Read Toledo Fire Department report

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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.

Below is earlier news coverage of this story.

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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.

From ClagaryHerald.com:

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.

Click here for a series of still pictures from CalgarySun.com.

From CalgarySun.com:

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.

Video below by David Schuurman.

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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.

Click here for news coverage, including an interview with the fire chief who said that a flashover occurred.

Here are still pictures and details from Firefighter Close Calls.

Here's how WCBS Radio described what happened:

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.

Above is an earlier video from the fire.

The New Hyde Park Patch had a report last April on Firefighter Devane's recovery and details about a fundraiser. Here's an excerpt:

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.

Above is video shot at the command post.

In December, New Hyde Park Fire Department Chief John Willers talked about the fire with The Island Now's Richard Tedesco:

"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.

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Previous coverage of this story

Coverage from Curt Varone's FireLawBlog.com here and here

UPDATE: Read Friday statement from hospital CEO

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.

Bangor Daily News has done at least two stories. In the first, Dana Morse said the details of what happened are even worse than what she shared with the Chronicle Herald:

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.”

In the second story, Bangor Daily News reporter Seth Koenig got in touch with my friend Curt Varone, who writes FireLawBlog.com:

"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.

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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.

From YNN News:

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.

From RecordOnline.com:

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.

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DCFD radio traffic from Air Florida Flight 90 and Metrorail crashes- Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Cockpit voice recorder audio from Air Florida Flight 90

Seconds From Disaster

Washington Post coverage of the anniversary

More on media coverage of the events from DCRTV's Dave Hughes

January 13, 1982 Pre-Internet Citizen Journalism

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.

Click here for a detailed article on the day's heroes.

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.

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New Year's Eve incident involving Medic 9

Previous coverage of this story with fireground audio

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?

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Make sure you check out the Arrest Dustin Anderson Facebook group

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.

From GlobalTVBC.com:

21-year-old Dustin Anderson of Burnaby is facing charges of participating in a riot and assault.

Anderson was the target of intense anger on social media after a video of him allegedly assaulting a Vancouver firefighter surfaced.

A Facebook group entitled “Arrest Dustin Anderson” has over 2,300 members.

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Former East Spencer fire chief Shane Cranfield.

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Previous coverage of this story

More from WSOC-TV

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. 

Here's more from Karissa Minn at the Salisbury Post:

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.”

Former assistant chief and chief Allen Carlyle.

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New Year's Eve incident involving Medic 9

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."

Here's an excerpt from WJBK-TV's story:

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.

From freep.com:

“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.

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