About Statter911
OVERVIEW
Since May, 2007 STATter911.com has brought you fire & EMS news from the National Capital area, around the country and around the world. The website is published by former television and radio reporter Dave Statter, who, in his youth (a long, long time ago), was a firefighter, EMT, dispatcher and cardiac rescue technician. Dave spent 38 years in broadcasting in the Washington, DC area before retiring in June of 2010. Dave now runs STATter911 Communications, LLC.
STATter911 Communications, LLC
1405 Fern Street S. #124
Arlington, Virginia 22202
202 487 5678
dave@statter911.com
IMPORTANT NOTE FROM DAVE
When I left WUSA-TV in June 2010, I stopped my work as a reporter. While I always appreciate being kept in the loop and knowing about the inner workings and issues of various fire departments, the information you send or tell me, stops with me and will not be published on STATter911.com or relayed to other news organizations.
STATter911.com only posts, excerpts and links to items already in the news or in the public domain (such as YouTube videos). STATter911.com does not investigate or publish news tips or leaked information. In addition, the work I now do for various clients related to reputation management and media relations, along with the advertising money that I receive, would be considered a conflict of interest for a reporter. While I make great attempts to post news on the website in an unbiased fashion, STATter911 Communications, LLC does not routinely make public its list of clients.
DAVE’S BIO
Dave Statter joined WUSA-TV in Washington, DC as a general assignment reporter in August 1985. Since May of 2007 he has also edited the website STATter911.com. STATter 911 focuses on fire and EMS issues worldwide, with special attention to news and videos Dave generates from the Metropolitan Washington area.
Besides a career in broadcasting that began in 1972, Dave was a volunteer firefighter in Oxon Hill, MD from 1974 to 1980. Dave also worked as a dispatcher for the Prince George’s County, MD Fire Department from 1976 to 1979. In 1977 Dave was in the first group of Cardiac Rescue Technicians certified in Prince George’s County.
Dave, along with his wife Hillary Howard, an anchor at all-news WTOP Radio, annually host the satellite uplink from the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Memorial Weekend in Emmitsburg, MD. In 2007, STATter 911, in partnership with Firehouse.com, provided the first-ever live streaming of the events, allowing the important ceremonies to be seen around the world.
In his broadcast career, before coming to WUSA-TV, Dave worked at WTOP Radio where he was a news and traffic reporter. Prior to that he worked at a number of radio stations in Southern Maryland and in his home town of Baltimore.
In 1997, Dave was the first in the mainstream press to discover and report on the problems with “Omega” fire sprinklers. “Omega” sprinklers were eventually recalled by the CPSC.
The stories he is most proud of came under the banner “Get Out Alive”. From 1995 to 2001, WUSA-TV produced a series of reports and a half-hour special teaching people what to do in case of a fire in a single family home, a high-rise building, and a garden-style apartment. Those reports and the special have been shown to the public at fire prevention seminars around the country. Thousands of brochures have been handed out by firefighters throughout the region.
In 1993, Dave was named “Best Crime Reporter” by Washingtonian magazine. His still pictures of the arrest of James Edward Swann, the 1993 “Mount Pleasant Stalker,” were used by WUSA-TV and on the front pages of The Washington Post, The Washington Times and in papers around the country.
In 1991 Dave won an Emmy for Spot News Coverage of the Mount Pleasant Riot. Dave, with the late photographer Sheldon Levy, received a Gold Medal in the International Film and TV Festival of New York for his coverage of the dramatic rescue of a family from its burning Northeast Washington home in 1989.
In 1988, he and WUSA-TV photographer Mike Flynn recorded a DC ambulance searching for a location for 30 minutes. This coverage led The Washington Post to write a series of editorials on the subject, along with a greater examination of the local ambulance system.
In 1986, along with former WUSA-TV reporters Mike Buchanan and James Brown, Dave broke the story about the tragic death of college basketball star Len Bias, receiving a 1987 United Press International Broadcast Journalism Award and a Chesapeake Associated Press Broadcasters’ Association Award.
Dave’s coverage of the 1987 Amtrak derailment, which prompted drug testing of all future Amtrak employees, won a local Emmy and a 1988 Chesapeake AP Broadcasters’ Association Award. In 1989, Statter covered two nights of rioting in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Dave has extensive experience in hurricane coverage including reporting from Charleston, SC as hurricane Hugo made its direct hit on the city. In his spare time Dave also has spent many hours storm chasing in the Midwest and Great Plains.
His first live reporting assignment for WTOP Radio was covering the 1982 Air Florida disaster.
Dave and Hillary live in Northern Virginia with their son Sam.