re: #281 Bruce Rheinstein

Usually such estimates are made by police. In DC they used to be made by the Capitol Police, who are Federal.

Uh - no. The DC police work for the District of Columbia. The Federal employees you’re probably thinking of belong to the National Park Service.

If officials of the DC Fire Department are routinely doing this then they have an obligation to provide us with their methodology or data.

No, they aren’t. What planet are you posting from? If you’re interested, call ‘em up and ask ‘em how they arrived at their estimate - you’re claiming you’re nearby, so it won’t even cost you that much. Well, assuming you really are close by - thinking that the DC police are somehow Federal police is…well, silly. It’s like claiming that Marion Barry was a Federal employee.

Fire departments are charged with public safety, among their other tasks. I’m far more inclined to take their word on something like this than the word of some Ronulan sporting a tinfoil helmet.