Skip to content

Archives for 12th

See all posts in the network tagged with 12th

Where’s the outrage in Detroit? ‘Pretty good’ is not the right answer. When is someone going to ask the right questions?

15 comments

Click here to follow STATter911.com on Facebook (hit "like")

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?

Do you want to sell a rig?Click HERE to find out how withSellFireTrucks.com

Posted by on January 11, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Detroit Fire Department, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Topics, fire, Fire Dispatch, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Fires, Major Incidents, News, Police, Videos • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fireground audio: Detroit firefighters under attack at fatal fire with rescues try to get police to the scene. DPD says 13 minute response time is ‘acceptable’.

21 comments

Click here to follow STATter911.com on Facebook (hit "like")

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.

Do you want to sell a rig?Click HERE to find out how withSellFireTrucks.com

Posted by on January 9, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Detroit Fire Department, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Topics, fire, Fire Dispatch, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fireground Audio, Fires, Funding & Staffing, IAFF, Major Incidents, News, Police, Videos • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,