The Toledo Fire Department issued a brief report after investigating how a January 13 fire in an apartment building was handled. The report was ordered following the discovery of the body of 35-year-old Delano Fleming after the 12-unit building was demolished. The fire was reported at 3:45 AM at 3125 Meadowbrook Court.
According to the report, the fire started on the second floor and was rapidly extending to the third floor and attic. Firefighters rescued four children and an adult from the second floor and conducted a "high risk search" of the third floor without water. An adult on the third floor was also brought out safely.
A first floor search had not been completed when the order to evacuate came at 4:07. Left unchecked were apartment 37 and apartment 38, where Fleming lived. Firefighters were given indication by neighbors that everyone was accounted for but went back into the building after new information was received. Details from the Toledo Blade:
While the building was still burning, crews were told that “someone may be in the apartment on the left,” which was apartment 37.
Two firefighters and the on-scene commander went into the building to search 37. One firefighter went into 38 — which had an open door, the report states.
“It was dark and he [the firefighter] felt some heat in the hall near the bedrooms. He was unable to see any furniture from his position due to the darkness,” the report, prepared by Deputy Chief Gary Martin, states. “He did not search the apartment because of the belief that everyone was accounted for and they were inside to check apartment 37.”
“At that time, we still didn’t have any information that anyone else was missing, other than to go back after they were pulled out to check 37,” said Lieutenant Hertzfeld.
Jason Low, STATter911.com reader and a firefighter at Redwood Meadows Emergency Services in for Redwood Meadows Emergency Services in Alberta, Canada sent us this information about a fire last night at a service station:
Redwood Meadows Emergency Services (RMES) along with mutual aid partners from Cochrane, Springbank, Elbow Valley, Priddis, Madden, and Langdon all worked together to extinguish a gas/service station that caught fire at 8:20pm MST Monday night. Initial reports are that a car being worked on inside the service bays contained gasoline fumes which were ignited by the overhead heater. One person sustained minor injuries.
Bragg Creek's commercial district is comprised largely of unsprinklered wooden structures. The fact that this was held to the building of origin and did not spread to the very close by strip shopping mall and another gas station can be directly attributed to effective water (tanker) shuttles and frequent pre-plan/table-top exercises by RMES.
A Bragg Creek gas station has been destroyed by a gas-fed fire, despite desperate attempts by fire crews to contain the blaze.
Firefighters spent hours battling an inferno Monday night, sparked inside a garage at the Bragg Creek Husky station on the corner of Highway 22 and Highway 22X.
Residents reported that gas inside the southwest station ignited sometime after 8 p.m.
Rob Evans, deputy fire chief with Redwood Meadows, said the blaze could have been far worse.
“Crews did a great job of saving it from going into the newer mall in Bragg Creek, as well as the old mall, “ he said.
Propane tanks in a cage outside of the gas station were whistling, said Evans — venting and ready to blow.
Evans said the preliminary cause of the fire is gasoline vapours from a vehicle being worked on in the shop at the time, ignited by a unit heater in the ceiling.
This video was uploaded to YouTube in September. Judging by the low number of views it has received, it must have not been noticed by the fire service media (that would include the editor of this site). One of our loyal readers pointed it out to us yesterday.
It is from a fire last February 4 at a home on Sixth Avenue in New Hyde Park, New York (Nassau County). Six firefighters were hurt and one of them, Firefighter Max Devane, had to be rescued from the basement. The firefighter is removed from the home at 6:40 in the video above.
Nassau County Fire Marshal Vincent McManus says two of the firefighters were in serious condition, while the other four were treated at area hospitals and released.
McManus says the firefighters were carrying a hose into the basement of the home when a sudden eruption of flames knocked them over.
Three of the firefighters immediately escaped up the stairs. One climbed out a basement window and the most seriously injured was rescued by colleagues.
Max required five weeks of hospitalization and rehabilitation to recover from his injuries and is continuing his recovery at home. Max was forced to withdraw from his college classes and has missed an entire semester of school due to his hospitalization and ongoing recovery.
Also hospitalized after the fire was Firefighter Sean Carton.
"We take what we learn and try to not let it happen again," he said. "Hopefully our guys learned a lesson from that."
The fire department took suggestions from a state inquiry conducted on the basement fire and has instituted new procedures to deal with such situations, Willers said.
Below is additional video shot after Firefighter Devane was removed.
Since we first reported the story on Sunday about a Nova Scotia man who was fatally injured in a skiing accident at Sugarloaf Ski Resort in Maine last week, like me, many of you have been waiting to hear the other side of the story. Some key information has been missing and it's possible some of those answers may come today.
So far, we only know the details provided by David Morse's widow Dana, a nurse practitioner, who says paramedics left her on the side of the road when she asked to be allowed in the patient compartment for what she believed were her husband's dying moments. In addition, Dana Morse has strongly criticized the care provided by the ambulance crew.
Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington, Maine, which runs Northstar Ambulance service, indicated it did not know about Dana Morse's complaint when contacted by the Chronicle Herald last weekend. Since then, the hospital has not been doing itself any favors by not releasing any information about the incident.
While determining the level and quality of care provided to the patient may take some time, it seems the key point of the story that has made it newsworthy, whether Dana Morse was abandoned by the side of the road, should be an easy one to figure out, along with any explanation for those actions.
Rather than provide those answers in a timely fashion, the hospital and ambulance service have stretched this reputation issue into a whole week of news stories. OnlineSentinel.com reports the wait for the rest of the story may end today after Jill Gray, community relations manager for Franklin Memorial Hospital, indicated there could be a statement released about the internal review.
Among the stories this week are the one above from NECN where the reporter talked by phone to Dana Morse's sister.
Dana Morse told the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday she believes an investigation into the handling of her husband’s case will reveal it was even worse than depicted in The Chronicle Herald story, which she said was otherwise “completely accurate.”
“I will file a formal complaint to ensure the details are available for their investigation, as the printed details in The Chronicle Herald are not even touching the surface,” she wrote to the BDN in an email, adding, “I will not provide further comments [as] my focus is my boys.”
"We’ve got to get down to the facts about what happened,” Varone told the BDN in a Wednesday evening telephone interview. “Did the transporting EMS unit en route to a hospital leave a patient’s family member by the side of the road? If that did happen, what were the grounds? As a fire service leader, I’m struggling to come up with grounds to justify that. I’m not saying they didn’t have grounds, but we’d need to know what those grounds were.”
Varone said before the public knows what the hospital’s internal review finds, “it’s not helpful to speculate.” But he said it will be important for the hospital to release its findings openly, a step medical facilities are not often required to take.
“This is something that has captured the public’s attention, and the hospital, just like any other entity, has an obligation to tell the public, ‘This is what happened — we did an investigation and, you might not like what happened, but here are the results,’” Varone said.
Excellent points, as always, by Curt. In fact, a good way to stop that speculating would have been for the hospital to provide the key facts well before now. If it is bad news for the hospital and the ambulance service, delaying the inevitable is just making it worse. If the hospital has a defensible position, they have lost a lot of opportunities to share it and possibly prevent further erosion of the ambulance service's reputation.
Those who think that just by saying "it's under investigation", or the old standby, "we can't talk because it's a personnel matter", are enough to quiet things down and give you time, can just look at this story to see what really happens. Not talking usually does little to solve a serious image problem like this one.
In addition, Curt made a good point to the Bangor Daily News, that echoes something I said in the comments section following our original post last weekend:
“How could a couple of medics have gone through this ordeal — especially if it happened the way the widow said it happened — and not report it to their supervisors?”
An early warning system, especially with bad news traveling at the speed of light in the digital age, is crucial to dealing with reputation issues. When those in charge and those responsible for addressing the press and the public have to find out the potentially bad news first from a reporter, responding properly and promptly will be even more difficult.
Stuff happens. Make sure your people know that keeping it a secret will always make things much worse.
In Cornwall, New York (Orange County) firefighters are still dealing with a fire at a former mill that came in just before 11:00 this morning. Here are all eight parts from Paul Anderson's video (bmxking1504 on YouTube). The still frames below are from Anderson's video and show the fire's spread. The top one is what it looked like when he arrived and below it is how it appeared at the end of Part 4 (not yet sure of the time interval).
In the audio above the first unit went on the scene with "fire showing all over". At 3:47 Cornwall 1 advises, "This is going to be an exterior attack. Nobody in this building."
At 16:45 the announcement is made again that this is an exterior operation. At 17:20 there are a series of messages from command telling units to get off the roof and indications from command that those orders are not be followed fast enough.
At 27:00 command becomes aware there are other firefighters operating on the interior and again orders everyone out of the building.
At 28:45 command is told that there are eight firefighters operating in the building and the roof is about to collapse. Command orders again that this is a defensive operation and tells units to sound their air horns.
There is a significant collapse at 1:15 on Part 5.
A 911 call reporting the fire on Mill Street came in shortly before 11 a.m. and firefighters are still working at the site. Part of the building is still on fire, but officials say it is now under control.
The former mill is now being used to house seven businesses, which are now destroyed.
More than 20 businesses — tech companies, food companies, food, furniture and art supply firms — are housed in the former Firth carpet company complex.
150 firefighters from 14 are fire companies are battling the stubborn fire. The flames are working their way through the large series of connected buildings that once housed the Firth mill company of Cornwall.
At 4:01 PM on January 13, 1982 Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the icy Potomac River during a Washington snow storm. Seventy-eight people, including four who were in their vehicles on the inbound 14th Street Bridge, died in the accident. Within a half-hour of the crash into the Potomac, the area’s subway system, Metro, suffered its first fatal accident. It happened just north of the 14th street bridge in a tunnel south of the Federal Triangle station. Three people were killed and 25 were injured.
The video above is a compilation of coverage from Channel 9 in Washington. In it you will see some of the video shot by my friend Bruce Bookholtz who was on the 14th Street Bridge as five survivors were plucked from the icy Potomac by the US Park Police Eagle helicopter crew of Donald Usher and Gene Windsor. Bookholtz and reporter John Goldsmith were at nearby National Airport just prior to the crash and captured a shot of Flight 90 before take off as part of their coverage of the snow storm.
The failure of the plane to be properly deiced, along with a cockpit crew inexperienced in winter weather operations contributed to the accident, according to the NTSB. The most significant factor leading directly to the crash was the failure of the crew to use the engine anti-ice system during ground operation and takeoff. This allowed the engine pressure ratio (EPR) thrust indicators to provide false high readings. Because of it, the crew did not provide enough power to keep the Boeing 737-200 airborne and it came down just 30 seconds after leaving the National Airport runway.
The interaction of the crew and the failure of the pilot to heed warnings of the co-pilot have long been cited in the area of crew resource management for pilots and in other disciplines, including the fire service.
The Air Florida and Metro crashes were important to the fire service, particularly in the Washington, DC area, for another reason. There was little cooperation or coordination that day across jurisdictional lines. On the scene, working somewhat independently were DCFD, the Arlington County Fire Department, the National Airport Fire Department along with other resources. There was not a strong regional plan on how such disasters were to be handled, which brought much criticism.
Among the loudest critics was Channel 9 Editorial Director Rich Adams. Rich, who died in 1996, was also a columnist for Firehouse Magazine and member of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad. Rich did many on-air editorials prodding local fire service leaders to come up with better regional planning in the days and months that followed the twin disasters. Since the mid 1970s the Northern Virginia fire departments were working daily with an automatic aid policy. But that stopped at the Virginia state line. I urge you to listen to some of Rich's editorials related to the Air Florida and Metro incidents (above). Rich was an important voice in fire and EMS in the Nation's Capital and around the country.
Because of Rich and some progressive fire service leaders, the lessons learned from January 13, 1982, allowed for a much better response almost two decades later when the largest and longest DC area fire and EMS operation took place just south of the 14th Street Bridge. That, of course, was at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Another friend, Chester Panzer, then a videographer at Channel 7 and now at Channel 4, got the award-winning close-up video of the rescues. His account is above.
Some other notes from January 13, 1982
One story that wasn’t publicly known until I reported it on the 20th anniversary in 2002, is that the actions of another US Park Police pilot possibly saved the day. In 1982, US Park Police did not supply a snow plow for the hanger in Anacostia Park. Pilot Ron Galey took the call about the crash. As Usher and Windsor got the chopper ready. Galey jumped into his own snow plow equipped pickup truck and cleared a path for the helicopter’s take off. Without that effort, the helicopter may have arrived too late for the rescues.
Just short of 20-years later, Galey also took the call from National Airport’s tower for the notification that a jet had slammed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
There were a number of heroes that day. This includes Arland Williams, believed to be the sixth passenger who survived the initial impact. The other survivors say Williams repeatedly passed the life ring from the helicopter to his fellow survivors. Williams drowned by the time the helicopter came back for him. The inbound 14th Street span is now named for Arland Williams.
The other story from that day that has always touched me is of Roger Olian. Olian was then a sheet metal worker on his way home from his job at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. Olian saw the survivors flailing in the frigid waters before any rescuers arrived. Feeling he had to do something, Olian jumped in and swam toward the middle of the river. While he didn’t save anyone, the survivors all cited Olian’s act as giving them hope they soon would be rescued.
Olian’s actions were somewhat overshadowed by Lenny Skutnik who also jumped into the river. Skutnik grabbed survivor Priscilla Tirado who had been brought close to the shore by the helicopter, but couldn’t make it in on her own. Skutnik was recognized later that month during President Ronald Reagan’s State of the Union address. It began the tradition of honoring heroes during the event.
January 13, 1982 was more than three years before I started my television career. In fact, I was unemployed, having been fired as a traffic reporter for KIX-106 because I was concerned about a safety issue with the airplane we were using. But that day turned out to be my first day on the job at WTOP Radio where my wife Hillary Howard now works. If you care, that story of my live audition and hiring is in this month's Washingtonian Magazine, in an article by Cindy Rich titled Pre-Internet Citizen Journalism. You can click here to read it.
WJBK-TV reporter Alexis Wiley, who did a follow-up report Monday night on Saturday's deadly house fire in Detroit where police took 13 minutes to respond to an unruly crowd, said that firefighters were outraged. But is anyone else outraged and is any reporter going to ask the right questions and demand some answers about this incident?
I am sure this slow response isn't the fault of police officers not wanting to help firefighters in trouble. One of my Detroit friends tells me the cops on the street are taking the heat for this. They shouldn't be.
The indication from the police spokesperson over the weekend was that this was resource related, calling the response time "appropriate" based on call volume and travel time.
In this latest story, Alexis Wiley used the same audio we shared with you on Sunday and highlighted the same clips we noted of Chief 5 calling for help at various points. The Monday response from the Detroit Police Department is pretty much the same as on Saturday. Wiley reports a spokesperson told her, considering the runs that police were already handling and the travel times "13 minutes is pretty good".
"Pretty good". "Appropriate". For firefighters in trouble?
Isn't anyone going to ask the police would this be pretty good and appropriate if it were a police officer in trouble? Many of our readers have asked that in the comments section and on Facebook after learning of this incident and the one New Year's Eve where Medic 9 was broken down with gunfire all around them.
There are other questions that I would hope some reporter would ask. Did the fire dispatchers do their jobs properly and relay the urgency of the request to police? Did the police dispatchers prioritize the call properly when given to them? Does anybody care? Shouldn't Charlie LeDuff be stalking city officials until he gets answers to these questions?
I am not naive about the lack of resources Detroit has been dealing with across the board in public safety. It's horrible. But have the standards become so low that everyone accepts that this is a "pretty good" or "appropriate" response?
Shouldn't a firefighter, or paramedic in trouble call be given the same priority as a police officer in trouble call, or at least damn close to it?
This story from last June should have made my 2011 year end review and won a STATty for the biggest loser caught on video. We featured Dustin Anderson's confrontation with a Vancouver firefighter during the rioting that occurred after the Canucks were defeated in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Anderson was interviewed by CBC News after the video developed quite an audience and said:
"I went to him for help because I had been pepper sprayed. He told me to go home… He was trying to get in my face."
Anderson will now have the opportunity to tell his story to the judge after being charged with hitting the firefighter.
Dustin Anderson also told CBC News in June that he felt "horrible" and that he can't leave his home "because everybody recognizes me". The charges are bringing a new round of publicity for Anderson which may help everyone by keeping the man home bound again. Make sure you check out the Arrest Dustin Anderson Facebook group for more on this upstanding citizen.
Thirty-seven-year-old Shane Cranfield, who was a part-time employee of the East Spencer Fire Department in North Carolina, was fired yesterday. In addition, 29-year-old Assistant Chief Allen Carlyle, a former chief of the department, has been told not to return as a volunteer. This comes after the incident last month where police say the men shocked an18-year-old firefighter with a Taser nine times during a fire department Christmas party.
Cranfield and Carlyle are both facing assault charges. A town police officer who allowed his Taser to be used in the incident resigned and is also facing criminal charges.
In a dismissal letter to Cranfield, Town Administrator Macon Sammons Jr. said leaders must serve as role models and set standards. They need “the wisdom, the courage and the judgment” to guide others in the right direction, he said.
“Instead, as our fire chief, you were the ringleader of an incident which created community disdain toward the reputation of our fire department and a major source of embarrassment to the town,” Sammons wrote.
A similar letter to Carlyle is more frank.
“Your behavior in this incident was abusive and totally unacceptable,” Sammons wrote. “Further, we believe that you have become a negative influence within our fire department.”
As in the New Year's Eve incident with Medic 9 broken down and surrounded by gunfire, members of the Detroit Fire Department were again left waiting for Detroit police officers during a tense situation. It happened at a fire near Burlingame and 12th Saturday around 9:00 PM. According to news reports, firefighters rescued an elderly person and a child from the home, but a man and woman in their 60s died in the fire.
The audio above is compressed and not in real time, but the Detroit Police Department says it took 13 minutes to get an officer to the scene. At 3:45 on the recording you hear Chief 5 ask for police. At 4:26 he is told no scout is available. At 5:07 the chief wants an ETA for arson or homicide because of an unruly civilian. He is told the ETA for an arson car is 30 minutes and the dispatcher would try again for a scout car.
At 5:41 the Chief 5 transmits the following: "Central, one way or another I am going to need police on the scene. We are starting to get a crowd of unruly citizens and they are starting to come after the firefighters."
Police were called to the scene after a riot broke out. Some say the police response was too slow.
Detroit Police tell us it took officers 13 minutes to get there. They say considering travel time and other emergencies in the city that night, the response time was acceptable.
"Acceptable"? Thirteen minutes is acceptable when firefighters are under attack? Really?
How about "unavoidable", possibly, because DPD has the same limited resources as DFD? But I don't see how you can ever call that an "acceptable" response time in this situation.
“It was an ugly scene,” (Detroit Fire Arson Investigator Patrick) McNulty said, adding that close to 100 police officers were there when he arrived at 9:45 p.m. “The firemen felt like they were close to turning the water on people. They’re outnumbered. There were a lot of people out there. And once police arrived, things calmed down pretty quick.”
Dan McNamara, head of the firefighters union, said Saturday night that no police officers were initially available when firefighters called for help.
“We’re unprotected out here,” McNamara said Saturday night.
The gas leak and explosion happened yesterday afternoon on Avenue B. Besides destroying the single family home where the leak occurred fire had already extended to the Side D exposure and threatening the B exposure when firefighters arrived. In the audio below you will hear that the original call was dispatched as a natural gas leak. The initial report of the explosion came when the first unit arrived on the scene and reported fire and asked for a second-alarm.
A quiet Schenectady neighborhood was instantly blown into horror late Wednesday afternoon. A powerful natural gas explosion leveled one house and severely damaged two others on Avenue B on the city's north side.
As horrifying as it was, residents who experienced it say it was a miracle that no one got hurt.
A contractor, working on the duplex where he lived, had pierced a natural gas line while trying to ground an electrical wire.
Minutes later, there would be a massive explosion and fire that would level the home and damage two others along this dead-end street on the city's North Side.
Schenectady Fire Chief Michael Della Rocco said, “By the time our crews arrived, the gas had ignited and subsequently exploded.”
“Our investigation has already begun. We’re working with the Department of General Services, also with the police department and our own investigative crews to find out what happened,” said Chief Della Rocco. “The results are typical of a gas explosion. The front, rear and both sides of the building being blown outward, and the debris field associated with that.”
*UPDATE: * ARSON FIRES * A person of interest has been detained and is being questioned. It is too early to speculate if this person responsible for spree arson fires. – Erik Scott###
Posted by LAFD Media and Public Relations at 1/02/2012 03:55:00 AM
FIRE's 1/2/2012
*UPDATE: * ARSON FIRES * A total of 55 fires of concern have broke out in the Los Angeles area over the last four days from 12/30/11 to 01/02/12. 45 fires in the Los Angeles area, nine in West Hollywood, and one in Burbank. – Erik Scott###
Posted by LAFD Media and Public Relations at 1/02/2012 04:57:00 AM
Firefighter Jim Rice, a 11-year veteran of the department, has died from injuries suffered while fighting the three-alarm blaze on Hancock Street on Friday afternoon.
Peabody Fire Chief Steve Pasdon said Rice was injured between the first and second floors fighting the fire, which was reported at 1:24 p.m. Shortly after firefighters entered the building, there was a report of a firefighter down.
Fire crews were able to rescue Rice from the building and he was taken to North Shore Medical Center where he died later from his injuries.
A Peabody, Mass. firefighter has died from injuries sustained in a three-alarm fire.
James Rice, 46, was battling a fire on Friday that occurred at 5 Hancock Street. The North Shore Medical Center confirmed Rice had passed away at Salem Hospital.
Peabody firefighter died this afternoon while responding to a three-alarm fire in this North Shore city, according to a hospital spokeswoman and a state official with knowledge of the investigation..
State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan and Peabody officials are planning to meet with reporters tonight to discuss the incident.
According to a spokeswoman for the North Shore Medical Center, Firefighter James Rice died at the Salem hospital today. He was 42 years old, the spokeswoman said.
Above is raw, pre-arrival video that begins five minutes before the first engine company up. As you can see in the video, the townhome where the fire started was beginning to fall apart even before firefighters arrived. At about 6:10 on the fireground audio below, as evacuation of one of the exposures is ordered, a mayday is sounded due to the structural collapse of the main fire building. From the audio, it sounds as if everyone was accounted for and the mayday was quickly cleared. Below the audio are two more parts of the early video followed by a news report.
A three-alarm fire destroyed one townhome and damaged at least five others Monday afternoon in the Brandywine Hundred community of Ballymeade, officials said.
The fire broke out around 2:30 p.m. in the 800 block of W. Boxborough Drive, said Assistant. State Fire Marshal Michael Chionchio.
The home that caught fire collapsed into a pile of rubble. Before it did fire shot out of the top floor window to a home next to it and caused external damage to the roof and side of the home, Chionchio said.
Joshua Brewer, a Macon-Bibb County sergeant who was demoted to firefighter and suspended for ten weeks, and Chris Hughes, a firefighter who was fired, went before Judge Bob Herndon yesterday to appeal the discipline handed out by Chief Marvin Riggins after a rookie prank was made public on YouTube in September. According to news reports, Brewer, Hughes and their attorney James Radford made the case that there has been a long culture of hazing in the department. The men told the judge they were just following the direction of then Captain Stephanie Burke who was acting battalion chief the day a friend of Hughes' burst into the station pointing a fake gun and ordered everyone on the floor.
Chief Riggins testified that both men were candid and upfront about their involvement when interviewed during the investigation. According to the chief's testimony, Stephanie Burke did not admit she was involved in the planning. Riggins said it was later determined Burke had been dishonest and her original five day suspension was increased to 20 days and she was demoted to lieutenant.
The lawyer for the two firefighters, James Radford, said that the punishment for their roles in the prank were "excessive" because a superior, Capt. Stephanie Burke, helped organize the hoax.
Hughes testified that Burke started planning the prank three days earlier and had tried and failed to obtain a gun. Hughes said he brought the gun to work instead.
Riggins says neither Hughes nor Brewer implicated Captain Burke when he initially interviewed them, but in follow-up interviews they said she played an important part in the hoax.
Riggins testified that Burke told him she didn't know how the prank happened.
Riggins says Hughes had several previous policy violations and suspensions and said he made the decision to terminate him after looking at the whole picture.
The Chief said the prank was meant to scare two rookie firefighters and that one of them was "psychologically upset" by the fake shooting.
Hughes testified that a similar prank occurred when he was a rookie firefighter and that Stephanie Burke planned it. She was then a lieutenant.
When asked why Hughes’ conduct warranted termination, Riggins said “I felt that the behavior and conduct of Mr. Hughes was inexcusable. He had totally crossed the line.”
Riggins admitted that he couldn’t recall an instance in which a firefighter was fired or demoted as a result of a similar prank.
Brewer said supervisors used the examples of pranks involving firefighters’ genitals when explaining the anti-hazing policy, which was revised last year.
As for their claim they were following directions of Captain Burke, Chief Riggins testified that a grievance process is available for those questioning decisions by supervisors.
The judge says he will have a ruling within ten days of receiving the transcripts from the hearing. Stephanie Burke's appeal of her demotion and suspension is scheduled for January.
While the overall issue of a strict "pay for spray" policy is still very much alive in Obion County, Tennessee and an important subject for debate, a local chief now says the widely reported facts about Monday's incident are not accurate. Union City Fire Department Chief Kelly Edmison says the South Fulton Fire Department was never on the scene of the house fire. Edmison tells STATter911.com the woman whose home was burning saw a fire engine from Kentucky which did not have the authority to act.
According to the version of events supplied a short time ago by Chief Edmison, unlike last year's incident, South Fulton firefighters were not on the scene refusing to douse the flames. It is unclear why South Fulton's mayor or fire chief previously did not, or were unable to, make this clear to the local news media.
Still, even in this latest version of events, firefighters did respond to the call and came within two blocks of the burning home. Following the South Fulton policy, firefighters did not attempt to put the fire out. As we posted earlier today, this is something Chief Edmison and other municipal chiefs in Obion County are trying to change. Below, Chief Edmison explains the details, as he knows them, from Monday's incident and provides more background about the battle over the subscription fire service:
South Fulton NEVER made it to the scene of the fire! I just talked with Chief Wilds moments ago. The call came in as a city run. Fulton, KY shares the state line with South Fulton Fire Department. they have Auto-Aid between the two of them for CITY calls. The call was dispatched to South Fulton as though it were a city run. They were told fire on "Cavitt." Cavitt St. is in the city. Cavitt Lane, is in the county. SFFD responded to Cavitt St. Fulton, KY Fire Department caught glimpse of a South Fulton Police car heading towards E. Cavitt. They in turn followed. SFFD after getting to Cavitt St, they could see the fire (fully involved) and realized the call was in the county, they also knew those trailers were not covered under the policy. They radioed Fulton to stand down as it was a county non covered property. Fulton's truck stopped two blocks short of the actual fire. It was their truck that was seen by witness's NOT South Fulton. I also talked with the Fulton Chief. It bothered them that they couldn't help but them being from out of state and only having authority by South Fulton could not respond after SFFD standing them down. Both departments then returned to quarters. NO one went on scene regardless what any area news media claimed or even what the local paper reported.
Now, as I have said, I don't like the subscription program. However Union City has operated this way since the early 60's. Currently with a 73% participation in our district. It was the hopes of the 8 city fire chiefs (because there "ain't no COUNTY fire department) that the county commission could be convince to go with a fire tax and contract services from the 8 city departments. They didn't want to pass one and apparently the county residents have choose to remain quiet and not force the issue. The ONLY reason I and the other departments have agreed to go along with the county wide subscription at this time is that it is providing funding for 5 other departments now that have been getting nothing in the past except revenues from their respective cities. Our hopes are that with a 70% collection county wide the commission would favor a tax. Politics now comes into play. We are told that by state law, a county fire tax would place too high of a fee on the farmers. Obion county is mostly agriculture based. Many of the county commissioners are farmers. I'll not say more.
Another note, in fairness to the county, the not responding to non-subscribers is NOT a county policy. That is left up to each city to make that decision. They are only collecting the money for the individual departments.
Until the county residents rise up and demand a county fire tax, I don't see the problem being solved. With 70% county wide supporting the subscription program, you would think they would support a tax which reduces that fee.
Bottom line, the cities are not going to provide fire protection to the county for nothing. We as chiefs have to carry out the policies of our individual governments or we can choose to "go elsewhere." I currently am committed to protecting the City of Union City taxpayers AND the 73% of the county customers in our district.
As was stated above, all cities pulling back to their city limits would probably force the issue. But I believe in my case, our "city fathers" aren't quite willing to do that to the 73% who have supported us for so many years.
We'll get through this; we chief's haven't given up. The fires remain hot; but sometimes the politics burns hotter.
You may recall in October, 2010, when the world became familiar with Obion County, Tennessee and learned about something much of the general public was unfamiliar with, subscription fire service, one person spoke up right away on behalf of the firefighters who protect county residents. He is Union City Fire Department Chief Kelly Edmison.
Chief Edmison wrote a column for STATter911.com and made it clear that the firefighters aren't happy with the system either and have been trying to change it. (During last year's incident we pointed out, instead of trying unsuccesfully to chase the TV news crew from the scene, South Fulton FD should have explained this fact from the start so the public fully understood who was responsible for this system.)
Union City FD also protects part of Obion County through a subscription fee and has policies similar to South Fulton. But Chief Edmison indicated last year his department, once on the scene of a burning home, would have had a different outcome.
Even before last year's fire that the South Fulton FD watched burn, the chiefs had submitted a proposal to Obion County officials to implement a fire tax. Instead, the county went in the opposite direction and expanded the subscription service.
In addition, Wednesday night we showed you the story of Randy Evans with the Obion City Fire Department who also is trying to make it clear the firefighters want this system changed. Obion City firefighters, while not involved in the fire on Monday, have been receiving death threats because of mistaken identity, due to the name of the department (click here for that story).
As for Chief Edmison, he sent STATter911.com the following email Wednesday and asked me to share the latest efforts to get firefighters out of the middle and allow them to do what they are supposed to do. Here's Chief Edmison's update:
First off, the call that SFFD received initially was for an in town structure fire. The particular street has both a “Street” and a “Lane”. The “Lane” portion ended up being in the county. Not the city limits.
Where the County is at this time, is that the whole county has implemented a subscription program (July 1, 2011). As you may remember, South Fulton, Kenton and Union City were the only ones with such a program. The county is now doing the collection of the subscription fees for the departments (with the exception of South Fulton who has decided to continue to collect their own). Countywide right now we are seeing almost 70% participation.
The “Chiefs” hope that this figure will encourage the county at some point to pass a county fire tax and be done with this problem. The current subscription fee is $75 per year. If it were a tax and 100% compliant that fee/tax would probably be down around $55 or $60. How often does a politician have the opportunity to pass a tax, when 70% of the populace are in favor of it AND save them $15 or $20 per year?
Our Chief’s aren’t looking at the subscription program as the “Goal.” It’s merely a step in what we hope will eventually “fix the problem.” Meanwhile, our fellow firefighters continue to take a beating for something they truly aren’t in control of.
One firefighter was killed and another was seriously injured when part of a burning apartment building collapsed in Worcester early Thursday morning.
John (local paper has it as "Jon") Davies, a 17-year veteran of the department, was killed when he and another firefighter went back to search for a missing person inside the burning building at 44 Arlington Street after 4 a.m.
Firefighters initially cleared 12 occupants from the building. One of the building's occupants told firefighters that there was another person who may be trapped in a rear back bedroom.
Video above from Michael Brogan.
Firefighter Davies, a 17-year veteran of the Worcester Fire Department and father to three sons, and his partner, Firefighter Carroll, a 14-year fire veteran, went back inside to search for that victim. The building collapsed on top of them. Firefighter Davies was killed, and Firefighter Carroll was trapped for almost an hour until his colleagues could free him from the rubble.
The above clip includes video from Matthew Gregoire, Providence Fire Videos.
Randy Evans has been a volunteer firefighter for 30 years and is a member of the Obion City Fire Department. His department is one that serves Obion County with a subscription fire service but was not involved in Monday's fire that has again put the local fire department's in the news around the world.
Even though it was the South Fulton Fire Department that followed it's town policy of letting property belonging to non-subscribers burn, Obion City FD has been receving hate mail and death threats because of its name. They have been forced to take down the department's Facebook page.
"We've had everything from "I'm going to shoot every firefighter to we're going to burn station to we're not American," Evans said.
But as nasty as these confused callers can be, deep down, this firefighter shares their concerns, since his own department has the same pay for spray policy.
Evans said in addition to a countywide public relations nightmare, pay for spray makes it tough to recruit new, young firefighters. He fears if something doesn't change, you'll see fewer new firefighters and more empty lockers.
"We plead with the county court to turn our hands loose, work with us, give us the opportunity to serve Obion County," Evans said.
It's just sheer luck that Obion Fire Department has never had to turn down a call. But it could happen someday. We asked Evans what he would do if they got a call from someone who hadn't paid the fee. He said he didn't want to discuss that.
Firefighters came to the rescue of two police officers outnumbered in Mariners Harbor today (Tuesday), in a scene so chaotic that New York’s Bravest employed a truck-mounted deluge gun — a water cannon — to fend off the marauding group of teens.
The scene unfolded at about 3:30 p.m. in front of 83 Harbor Rd., where a large group of teenagers had amassed to confront a teenage girl who lives in the residence.
By the time it was over, two officers were sent to Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton, for treatment, and nine teens ended up under arrest, said Inspector John Denesopolis, the 120th Precinct's commanding officer.
It all started as a group numbering about 50 that started yelling. Someone called 911 and a couple of officers were dispatched.
They were apparently overrun by the crowd and the officers were reportedly knocked down.
It all unfolded on the same block as an engine house. The crew got in their truck and used the cannon to disperse the crowd. Back-up arrived and police reportedly arrested nine teens.
Keith Olbermann, now with Current TV, is taking on the 'Pay for Spray" issue in South Fulton Tennessee and surrounding Obion County, Tennessee. Last year Olbermann was just as critical of the earlier incident in South Fulton that made news around the world.
The story has again been picked up by numerous news organizations and put the spotlight on subscription fire service.
Yes, it's deja vu all over again in Obion County, Tennessee. The same fire company, the same TV station and the same subscription fire service have all come together to make news more than a year after the pay for spray policy made headlines around the world.
Yesterday's fire was at the home of Vicky Bell who called 911. The South Fulton Fire Department responded but WPSD-TV reports they kept their distance and watched the mobile home burn because a $75 subscription fee had not been paid.
South Fulton provides fire service to its residents but charges a fee for homeowners living in adjacent unincorporated areas of Obion County. Obion County does not have its own fire department and there is no fire tax. Local fire chiefs in the past have lobbied the county to get them out of the middle, so they aren't put in a position to watch someone's property burn.
In October 2010, WPSD-TV was on the scene with firefighters as Gene Cranick's home burned. The firefighters refused to put water on the home but sprayed a subscribing neighbor's residence nearby. The story was extensively discussed on cable TV by Keith Olbermann and Glenn Beck.
The mayor said it comes down to simple business. If they don't collect fire fees, the fire department can't survive and if they make exceptions to the rule, no one will ever pay the fee.
Besides that, he likes the "pay for spray" policy and said it's fair.
"In an emergency, the first thing you think of, 'Call 9-1-1," homeowner Vicky Bell said.
"There's no way to go to every fire and keep up the manpower, the equipment, and just the funding for the fire department," Mayor David Crocker said.
And Crocker said by now, everyone should know about the city's fire policy.
"After the last situation, I would hope that everybody would be well aware of the rural fire fees, this time," Crocker said.
Bell and her boyfriend admitted they were aware but thought this would never happen to them.
State Fire Marshal Butch Browning says a 45-year-old volunteer firefighter died after battling a blaze and rescuing people from a burning mobile home early Saturday in Livingston Parish.
Firefighter Scott Osenenko had responded to a call at 9673 Florida Boulevard that a family had been awakened to find their home on fire around 4 a.m.
Browning said Osenenko was on the first unit to respond and he worked for nearly 20 minutes removing people from danger and fighting the fire.
After exiting the building, Browning said Osenenko began to experience cardiac distress and was treated and taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead as a result of the injuries he received at the scene.
"Scott was a model firefighter," said Fire Chief James Wascom. "He was scheduled this morning to take the hazmat operations certification test. All he was trying to do was save lives and serve our community this morning. Now, he is gone."
Fire Protection District # 4 Firefighter Scott Osenenko died in the line of duty immediately after searching for occupants of a burning mobile home and extinguishing the fire.
Shortly after he exited the building he began experiencing cardiac distress, he was immediately treated and transported to Ochsner Medical Center in Baton Rouge.
In Kanawha County, West Virginia a firefighter with the Davis Creek VFD died around 1:00 this morning after a fall from the Steven Wayne Smith Memorial Bridge on U.S. 119.
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