A most bizarre story from the Nation's Capital: DC fire & police unions want investigation into personnel records dumped & burned at FD training academy.
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Read letter from Fraternal Order of Police Chairman Kristopher Baumann and D.C. Firefighters Association President Edward Smith to the Office of the Inspector General
Alan Suderman, Washington City Paper’s Loose Lips:
D.C. police and firefighters union officials are asking for an investigation into what they say was a giant blaze involving three dumpsters and an abandoned car’s worth of personnel records, including medical files containing private information.
In a letter sent to the Office of the Inspector General today, the heads of the two unions say that last Friday around 5 p.m., a D.C. fire engine company was dispatched to the city’s fire department training academy to put out three dumpster fires. After the firefighters started putting out the fires, they realized that some of the documents were personnel files of cops and firefighters, the letter says.
The letter continues: “In addition to the burning documents, there were unburned documents scattered on the ground throughout the training facility and unburned documents in an abandoned car. Members of FEMS were able to identify their own training and medical records in the documents in the abandoned car.”
Video & pictures on this page from IAFF Local 36.
Andrea Noble, The Washington Times:
The responding firefighters expressed their concerns to Deputy Fire Chief Michael Willis and took several pictures and videos to document the incident before leaving the scene. Some of the documents shown in the photos appear to be training academy documents from 1997.
At 11 p.m., firefighters were called back to the training academy to extinguish a fire in an abandoned car that was located next to the trash bins that earlier had been ablaze.
“In an apparent effort to assuage their concerns, they were told all of the documents on the ground had been picked up and placed in the car,” the union leaders wrote.
Liz Farmer, Washington Examiner:
A fire department spokesman said the matter “is currently under investigation.”
The documents, not all of which were successfully destroyed, contained private information such as medical records and Social Security numbers, the letter says.
The unions are asking Willoughby to investigate the incident on the grounds that the files may have been improperly handled, possibly violating personnel privacy. The letter also notes the fire could have destroyed “potential evidence.”
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