr Mullins recently published } . We are in a position currently [excluding the practice of toling] where our capability is matched to the risk in Sydney. The stations that are seen a superfluous actually provide "Surge Capacity". I am sure that you understand that concept. Toling has been underway outside of Sydney for quite sometime, it needs to end throughout NSW ASAP. I have a colleague that has been chastised for making public the fact that our counter terrorist capability is reduced by the act of toling. I am struggling with the idea that it's OK to reduce our counter terrorism capacity, but it's not OK to let the public know that they are at risk......... I [as you may imagine] talk with plenty of voters [from all political persuasions] about this situation, I can tell you that I have not yet come across anyone that can see the benefit in reducing the capacity of our fine service. There is a furphy getting around about locations of fire stations and response times of horse driven fire appliances and locating fire station on hilltops. To put it simply if the fire risk was the same as it was then and if the role of the Fire Brigade was the same as it was when we had to tend to horses as part of our role.... then that argument would be acceptable... I have been in the Fire Brigade for almost 30 years now and you know that this length of service is NOT uncommon. I have never met an active firefighter that has turned out to a fire call behind a horse. So let's just put that furphy where it belongs.. in the round file. Here is a link to a petition ... maybe you have seen it? http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/keep-our-fire-stations-open.html