Case Study Article: The fictional Parish of Lauziere, Louisiana, lies on the Gulf Coast in a largely rural area with a population of about 30,000 spread out over a 290-square-mile area. The citizens are mostly of European descent, but members of a large Cajun community speak their own form of french and english. There is also an extremely poor african american segment of the population that lives inland in poor housing with few amenities.
The recent hurricanes and accompanying floods in the area have devastated homes, businesses, and the infrastructure of the community. Residents are recovering slowly, but the poor in particular are hampered by limited resources, relatively low educational levels, and generally a limited understanding of how government operates–let alone how it might help them recover.
FEMA provided temporary shelters that were later found to contain relatively high levels of formaldehyde, allergy causing sickness in some and at the very least causing a major political problem for national, state, and local leaders. Replacement housing needed to be found for the short term, and long-term housing was going to be a major challenge because many families in the community lacked insurance.
Parish leaders recently established a panel to discuss the housing situation and recovery efforts, and established for the first time in an interim position of fire marshal to help them assess the nature of the problems they would encounter as they tried to rebuild the community. The parish already has a part-time building official, who is experienced but lacks formal certification or training and tends to rely on his construction background rather than the code for making decisions. There are three parish fire departments, all of them predominantly volunteer organizations, with only two paid fire chiefs and three paid firefighters in the entire parish. They are not well paid, and they supplement their income with part-time jobs outside the fire service.
Recently, a fire in temporary housing killed one family and injured several others, including children of both Cajun and african american communities. The people in the community are angrily demanding that something be done soon to provide help. The local, state, and national media have developed and active interest in the story because of the FEMA controversy and he recent fire deaths.
Read the “Case Study,” in the back of chapter 11 and answer the following questions:
#7: Describes states’ roles in fire prevention and protection.
#8: Describe the difference between the impact of private sector organizations and that of governmental agencies on local fire prevention efforts.
Write the questions in bold and the answers in plain font.
Times New Roman
Double space
12 pt font
1-2 pages in length
NOTE: Cite the book/chapter read and If you use outside sources make sure that you cite using APA Format!
