NIOSH has issued its report in the May 7, 2009 explosion at the Penn Mar Shopping Center in Prince George’s County, Maryland that left eight firefighters and a gas company employee injured. The blast, fueled by natural gas, was captured on a camera mounted on the dash of one of the rigs parked near Side A of the structure.
Here is an excerpt from the reports findings:
NIOSH investigators concluded that, to minimize the risk of similar occurrences, fire departments should
ensure that standard operating guidelines for natural gas leaks are understood and followed
contact utility companies (natural gas and electric) immediately to cut external supply/power to structures when gas leaks are suspected
ensure gas monitoring equipment is adequately maintained and fire fighters are routinely trained on proper use
ensure ventilation techniques are conducted after ignition sources are mitigated
ensure that rapid intervention teams are staged at the onset of an incident
ensure that collapse/explosion control zones are established when dealing with a potential explosion hazard
Although there is no evidence that the following recommendations would have prevented these injuries, they are being provided as a reminder of good safety practices.
provide manual personal alert safety system (PASS) or tracking devices to locate potentially missing fire fighters when SCBA are not utilized
ensure standard operating guidelines for communications are understood by dispatch
ensure adequate staffing for emergency medical services and rapid intervention teams (RITs)
ensure training is evaluated for rank and skill levels across the combination department personnel
Thirty pets die in house fire: This overnight fire is from a week ago in Lodi, New Jersey. The family escaped, but their reptiles, birds and cats didn’t. There is more video- Part 2, Part 3. Read more about the fire.
Oh, come on! My people at their worst: In my opinion Firegeezer Bill Schumm wasn’t worked up enough in his criticism of a TV reporter going after an EMS crew in Omaha, Nebraska. I would dub this “exclusive” story “trivial pursuit” or “Seinfeld’ (a show about nothing). The reporter’s investigative efforts came about because someone heard an 11-year-old boy’s voice come across an Omaha Fire Rescue frequency on the scanner in the newsroom. What was the shocking reason behind this incident worthy of multiple stories by the TV station and an internal investigation? The boy was riding with his sick grandmother to the hospital. Obviously scared, one of the crew members let Joey Roth get on the radio and provide the status of the unit, saying they were on the way to the hospital. It was an effort to calm the boy’s nerves that seemed to work. I hate to tell the reporter in Omaha this isn’t the same as the air traffic controller who put his son on the radio directing pilots during take offs and landings at one of the busiest airports in the country. Give the crew member a medal for innovative thinking and let’s move on. Here’s Bill’s original story and here’s an updated story with remarks from the union president.
My gut tells me this isn’t going to be one of the women who proposition him: Remember Chicago Fire Commissioner John Brooks and his most interesting quote when confronted by a reporter over a sexual harassment complaint?
“I have never sexually harassed any woman or man in my life. I do not proposition women. I don’t have to. Women usually proposition me. God has blessed me like that”.
The lady’s man has another woman after him. But she’s a former prosecutor at the state and federal level and associate circuit judge who has been appointed to look at the validity of the complaint against Brooks. Read the latest.
Fighting to get his job back in DeKalb County: Tony Motes was just a few months short of being eligible to retire as a fire captain in DeKalb County, Georgia. But Motes got fired first, along with four others over the botched call to help a woman whose house caught fire. In a hearing appealing his firing, Motes said 911 didn’t pass along all of the information. Here’s the latest on this story.
Federal court throws out firefighter’s suit over sign about mayor: You may recall the story from Edison, New Jersey about the firefighter (and son of the union president) who ended up with five days off because of a sign on his vehicle, parked on fire department property, saying Mayor Jun Choi lies (it was election season and Choi lost). A U.S. District Court judge has thrown out the suit Peter Yackel filed after he received a five-day suspension from Chief Norman Jensen. Read the details.
A real mess: In Florida, the Destin Fire Control District has fire commissioners pointing fingers at each other and one of them releasing very detailed information about test scores on promotion exams. The issue is how much “chief’s points” count in deciding who gets to be lieutenant and captain. Kim Brown, the commissioner who is pushing the issue, shot back at another commissioner , “I’m messing with morale? Do you know where the morale in this department is?” Here is more from theDestinlog.com.
A dozen firefighters arrested in less than 15 months: The Albuquerque Fire Department is dealing with the 12th arrest of a firefighter on alcohol related charges since the start of last year. Knowing they have a problem, the department just finished classes dealing with the issue. Here’s the story.
Handing out money in Georgia: Another hefty award in the latest in a series of sexual harassment lawsuits in Decatur County, Georgia. Read the story.
Early video from Missouri house fire: Unless you are into POV response videos you might want to scroll forward to about three minutes. At that point you will see a firefighter and police using a nearby ladder to help someone from the second floor of a burning home in West Plains. The fire is labeled as suspicious.The West Plains Fire Department has more than 100 photos from this fire on Friday. Click here.
Radio traffic from a hit and run with a Boston firefighter as the victim: FireSceneAudio.com has the radio transmissions after the driver of a Dodge Durango hit a firefighter from Ladder 23 who had responded to a medical call. The driver kept going. The firefighter’s injuries were not life threatening. Click here for the audio and here for details from Firefighter Close Calls.
Firefighters hurt in Alabama: Radio traffic and video from a duplex fire in Mobile where four firefighters were slightly hurt. Check it out.
Some must see video from 21-years-ago: A classic close call from Chicago. It was 1989 when three firefighters became trapped inside a building on S. Dearborn. Quite dramatic. Here it is.
Click the image from more pictures from The Herald's Andy Burriss of a fire on Tuesday in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Your moment of Firehouse Zen: Make sure you read what Mick Mayers has to say about some recent stories of firefighters behaving badly, the report from the Cumberland Valley Volunter Firemen’s Association and what chiefs should be taking away from all of this. Here it is.
Geezer on home builders: Bill puts on his legal hat (he just plays a lawyer on the Internet) to warn home builders in Pennsylvania that they might want to be careful about the arguments they are making in court to try and stop residential sprinklers. Click here.
Man claims discrimination on treatment following crash in blizzard: Spotsylvania County, Virginia officals say they are investigating Tim Johnson’s complaint that he was virtually ignored at a crash scene during one of last month’s snow storms. Johnson, who is black, believes he didn’t receive the same care that people in another car did. Dan Telvock has the story at Fredericksburg.com.
Judge believes union president & vice president fired for union activities: A judge isn’t buying that Angela Rice and Richard Nihizer were breaking any rules when they watched videos with violence and explicit language on a computer inside the firehouse in Butler Township, Ohio. It’s a story we first reported in January of 2008. Apparently no porn was involved and rulings indicate the there were no good guidelines on exactly what was allowed and what wasn’t. The pair have again been ordered reinstated. Here’s the latest.
Three (now four) firefighters were injured while fighting a fire at a duplex in Mobile just before 1930 hours last night. The firefighters were burned when the fire “flashed” as they were trying to exit the building. One firefighter went to the hospital with second degree burns on his thumb. Another firefighter has blistering on his arm and ears while a third was burned on his neck. None of the injuries were life-threatening.
This close call video from 1989 at 2600 S. Dearborn was posted yesterday to YouTube. It is one of the more dramatic videos around showing the rescue of three Chicago firefighters trapped inside the building.
The latest video from Gary, Indiana: This house fire was early Monday morning at 824 Van Buren.
Firefighter sets home on fire next door to firehouse. House owned by fellow firefighter who was asleep with his wife inside. Suspect in other fires: The way fire marshals tell it, 21-year-old Jesse Patrick Marcel, an on-call firefighter at the Little Caillou Fire Department in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, went back to sleep inside the firehouse after setting the shed next door on fire. He didn’t bother to alert Firefighter Whyley Pellegrin or his wife about the fire that spread from the shed to their house where they were inside asleep. When they awoke, Pellegrin ran next door and, with Marcel, began extinguishing the fire. Soon investigators discovered there was more to this story. Click here. Marcel is now a suspect in three other fires. Here’s that story.
A night time rescue of a man clinging to a rock in the rain swollen Rappahannock River. Lt. Mark Stone tells us the Stafford Fire & Rescue Department was joined by the Fredericksburg Fire Department in making the rescue around 9:45 PM after about an hour into the operation. A rope system and rescue swimmers were used to get the guy out from about 100 feet below the I-95 bridge. More later.
Daytona Beach says it is stopping automatic mutual aid: Saying the balance is unfair after a cut back in the number of county firefighters, Daytona Beach Fire Chief Gary Hughes says they will no longer automatically send firefighters outside of the city limits. Click here for the story.
The latest from the search in West Virginia: Crews continue to look for 32-year-old Donald Adkins of the Glasgow Volunteer Fire Department. Firefighter Adkins is presumed dead after a rescue boat capsized on Saturday. Click here for WSAZ-TV’s coverage with raw video from the latest briefing.
You weren’t going to pry it from his cold, dead hands: Thankfully it didn’t quite come to that in the Normans Kill River in Albany last week. Cold yes, but David Kelley was very much alive when rescued from the raging waters. Kelley had decided he wasn’t coming out without what brought him to the river in the first place: A new custom fly rod. Click here for the story, video and pictures.
Oh, looky! There’s a TV camera!: A man in Blount County, Tennessee probably shouldn’t have been looking at the news crew covering a rockslide. He probably should have been looking at what the TV camera was focused on. Click here for some must see video to get the full picture.
Mayor plans to close fire company to meet court order on minimum staffing: In Erie, Pennsylvania Mayor Joe Sinnott has told the fire chief to close a fire station within the next 30 days. The mayor says that is the only way to follow a judge’s order that they must live up to staffing requirements agreed to in its labor contract with firefighters. Here are the details.
A wannabe has his day in court: A judge in Michigan says a man who has been pretending to be a member of the Pinconning Fraser Fire Department must get mental health counseling. Scott Winchell claims to have a desire to help when he shows up at the scene in a car with flashing lights and wearing a fire department cap and sweatshirt. Read more.
I some how missed this one when it occurred last Wednesday. I guess I am not alone because I couldn’t find it on Firegeezer and some how Gary Sharp missed sucking this one up for FireSpecialOps.com. It’s about a man who has his priorities. His name is David Kelley.
Photo by Tom Heffernan, Sr./Special to the Times Union.
Kelley, 65, was determined to try out his brand new custom fly rod on the Normans Kill River in Albany, New York. So determined that he didn’t realize until it was too late that the river was just a little too much for him as he waded out into the middle. Lucky for Kelley, just as determined was Firefighter Keith Cipollo from the rescue squad at Albany’s Arbor Hill firehouse. Despite being in a heap of trouble, Kelley wasn’t about to let go of his brand new rod. Here’s how Paul Grondahl at TimesUnion.com described it:
According to witnesses, Kelley, who appeared to be middle-aged, was bent on testing out a new custom fly rod in advance of the April 1 start of trout season.
“I told him to drop the pole as I was trying to help him, but he wouldn’t,” Cipollo said. “He said he just got it.”
When the fisherman realized he was in trouble, he apparently called for help to people on shore.
He had enough sense to remain put instead of trying to wade across the treacherous, roiling whitewater.
“If he fell like I fell trying to get across, he would have been swept down the creek, and that was not a good move,” Cipollo said. “He was stuck there in a very precarious position.”
Firefighters, police and emergency rescue personnel from Albany, Bethlehem and Slingerlands used ropes and other equipment to get to Kelley. He managed to walk to safety, inching himself slowly along the rope. He got out on the Bethlehem side of the Normans Kill after getting in on the Albany side.
He never dropped his fly rod.
“He was very attached to that fishing pole,” Cipollo said.
I will let you be the judge of what Andy Edmonds had his head buried in. Edmonds didn’t get hit by the rockslide that blocked Highway 129 in Blount County, Tennessee. He hit the rocks.
People are always telling me how the media creates stories (including a comment that somehow we created the recent situation in Rockville, Maryland). In this case, I guess you can say it is partially true. Edmonds admits he was distracted by the TV camera and then things went terribly wrong.
That last phrase is one of those awful TV reporter clichés (the British version is “horribly wrong”). If you ever catch me saying that on TV just throw a shoe or something at me and tell me to go away.
Emily Cyr at wusa9.com found this story and since it wasn’t directly fire or EMS related was hesitant to put it in the STATter911.com video player (up and to the right). I told her it’s videos like this one that remind the people who read the blog that there will always be a need for what they do.
A Sunday morning rock slide in Blount County has shut down all lanes of a portion of Highway 129 known as “The Dragon.”
According to Yvette Martinez with the Tennessee Department of Transportation, the south and northbound lanes of U.S. 129/State Route 115 are closed.
The rock slide occurred two miles south of Chilhowee Dam.
Martinez said several large boulders fell from the mountainside around 9:30 a.m.
10 News photojournalist Jerry Owens was called to the rock slide just after it occurred. While he was shooting video of the slide, a car coming around a curve became distracted and did not notice the debris covering the roadway until it was too late.
“I didn’t even notice that rock fall right there,” said driver Andy Edmonds. “I’m lucky to have hit it in a way to not get too hurt. My dog here, she probably took a pretty good hit, but she’s alright.”
South St. Louis 2nd-alarm and mayday: This is from the night of March 8 at 2141 Russell Boulevard. Firefighters brought an elderly man and woman to safety from separate apartments. The Post-Dispatch reports the fire started in the basement and, “One firefighter needed the help of his partner when he became disoriented inside the building and his breathing unit began to run low on air”.
Suspensions lifted for 7 of 12 members of Rockville VFD: In case you haven’t checked in since our last Quick Takes, 12 members of the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department were suspended last week. Three 17-year-olds firefighters were arrested for an overnight visit to the logistics and supply building for Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service. Nine others, including more teenaged volunteers, are under investigation for a gathering at a closed party room at an apartment building across the street from Station 3. STATter911.com talked with Rockville VFD Chief Russell Dawson last night who explains why seven of his volunteers have been allowed to return to duty. Check out our interview.
NEW – Union says charges “trumped up”: There has been a mess brewing in Canandaigua, New York since the decision to cut back on the number of career firefighters. The latest problem is the suspension of two career firefighters over not taking command at a fire from a volunteer chief. Read the details on this issue and a few others.
Search to continue for West Virginia firefighter who went overboard: Click here to read the latest on the Kanawha County firefighter missing and presumed dead after a boat used in flood waters capsized. Watch the story here.
Hanging the mayor: Oh those funny firefighters. When the order came down to make sure Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton’s photo was on the wall inside city buildings, firefighters at Station 16 duly complied. But now an investigation is underway into who posted the picture next to photos of Osama bin Laden and Adolph Hitler. Read the details.
DC now requires supervisor involvement when a patient refuses transport: That’s the word from Chief Dennis Rubin at a hearing on Friday where he took responsibility for the errors surrounding the department’s interaction with a two-year-old child who died a day later at the hospital. The hearing brought out a woman telling a somewhat similar case involving her asthmatic son. Check it out.
Radio traffic from crash involving DC’s Rescue Squad 1: Three civilians were injured in the Friday morning collision. Click here.
Update on father & son chiefs who battled with other chief as son’s house burned: If you recall the strange story from Franklin Township, Pennsylvania where the dad, son and another firefighter were arrested, you will want to check the update.
Alabama fire engine hits utility pole: The driver was the only one on board when the rig was returning to the station in Meridianville. It ran off the road and hit a concrete utility pole. The firefighter was not seriously injured, but the fire engine is totaled. Read and watch the story here.
Errant fire hose was just one of the problems: When I first heard about a police officer being injured in Harper Woods, Michigan after firefighters lost control of a hose during training, I mentioned to a friend that my gut was telling me there was more to this story. Well, clearly there is. Check out the latest on the suspension of a fire captain.
Russell Dawson admits, “It has not been a pleasant time to be chief”. Chief Dawson and the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department heard twice in two days last week from the Rockville Police Department that firefighters were found in places where they shouldn’t have been.
The most serious incident was around 1:00 Friday morning at the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service logistics and supply building on Dover Road. Chief Dawson tells STATter911.com it was quite a shock to learn that three 17-year-old probationary members were arrested. They were charged with breaking into the building and attempting to steal firefighter gear.
Dawson is asking the public not to judge the more than 200 volunteer members of the department by “the actions of these three”. But two other members remain in hot water for an incident that happened earlier in the week.
Police were called Tuesday to a party room at the Fenestra Apartments across the street from the Station 3. Dawson says one of Rockville’s volunteer firefighters lives in the apartments and had been hosting get-togethers with fellow firefighters inside the room in recent months. According to Dawson, these events are done off-duty on the firefighters’ own time.
The chief says apartment management had recently started shutting the room down at 10:00 PM. The fire department’s investigation has determined that seven of the nine firefighters didn’t know about the new rules and that entry was made into the locked room before their arrival. The suspensions of the seven have been lifted.
Chief Dawson says the firefighter who lives in the building and another volunteer, who is believed to have forced open the locked door, are still facing a disciplinary hearing.
Chief Dawson is concerned because of incidents involving “a few rogue people” the public will get the wrong impression about the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department. He says the volunteers provided more than 140,000 hours of standby-duty last year ready to respond to emergencies.
A Harper Woods fire captain remains suspended while the city manager investigates two incidents, including one where the captain lost control of a fire hose that was being checked for trouble.
That incident caused a surge of water to break at least one window at the police station and glass to hit a police sergeant in the eye.
Capt. Michael Head was suspended this week. It was still being determined Friday how long he would be suspended and whether the suspension would be with or without pay, City Manager Jim Leidlein said.
The March 5 incident outside the police station and another alleged incident from that week in which Head had an altercation with police officers and others at a scene while on duty prompted the suspension. Leidlein said he is still gathering information and neither he nor Pat Rollison, president of the firefighters union, provided details about the second allegation.
In the fire hose matter, Rollison said, a pump on one of the engines was not working properly, and Head and other firefighters were testing it outside the fire/police station. He said a sudden unexpected surge of water knocked Head backward into another fire truck.
Leidlein said Head lost control of the hose, which caused the water to hit the police windows, which were slightly open. Broken glass from one window hit the eye of the sergeant, who was sitting nearby. The sergeant, who was not identified, was treated and has returned to work.
After the incident, Rollison said, the sergeant yelled and swore at Head, provoking a verbal exchange. Leidlein said no cops have been suspended.
Rollison said the union expects Head will be cleared of wrongdoing and return to work shortly.
At least four buildings, including the historic Manchester Inn, have been reduced to charred rubble and three others damaged by a wind-swept fire in Ocean Grove early Saturday morning.
From APP.com. Click the image for more pictures.
Dozens of firefighters battled the blaze, which began about 5 a.m. at the Manchester at 25 Ocean Pathway, said Michael Bascom, deputy emergency coordinator for Neptune Township.
Five homes facing Ocean Pathway and two facing Bath Avenue, which borders the block to the north, eventually caught fire. Several of the homes that burned were occupied, Bascom said, but residents were safely evacuated and none were injured. Two firefighters were treated for minor injuries, he said.
“When we arrived scene in very heavy wind, the Manchester and the house just west of it were fully involved,” Bascom said.
Soon, he said, five more buildings had caught fire as powerful winds blew flames and glowing embers into other buildings.
Such a wind-fueled blaze “is our biggest fear in Ocean Grove,” Bascom said.
“Our greatest fear was that we’d lose the Camp Meeting Association and all the tents,” which lie just one block west, he said. “We had embers shooting over great distances.”
But firefighters were able to contain the fire to a single block. But not without injuries.
Fire officials have reported two injuries, a male firefighter from the Ocean Grove fire department has suffered smoke inhalation and particles in his eyes. A female member of the Neptune First Aid squad complained of stomach pains at the scene.
Emergency crews evacuated dozens of structures, up to 20 people from the burning structures and nearby buildings.
Fire officials said there are no fatalities and believe they have accounted for everyone.
However, officials for the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office say officials are checking tax records and calling owners of the various properties to make certain no one is missing.
Fire officials say they are still working to determine what caused the blaze.
Four hours after the initial 911 call, more than a dozen fire trucks still surrounded the block. A web of hoses sprayed water on the smoking ruins as firefighters continued to watch and fight the flames from the ground, from balconies and from a ladder truck.
Ten families were left homeless today after an early morning fire broke out at an apartment complex off Old Nyack Turnpike across the street from where fire damaged a separate house the night before.
Investigators don’t know if the two fires are connected.
Three firefighters were injured battling the blaze today at Sleepy Hollow Gardens apartment on Lunney Court.
The fire apparently started in Apartment 34 sometime after 6 a.m. It spread to the attic and then to adjacent units, Spring Valley fire Chief Ken Sohlman said.
Michael Choinski, 16, who lives in the apartment next door to where the fire broke out, said his mother was awakened by the sound of windows shattering from the fire. Choinski helped get his family out of the building and then ran to the other apartments in the building.
“I was banging on the doors — telling everyone to get out,” he said.
All residents, including the women and her three young daughters who lived in the unit where the fire started, were out of the building by the time firefighters arrived.
It took firefighters about an hour to bring the fire under control. Firefighters from Spring Valley, Hillcrest, Monsey and Tallman were at the scene along with Spring Hill and Ramapo Valley ambulance corps.
Thursday night, Spring Valley firefighters were called to a single-family house at 123 Old Nyack Turnpike, directly across the street from the Sleepy Hollow Gardens apartments, shortly after 9:30.
It took them nearly two hours to put out the fire, which caused extensive damage to the house. No one was injured.
Investigators are trying to determine what caused both fires.
The Red Cross was being asked to help residents relocate.
A Kanawha County firefighter was lost and presumed dead in Raleigh County overnight, after the boat he was in capsized.
The firefighter, whose name was not released Saturday morning, was in the Bradley area on a rescue mission when a boat that he and several other firefighters were in turned over.
“It appears that he was lost when his boat capsized,” Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said Saturday morning. “They are hoping they can find him. We’ve got a Blackhawk helicopter, other people from Kanawha County, the National Guard … they’re all out there looking.”
The other firefighters who were in the boat are OK, he said.
Monica Bowens stood in the cold with tears in her eyes, hugging herself and watching her family’s apartment building and all the family’s possessions burn.
“The most important thing is that we are here, but we have nothing,” the 39-year-old said Thursday evening, shaking her head.
She and her three children were among the 12 families – 48 people – left without a home by the four-alarm fire that started around 4:30 p.m.
The blaze started on the rear porches of 66 Elliott Ave. and spread to the roof, Yonkers Fire Commissioner Anthony Pagano said at the scene.
“There were no reported injuries and no one was reported missing,” Pagano said. “There were people who were trapped inside, but they were brought out.”
As clouds of black smoke blew down the street, people watched, took pictures with cameras and cell phones, cried and prayed.
Some of the displaced residents said they heard that the fire started after a group of children set a cat on fire.
“I heard that too,” Bowens said. “But, I don’t know.”
A fire official said Thursday night that the cause was not yet known.
Bowens said she was lying down when a friend told her that there was a fire in the building. She said she had tried to go out the back door, but her nephew told her it was a “serious fire.”
An alarm activation around 1:00 this morning sent police in Rockville to the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service logistics and supply building at 701-C Dover Road. Assistant Chief Scott Graham, a department spokesman, says three 17-year-old firefighters from the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department were caught in the act of stealing equipment. Their names have not been released, but all three have been charged with theft and illegal entry by officers from the Rockville City Police Department.
The three are assigned to Station 3 at 380 Hungerford Drive and have now been suspended from the department. Sources indicate police are investigating the possibility the teens were able to get a key from a Knox Box to enter the building. The sources, who are not authorized to speak on this matter, said the firefighters had gathered up Halligan bars and personal protective gear. Officials have not indicating why the young firefighters wanted the equipment.
The arrests came two days after nine other members of Station 3 were suspended when police discovered them inside a locked community room at the Fenestra Apartments at 20 Maryland Avenue. The apartments are across the street from Station 3. No charges have been filed in that case.
Sources indicate that firefighters had been allowed access to the room in recent weeks, but on Tuesday evening a door had been forced to gain entry. The room has a pool table and other amenities. Sources indicate there had been alcohol use. Some of the volunteer firefighters discovered by police are under 21 years of age. The sources also say others, besides firefighters, were in the party room.
Eric Bernard, the president of the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department, referred STATter911.com to Assistant Chief Graham for comments about the two incidents.
Graham said, “Whenever such incidents occur, whether it involves career or volunteer personal, it leaves a black eye on the fire service as a whole. We take this very seriously and are disappointed in the actions and behavior of the personnel involved.”
Asked about the supervision of teenaged firefighters, Chief Graham said they are properly supervised when inside the fire station and involved in other fire department sanctioned activities.
Three people were seriously hurt after a crash involving Rescue Squad 1 at 14th Street and Constitution Ave in Northwest Washington.
DC Fire & EMS Department spokesman Pete Piringer says the crew was responding to a report of a fire at a library at George Washington University when it was involved in a crash with two other vehicles around 7:30 AM today. Three people in the two cars were taken to a hospital with serious injuries. No firefighters were hurt.
The fire at the library ended up being a small fire in the heating and air conditioning system. Piringer says it was quickly contained.
DC Fire & EMS Department Chief Dennis Rubin testified Friday before the DC City Council’s Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary. This was a scheduled oversight hearing. It included discussion of the recent death of two-year-old Stephanie Stephens. A criminal investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Branch is determining if there was criminal neglect by a senior paramedic when the decision was made not to take the little girl to the hospital after her mother’s initial call to 911 in the middle of a blizzard on February 10.
Kenneth Lyons, president of AFGE Local 3721 representing civilian EMS workers, gave indication to reporters that the transport decision was a mutual one between Stephens’ mother and the paramedic. Numerous sources have confirmed the medic failed to get a signed release or fill out an electronic patient care report after the response.
In his opening remarks at the hearing Chief Rubin said, “The department is revising our non-transport policy to include the addition of a mandatory supervisory verification that assures all patient protocols were followed prior to the unit leaving the scene.”
On numerous occasions during the hearing Chief Rubin took full responsibility for the failures in the Stephens case. Here is an excerpt from his prepared testimony:
Before I begin, I must offer my most sincere and heartfelt apology to the parents and family of Stephanie Stephens for her death. I am the father of three children and grandfather of one and I cannot begin to imagine how I would feel if placed in the same position. I can only say that I was profoundly shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the circumstances of this case and since learning of them I have devoted almost all of my time to investigating and reviewing this Department’s actions. My heart goes out to the parents and family of this little child and if there was anything I could do to change what occurred, I would act immediately to make it happen. That said, and as the Fire and EMS Chief for the District of Columbia, I must accept responsibility for the actions of our employees. Public responsibility for failure in this case will be mine and mine alone and I do not intend to share this responsibility with others. Good leadership begins and ends at the top and I can only hope that my testimony today will reassure this community that the emergency medical services system in the District of Columbia is not broken and does not suffer from a lack of sound judgment and responsible actions by the vast majority of our employees.
Here’s more on the hearing from 9NEWS NOW’s Audrey Barnes:
A day after DC police launched a criminal investigation into a decision by a senior paramedic not to transport a child who later died, Fire Chief Dennis Rubin was summoned to a council hearing to explain some recent department missteps.
Like the case of Stephanie Thomas, who testified that she called paramedics to her home last spring when her nine-year-old asthmatic son was having chest pains and trouble breathing.
“I requested transport to Children’s Hospital,” Thomas says. “The paramedic told me that wasn’t necessary, to put him in the shower with some steam, and if I needed them later, call back.”
Within an hour, she says her son’s condition worsened, so she drove him to the hospital herself. The first question she was asked was, “Why did I take so long to bring him in?”
Thomas’ son survived. The case is eerily similar to that of Stephanie Stephens, who died the day after one crew refused to take her to the hospital to treat her breathing difficulty, and suggested steam as a treatment.
“The buck stops with Chief Rubin,” the head of Local 3721 Kenneth Lyons says. “He knew about these other cases and tried to cover them up, blaming it on semantics, while families grieve.”
Rubin says he accepts the blame and will investigate the Thomas case. He says he just learned about it.
“We will get to the bottom of this,” Rubin says. “We’ll get it resolved.”
The council’s oversight committee expects to release its findings soon.
Vacant car dealership burns, firefighter hurt: The firefighter hurt his knee helping homeless squatters get out of this vacant building in Vallejo, California yesterday morning. The fire went to three-alarms. Read the details.
NEW – DC Rescue Squad 1 involved in serious collision: On the way to a reported of a building fire in Northwest Washington, DC Fire & EMS Department Rescue Squad 1 collided with a vehicle that then hit another vehicle. It happened just after 7:30 this morning at 14th and Constitution, NW. Spokesman Pete Piringer says three civlians were hurt, listed as traumas by mechanism. No firefighters were injured. We will have more later.
Was paramedic criminally negligent?: That’s the question the Special Victim’s Unit of the Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Branch has been charged with determining following the death of two-year-old Stephanie Stephens. The mayor, fire chief, police chief and attorney general of the District of Columbia contend there is enough information about the actions of the paramedic in charge when the decision was made on the initial 911 call not to transport the little girl that detectives specializing in the deaths of children need to take a closer look. Here’s the story.
DC’s former fire chief now says fire & EMS should be separated: Former DC Fire & EMS Department Chief Adrian Thompson now believes EMS in the District of Columbia should be a third service. Thompson tells Matt Cella of The Washington Times, “It’s not working. It’s a cultural issue. They’re not going to change the culture of this department.” Here are more excerpts-
The former chief, who is black, said white firefighters with generational ties to the department largely have been less accepting of the job’s evolving responsibilities, particularly an increased emphasis in recent decades on providing pre-hospital care.
“They want to be firefighters and firefighters only,” he said, adding that black firefighters have entered the department in significant numbers in only the past 20 or 30 years and largely have been more open to other responsibilities if it meant securing a job.
Deputy Chief Kenneth Crosswhite, a spokesman for Chief Dennis L. Rubin, who is white, called Mr. Thompson’s conclusions “totally ludicrous.” He estimated that the department has about 45 percent non-minority employees and 55 percent minority employees.
“For someone to make an assertion like that is totally, totally out of touch with today’s reality,” he said. “Leadership starts at the top. If he had that notion during his tenure, he should have solved the problem.”
Chief Thompson was in charge of the department in January, 2006 when former New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum was murdered. Thompson initially told reporters that his review of the case found no problems in the care provided to the dying man. An inspector general’s report discovered many issues in how first responders and Howard University Hospital dealt with Rosenbaum.
Life sentence for man who killed Delaware’s Michelle Smith: Joseph Taye was give his sentence yesterday for running down Firefighter Smith as she tended to the victim of a motorcycle crash near the Wilmington airport. Taye, a paraplegic, apologized in court for the harm he has done. Click here for the story.
Black firefighters talk about race relations in Chicago: As the Supreme Court deals with a case that hinges on hiring practices, some firefighters give their views on the state of race relations in the Chicago Fire Department. Click here and here.
Late assault report between firefighters in North Carolina: In Elon a fire captain is accused of assaulting a firefighter who was welding at the firehouse after some initial horseplay over keys. Here are the details.
The Metropolitan Police Department is now handling the investigation of a paramedic who was in charge of the care for two-year-old Stephanie Stephens when a decision was made not to take the little girl to the hospital in the early morning hours of February 10th. A second crew transported Stephens to Children’s National Medical Center about nine-hours later. She died the next day at the hospital. Her family says the girl had pneumonia.
Officials have not said why the girl wasn’t taken to the hospital after the first call, but Mayor Adrian Fenty, flanked by his attorney general, police chief and fire chief said at a press conference there is enough concern that a criminal review of the unidentified veteran paramedic’s actions is warranted. Police Chief Cathy Lanier says that investigation will be handled by the homicide detectives in the Special Victim’s Unit. Lanier says the detectives specialize in dealing with the deaths of children.
The family of the girl has indicated an EMS crew member pointed out the difficulty of traveling on snow clogged streets in the middle of the second of two back-to-back blizzards to hit Washington.
Sources have indicated the paramedic crew failed to get a signed release from the girl’s mother or fill out an electronic patient care report. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin indicated there is a specific protocol on handling an incident where the patient is not transported to the hospital.
Attorney General Peter Nickles says the criminal review only involves the paramedic and not the EMT who was her partner on the call.
In today’s Washington Post an editorial is critical of the progress made by the city since the death of former New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum in 2006. It echoes a recent letter to the editor by a top doctor at Children’s National Medical Center.
When asked about such criticism, Mayor Adrian Fenty points to the more than 140,000 EMS calls in the city that are handled without incident. When asked by a reporter, Fenty says he has full confidence in Dennis Rubin who is about to celebrate his third year as chief.
Investigation into why firefighters couldn’t reach woman in time who was on phone with 911: A tragic story from Spotsylvania County, Virginia. A 911 call taker listened to Sandy Hill’s last breaths as firefighters tried desperately to find her on the second floor of the burning Cape Cod. By the time they get to the woman it was too late. STATter911.com/9NEWS NOW had filed a FOIA for the fireground & 911 audio in this case, but we were scooped by the local paper. The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star’s Dan Telvock takes a close look at this story and has the recordings. Click here.
DC crew received disciplinary action after failing to take woman to the hospital: This is a case from December with strong parallels to the investigation on-going into the death of a two-year-old girl during the second blizzard in February. In both cases it took a second 911 call to get a ride to the hospital. And in both cases the initial crews failed to get a signed release or file a patient care report. Click here for our coverage.
Five firefighters injured in Brooklyn fire: Five firefighters were hurt around 4:00 this morning battling a fire on Concord Street. Two are reported to be in serious condition, but the injuries aren’t considered life-threatening. Here’s more from WCBS-TV.
Driven to distraction: Back in the day I used to find it a challenge when going driver only to a call, keeping the hands on the steering wheel, shifting gears, talking on the radio and blowing the siren. Now you have computers, GPS and other electronics to distract you in the front seat of an emergency vehicle. The New York Times looks at the growing concern that first responders may be distracted by all these bells and whistles. Check out the article.
Fiery multiple-vehicle crash on the highway: Firegeezer has the story and video from Indianapolis. Click here.
Another blue light special: In Martinsville, Indiana a volunteer firefighter didn’t like the way a woman was driving. He pulled her over and yelled at her. His blue light is now history for six-months. Read more.
Firefighter is canned after two women come to blows: The two women squared off after a city council meeting in Johnston City, Illinois where layoffs and pay cuts were dealt with. A man, who is a firefighter and part-time dispatcher, says he was fired because of the fight. Click here for the story.
Drawbridge rescue: Raw video from yesterday’s rescue of four workers in Pompano Beach, Florida. Check it out.
Houston considers furloughs: Houston’s mayor is the latest big city officials to talk about furloughs for fire and police to help balance the budget. Read more.
An investigation is underway after firefighters in Spotsylvania County, Virginia failed to find a woman who was on the phone, trapped in her house, while firefighters were inside searching. It apparently took repeated attempts and more than 20 minutes before firefighters finally found 43-year-old Sandy Hill on February 5.
Firefighters were able to rescue another person trapped in the fire. According to Dan Telvock with the Frederickburg Free Lance-Star, Hill was on the second floor of the 2000 square foor, four bedroom, Cape Cod. The paper has the fireground audio, audio of part of Sandy Hill’s conversation with 911 and transcripts of her calls.
Carl Maurice, a Spotsylvania resident who spent 32 years with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, is the only expert who listened to the recordings and also viewed the exterior of the house.
“If someone presented this scenario to me in theory, I would have expected the victim to survive,” Maurice said. “The question everyone has to ask is ‘Why didn’t she?’”
Kevin Dillard, the administrative chief and spokesman of Chancellor Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, initially sent an e-mail a few hours after the fire praising the 45 volunteers involved for an “awesome job.”
But this week, after learning more about the response, Dillard said he thinks an investigation is warranted.
Dillard said he knew few details when he sent the e-mail. Only after after some volunteers criticized the response two weeks ago did he begin to realize “serious” problems related to the response, he said.
For example, thermal imaging cameras that could have helped locate Hill and the teenager were available at the scene but were not used.
Dillard said a ladder was never deployed to Hill’s bedroom windows, and the crews seemed to be confused with the layout of the house and where Hill was trapped.
Dillard said ventilating the house to remove smoke came late in the process because there was a delay in announcing that the fire had been extinguished.
This incident seems to have a lot of similarities to a fire in Fairfax County in May, 2007 where firefighters were unable to find 49-year-old Debra Chiles on the top floor of her small townhouse. Chiles was in the bathroom on the phone with 911 as firefighters pulled up to battle a kitchen fire. The acting chief of the department admitted at the time that Chiles should have been found.
Click here, here and here for previous coverage of Stephanie Stephens case
DC Fire & EMS Department officials confirm an EMS crew has been disciplined for failing to take a woman with trouble breathing to the hospital after she called 911 on December 22. Kimberly Kelsey of the 900 block of Rhode Island Avenue, NW was transported to a hospital only after she called 911 a second time, about 56 minutes after her first call.
According to Kelsey, crews from a paramedic engine company and an ambulance refused to take her to the hospital because they determined she was not symptomatic.
On the second response, a paramedic supervisor treated Kelsey for her chronic asthma and accompanied the woman to Georgetown University Hospital. Kesley says she was put into the intensive care unit and spent a week at the hospital.
Department spokesman Pete Piringer confirms that supervisor immediately followed up on Kimberly Kelsey’s complaint. According to Piringer, the supervisor counseled the crew and disciplinary action was taken.
Piringer also confirms there was no patient care report filled out on the initial response.
This incident has parallels to the case of 2-year-old Stephanie Stephens who died on February 11 at Children’s National Medical Center. An investigation is still underway into why a medic crew did not transport Stephens to a hospital after her mother’s first call to 911 a day earlier. It was about nine hours later that a second call to 911 resulted in the little girl being taken to the hospital by paramedics.
The call to the little girl’s apartment occurred in the middle of the second of back-to-back blizzards in Washington. Stephens’ family said the girl died of pneumonia.
A paramedic and EMT have been removed from field operations while the probe continues. Numerous sources confirm, like the December case, the EMS crew failed to fill out a patient care report or get a signed release from the girl’s mother.
STATter911.com has been provided internal department emails showing regular notifications to supervisors about missing electronic patient care reports. The emails from January and November each show at least 30 missing reports. The department has not been able to tell us the percentage of reports that are missing because of technical issues versus those that first responders failed to submit.
Four workers are safe after being trapped on a drawbridge stuck in the up position Wednesday morning.
Broward Sheriff’s Office rescuers saved the workers from the bridge in the 2900 block of east Atlantic Boulevard.
City spokeswoman Sandra King said hydraulics failed on a bridge under reconstruction, causing it to rise while Department of Transportation workers were still on it.
Three workers were harnessed and brought down easily, but a fourth was left trapped in the air over the Intracoastal Waterway.
One of the more interesting videos I have seen recently: Have to give Jason Thomas at Firefighter Spot credit for finding this. The photographer springs into action and moves a police car blocking the way as firefighters in Maple Shade, New Jersey pull up to a motel fire on Sunday. In Part 2 you will see where the cops were. Check out the third floor as they break out windows, apparently looking for victims.
A top doc socks it to DC Fire & EMS over child death: It is only two paragraphs long, but Monday’s letter to the editor in the Washington Post from Dr. Joseph Wright packs a wallop. You will want to take a look at the doctor’s credentials in the field of pediatric emergency medicine as it relates to EMS. Dr. Wright not only questions what happened in the recent death of 2-year-old Stephanie Stephens, he is critical of how the system generally provides pediatric pre-hospital care. The DC Fire & EMS Department stands on its record of improvements since Mayor Adrian Fenty’s task force provided an outline for the future of EMS following the 2006 death of former New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum. Dr. Wright looked at Stephens’ death as a “pediatric Rosenbaum”. Click here for our coverage.
Long Island fire chief & FDNY member accused of “vigilante” justice: Hempstead Fire Department Chief Michael Charles. who is a retired NYPD detective, and FDNY’s Brian Schuck from Ladder 111, are accused of stopping and searching a pedestrian at gun point and then letting them go. The men were in the fire SUV. The incident happened after shots rang out near the Hempstead firehouse. Schuck has been suspended without pay. Read and watch the story and here.
Pay attention to this report and you can get rid of STATter911.com: The Cumberland Valley Volunteer Firemen’s Association is trying to put this blog out of business and I am helping them. It is called reputation management and the CVVFA folks put together a special report on how some firefighters are tarnishing the image of the fire service. They even asked me to give them some insight on the awful stories I cover. Forget my role and just read the document. Here it is.
Speaking of reputations – it doesn’t look like Chicago’s mayor is ready to help salvage the fire commissioner’s image: The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting Mayor Richard Daley “conspicuously refused today to give embattled Fire Commissioner John Brooks a vote of confidence”. Brooks, accused of sexual harassment, made this memorable statement to the Sun-Times:
I do not proposition women. I don’t have to. Women usually proposition me. God has blessed me like that.
Los Angeles City Council has second thoughts on cutting ambulance service to save money: The plan is to stop using 10 of the department’s ambulances during night time hours. But after hearing testimony the council is getting cold feet. Here is the story.
Smoking ban for new firefighters rejected: In Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin the police and fire commission is bucking the trend and said no to a new tobacco free policy for newly hired firefighters. Check out the story.
Exploding cell phone: It wasn’t even plugged in, according to a family and firefighters in Seffner, Florida. Here’s the story.
Fire chief lays down the law over convicted arsonist/bomber: Read the story from North Haledon, New Jersey about a convicted arsonist/bomber who was participating in fire department activities.
Fire chief lays down the law over accidental fire: Actually that’s this chief’s name, Jonathan Law. He’s the chief of Oklahoma’s Nescatunga Fire Department. Chief Law told the Alva Review/Courier, “I will not stand for such kinds of incidents” after a firefighter accidentally started a small grass fire. Here’s the story.
The Fire Critic has lost his mind: Where The Fire PIO yesterday had one of the more interesting blog postings I have seen in a while, our friend in Roanoke has gone far in the other direction. There will be nothing socially redeeming in Rhett’s Top Ten Best/Funniest Firefighter Dance Videos, but I am sure you will get a few laughs. That also pretty much describes my first encounter with Rhett at the blogger meetup on Friday. Click here to see what I am talking about.
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