FF accused of raping female FF; DC 911; Houston FF takes turn for worse; Gas station collapse; SC apt. fire; Las Vegas audio; 2nd-alarms in DC & MD

(Updated 12:36 PM)

Firefighter charged with raping colleague. Victim given day off.

In St. Lucia, a 12-year veteran of the fire service is charged with raping a 19-year-old female firefighter. Despite being traumatized, the victim was expected back at work after just one day off. From HTS Channel 4:

Fire Chief Leslie Fontenelle says this is the first time a male officer has been charged with the rape of a female colleague since females were first inducted into the Fire Service over two-and-a-half decades ago. A twelve-year veteran was charged on Tuesday with the rape of a nineteen-year-old female officer. Leslie Fontenelle says fellow officers are still coming to grips with the news they first learnt on Tuesday morning. He says they are incensed with what happened to a member of the Fire Service family.

Police say the Fire Officer was arrested and charged with a rape on Tuesday. The Chief Fire Officer says the alleged victim remains traumatised – she was given the day off on Tuesday, but is expected back at work on Wednesday. He says there is separate sleeping quarters for women at the barrack room at Vigie. Fontenelle says there was no evidence of forced entry and thinks the door was left open. He says there will be no additional security measures implemented as a result of the incident.

Houston FF “takes a turn for the worse”

Those are the words of FF Brandon Everette’s wife Irene. Everette, a five year veteran, was critically injured, suffering lung damage, in a January 21 fire where his mask became dislodged after a ceiling collapse. Read the story. IAFF Local 341 has note from Irene Everette.

A 99.99 percent accuracy rate

The Washington City Paper is looking at the claim by DC 911 center director Janice Quintana that her staff has a 99.99 percent accuracy rate. The article by Arthur Delaney is titled Q as in Cucumber and can be read here.

Talking with firefighters, Delaney has a list of incidents from 2006 and 2007 that question Quintana’s accuracy. He also mentions the incident three years ago when Tony Carroll fell down the elevator shaft on Good Hope Road SE unaware that there had been an explosion in the building. It was something the first callers told the Office of Unified Communications, but was not relayed to firefighters. During his 7-month recovery, Tony went on TV with me and sounded the alarm about the way this call was handled and other similar issues.

STATter 911 has been waiting for OUC to answer a number of FOIA requests on some recent and not so recent calls.

Here are a couple of more incidents we have mentioned before that could be added to the City Paper’s list:

December 19, 2007: The original dispatch for the fire in the Old Executive Office Building was for the 900 block of 17th Street, NW with a cross street of Connecticut Avenue. The building, since before any of us was born, has sat in the 600 block of 17th Street, NW with a cross street of Pennsylvania Avenue (right next to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW).

October 16, 2007: Read the account of the delayed alarm for a fire at 814 49th Street, NE on Engine 30,Truck 17’s website.

February 27, 2007: It took at least 7 minutes for OUC to dispatch a box alarm assignment for Metro’s Farragut North station. A photographer and I heard Metro call for the fire department on the DC radio system. We drove from Capitol Hill to Farragut North, stopping at all of the signals, before the dispatch was made.

January 31, 2007 (one year ago, today): OUC confirmed for 9NEWS NOW that it took ten minutes to dispatch another box alarm for Metro’s Farragut North station.

PetSmart fire

Photo from Dwayne Clark from a 2-alarm fire that began around 11:30 AM at the PetSmart in the 6000 block of Oxon Hill Road, in Oxon Hill, MD. Prince George’s County Fire/EMS spokesman Mark Brady says as of 12:30 PM, so far, all of the pets have survived.

MD apartment fire

Just before midnight, Montgomery County firefighters dealt with a garden-apartment fire in the 12,100 block of Georgia Avenue. Neighbors helped rescue a number of people including a young child. Seven people, including the child, were transported to the hospital. Watch the wusa9.com story.

Another DC multi-alarm fire

The picture above from DC Fire & EMS PIO Alan Etter of Wednesday afternoon’s blaze in the 2700 block of Cathedral Avenue, NW. A second-alarm was called as fire began to spread from a row house that was being remodeled to an adjoining home. One worker had a laceration to the arm.

Familiar territory

I imagine that no apartment complex in Prince George’s County, MD has had as many serious fires in the past year as Spring Hill Lake. The picture above is from PIO Mark Brady of Side C of the building after crews made a quick stop of this fire on Springhill Lane Wednesday evening. this went to a second-alarm. Investigators say it was started by an 8-year-old playing with matches.

One flake too many

Not sure where or exactly when.

SC apartment fire

A fire on Tuesday afternoon at a Greenville apartment complex. Fire officials say it started as a brush fire that spread to the building’s vinyl siding. The video above is the response and some of the fire. Click here for Part 2 on the fireground
. The story and more video, here.

Fireground audio Las Vegas

This is poor quality audio of some of the radio traffic from Friday’s hotel and casino fire in Las Vegas.

Broken coupling

Not sure if this is old or new, but it was just posted in Live Leak.