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.

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.

Providence, Rhode Island fire: A fire on Violet Street around 9:00 last night. Clip from Providence Fire Videos. More details from WPRI-TV.

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.

We are the fire service, why do we need to be fire safe?: There was a destructive fire at the UK Fire Service College last May. Now it’s been determined that the school didn’t exactly comply with fire safety laws. Read more. 

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.

Fireground audio

Transcript of fireground radio traffic

Transcript of Sandy Hill’s call to 911

Read the entire article

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. 

Here is an excerpt from Telvock’s article:

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.

From the AP:

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. 

None of the workers were injured.

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.

Also, The Washington Post has a story from Martin Weil on a new complaint about DC’s ambulance service.

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.

Click here to read the latest in the investigation. Also, John Mitchell at Fire Daily takes a look at the story.

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.

Man dead after crashing into ambulance and other vehicles: Firegeezer has the story from Lawton, Michigan.

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.

Iowa lumber yard fire: This is from Monday night in Mason City. No injuries reported. Click here for details. The video is one of 30 you will find in our player in the right hand column of the blog, near the top. Emily Cyr at wusa9.com regularly adds the latest fire and EMS videos from the Washington area and around the country (and sometimes around the world). Also new in the player are a fire in Chesterfield County, Virginia that left a two-year-old boy dead (click here for details) and a four-alarm apartment fire in Charlotte, North Carolina (read more about it).

Dr. Joseph Wright’s letter to the editor

DC Fire & EMS Department’s response to Dr. Wright’s letter to the editor

DC’s Task Force on Emergency Medical Services Final Report (September, 2007)

DC inspector general’s report on the emergency response to assist David Rosenbaum (June, 2006)

DC inspector general’s follow-up report to Rosenbaum investigation (September, 2009)

As the investigation into the death of Stephanie Stephens continues, a top official at Children’s National Medical Center has made his views about the case known. In a letter to the editor in Monday’s Washington Post, Dr. Joseph Wright said, “The decision not to immediately transport a 2-year-old with respiratory symptoms is inexcusable.”

Dr. Joseph Wright from Children's National Medical Center website.

Dr. Wright is referring to the crew from DC Fire & EMS Department’s Medic 33 who did not take the little girl to the hospital after her mother’s first call to 911 on the morning of February 10. It wasn’t until another 911 call, about nine-hours later, that a different crew from Medic 33 took the girl to Children’s. She died the next day. The family told 9NEWS NOW Stephanie had pneumonia.

Dr. Wright, a senior vice president and pediatric emergency physician, pointed out in his letter that he believes the city has made little progress since the controversy surrounding the inadequate care provided to dying former New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum. Wright wrote to the Post, “It was only a matter of time before a pediatric Rosenbaum case surfaced.”

According to Dr. Wright’s biography, he is a founding director of the hospital’s Institute for Prehospital Pediatrics and Emergency Research and “provides state-level leadership as the EMS Medical Director for Pediatrics within the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems”. Wright is also a senior investigator and medical director with “the federally-funded Emergency Medical Services for Children National Resource Center.”

DC Fire & EMS Department spokesman Pete Piringer disputes Dr. Wright’s claims. In an email to STATter911.com Piringer said, ”During the past few years significant progress has been made in many areas concerning the state of EMS in the District of Columbia.”

Piringer points to the implementation of the large majority of the goals from the task force ordered by Mayor Adrian Fenty to provide a blueprint for the future of EMS following Rosenbaum’s death in 2006. According to Piringer, “As of today, the Department has completed 39 of those 50 action items, most well ahead of schedule, and is making substantial progress on completing the remaining 11 items.”

Chief Dennis Rubin headed the the task force. Rubin is about to celebrate his third anniversary in command of the DC Fire & EMS Department. Critics, like Kenneth Lyons, president of the union representing civilian EMS workers, point out that Chief Rubin is now in search of his third medical director and is on his fourth crew to lead EMS training. Lyons calls the lack of continuity ”schizophrenic”.

While Lyons believes Dr. Wright is premature in judging the EMS crew in the Stephens case, he concurs with Wright’s claims there are problems in providing pre-hospital care to children. In his letter Wright said, “I have stated often for the public record before the D.C. Council Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary just how little attention D.C. Fire and EMS has paid to preparing its workforce in the care of children.”

Lyons tells STATter911.com that Dr. Wright has long been an advocate for improved training and protocols in dealing with children who are ill or injured and has offered to assist the city in making these improvements.

The public relations staff at Children’s National Medical Center was unable to schedule an interview with Dr. Wright on Tuesday.

Read Fire Service Reputation Management, White Paper, by the Cumberland Valley Firemen’s Association

We need to start this posting with some full disclosure on what some may see as a possible conflict of interest for me. I generally don’t report on stories I am involved in. I leave that to others. You need to know that I had a small role in the fact finding phase of this new report from the Cumberland Valley Firemen’s Association and you will see my name listed under group members.

At the request of Steve Austin, I spent two days in Emmitsburg last year talking with the other group members about the various stories that I cover that can be seen  as damaging to the repuation of the fire service. I am almost always willing to talk to anyone about what I do and why I do it.

I find it to be a compelling topic and an important issue for the fire service, despite my role (or maybe because of it) as the conduit for much bad news. This is something that has been discussed on STATter911.com many times, particularly as it relates to social media. What I had to say on the topic echoes what I have posted on the blog and my responses to readers in our comments section since I began writing Statter911.com in May of 2007.

Now that you know my role, rather than characterize the report any further, I going to let you be the judge of what this is all about. The link to the report is above and the press release is below:

Reckless Conduct Endangers America’s Fire Service –

Fire Service Reputation Management White Paper Examines Issue

Hagerstown MD, March 10, 2010- Reckless and inappropriate conduct by a small minority of the nation’s fire service is eroding the high moral ground occupied by firefighters says a White Paper sponsored by the Cumberland Valley Volunteer Firemen’s Association, (CVVFA) a century-old organization dedicated to enhancing communication and continuing education among the fire service.

The contents of the White Paper represent a distillation of several fire service leadership meetings that identified a series of social, cultural, and ethical issues impacting the fire service nationwide that demand increased awareness.

The White Paper is intended as a wake-up call to the fire service. The detrimental impact from fire service members that engage in unethical, immoral, inappropriate, criminal, or other activities reflects back not just to these individuals, but to their departments and communities, and to the fire service as a whole.

Recognizing that the actions of a small minority of bad actors can have grievous widespread consequences, the fire service as a whole must be increasingly vigilant in policing itself. Through a combination of enhanced and improved internal controls, increased vigilance, and greater acceptance of personal responsibility perhaps including, but not limited to, abiding by a Code of Ethics, the fire service can ensure that it remains true to its roots and heritage of protecting and serving this great nation.

The Fire Service Reputation Management White Paper clearly identifies these individuals and behaviors in a clear and cogent manner, articulates some excellent solutions, and clamors for a Code of Ethics as the next logical step for our profession. We may never have the opportunity again, and I urge all fire service leaders to develop, establish, disseminate, abide and enforce a Fire Service Code of Ethics” said Kelvin Cochran, United States Fire Administrator.

Copies of the White Paper are available at www.cvvfa.org . In the next several weeks the CVVFA will launch www.firefighterbehavior.com a website that will chronicle inappropriate conduct by members of, the fire service. The website will serve to raise awareness of danger to the reputation of the fire service and will advocate for a code of ethics and standards for proper behavior.

About the Cumberland Valley Volunteer Firemen’s Association: Established in 1901 the CVVFA provides firefighters and other emergency responders with Training, Leadership, and Fraternalism. The Association created the Emergency Responder Safety Institute in 1999 to address dangers responders face on the roadways. Much of that work is carried out through its nationally recognized website www.respondersafety.com.

Twice in eight hours: Edward Malik reports Gary, Indiana firefighters responded for two fires yesterday in a vacant home in the 4700 block of Washington. One was a day time fire, the other at night.

One of the more interesting postings I have ever seen on a fire & EMS blog. Make sure you read it: To me the worst blogs are those that spout some company line, refuse to publish comments that disagree with the blogger’s point of view, usually state the obvious, believe the answer is always black or white with no gray area and stay away from anything that might smack of controversy because it might be perceived as critical of what fire and EMS crews do (I think I just described my own blog). The exact opposite of this is the most recent posting by Jeff Bressler at The Fire PIO. It is titled, A PIO’s ethics dilemma: Spinning a point he does not believe in. A fascinating look at the problem facing a PIO for a Long Island fire department. It looks critically at whether a fire department can justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a motorized drill team. The article shows how a public information officer may have to be the public face of a policy they disagree with. This is the reality of being a PIO. It isn’t just responding to fires and getting your mug on TV. I am eager to read more columns like this from Jeff.

A closer look at the death of Boston’s Lt. Kevin Kelley: A board of inquiry released a 127-page report looking at the January 9, 2009 crash of Ladder 26. Click here to read the report.

FDNY not allowed access to Freedom Tower to assist with injured worker: Some tension at Ground Zero between the Port Authority and FDNY. News reports indicate most of the FDNY units were not allowed access to the site when a worker fell two stories. Read more about the dispute.

Firefighter passes out behind the wheel of fire engine: In Nevada County, California they are saying the problem was one of dehydration when a firefighter on the way to a hospital to pick up his partner blacked out. Read the details.

Impostor FMs: It was two months ago that we showed you video of  a man in the Washington area posing as a fire inspector as a cover to steal from businesses. Now, Firegeezer Bill Schumm has a similar story from Chicago.

Accused firefighter arsonist has charges dropped: We covered this odd story from Indiana when charges were placed a little more than a-year-ago. A Lafayette firefighter was accused of setting his Battle Ground home on fire in October, 2008 and then ripping a firehose out of the hands of firefighters and knocking off the helmet of a firefighter. Now, the arson charge has been dropped. Eric Tendam was fired a month after the charges were filed.  Read the details.

Arson charges placed against firefighter: In Penn Township, Pennsylvania a farmhouse fire is being blamed on Eric Penska, a volunteer from Irvin Borough, and two others. Read the story.

Lots of fire in Rochester, NY: Click here for fireground audio and early video of a house fire Sunday night.

Medic died of heart attack: After some early misinformation the official word is that Daniel McIntosh died of a heart attack while chasing after a suicidal man. Click here for more on the Bensalem, Pennsylvania paramedic.

 Old home burns in Maryland: One firefighter from Montgomery County suffered a second degree burn to his leg fighting this fire yesterday in a late 1800s home in Poolesville. Check our player at the top right for more videos from the Washington area and around the country.