Thursday, February 4, 2010
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9 comments:
One can't help wonder why DeKalb County took swift action to fire the other four firefighters with impecable service records according to news reports but kept the captain with the tarnished record around longer investigating before terminating him. One only needs to look at Google to see which station, #12, was closest to the address to figure out which engine would have arrived on scene or in the area first. This 5th firefighter finally now terminated was the commander on that truck! His immediate termination which should have taken place that fateful morning for neglect of duty certainly would have been unquestionably justified.
This sort of practice is just so sadly familiar regarding how DeKalb County handles disciplinary matters. We have seen a lot of this sort of selective enforcement of policy and administration of disciplinary action in the police department.
Listening to the radio traffic recently obtained and broadcast by a news network, the facts are clear and speak for themselves:
1. Ann Bartlett called herself, reported she had started a fire with her oxygen supply in her home, and gave her address clearly.
2. None of the responding units, according to a witness, dismounted from their trucks to walk up her driveway and check the residence.
Based on my experience, and now having listened to the radio traffic, I am left to conclude the following:
1. It seems to me that the commander of Engine 18 was in the area attempting to locate and found nothing. I wonder how information was originally entered on the call by the 911 call-taker. If you have a good address (as opposed to cross-streets) and you have a first-person caller (as opposed to third-party), you go to that address and attempt to locate and contact the original caller. It seems to me the captain on Engine 18, in all fairness, may not have had, or been able to interpret from comments entered on the call (we have not seen the text) this exacting information. I can't think of any other reason (incomplete or confusing information) why all of these firefighters made such fateful decisions).
The real answers are a combination of the 911 call, the text in the creation of that call entered by the 911 call-taker, and the statements provided by these firefighters that are now in their personnel jackets. The Open Records Act should make all of this available but only once this strange criminal investigation is closed.
The fire report is available on 46 news...it was dispatched the correct way...what more did dispach need to say...complainant advised her house is on fire...could it be any more plain than that...the fire report clearly states for whatever reason the firemen did not get out of their truck and walk up the driveway..they made no attempt to find the caller...
Just to clarify since we have more details now, the only reason the 5th guy wasn't fired with the rest is because they were having trouble locating him. He would not answer phone calls or other attempts at contact. Once they finally got in touch with him, he was canned.
The text for the 911 is how the fire dispatcher read it,female adv her "nose thing" set her house on fire. Let's stop trying to "figure out" why the fireman DID NOT GET OUT OF THE TRUCK. That is the question that will cost the county and tax payers in a lawsuit. None of the operators who "touched" that call will be held accountable because they did exactly what they were trained to do, dispatch the call w/ as much infomation that is on the call. I am sorry for the situation and the fireman's family, but let this be a lesson that we must all do "due diligence" when we are dispatched to calls,and make every effort to try and locate.if not you better put it on the air to CYA (COVER YOUR ASS)
Ok so for all you cops that know nothing about the fire dept don't speak without knowing. Do you know how many people call and say my house is on fire? And if you listen to the tapes, you will know that they did attempt to locate the incident but was unable to do so b/c she had no address on her mailbox. Should they have gotten out the truck, probably so. Was that house on fire when she called the fire, I don't think so...5 hours later?? Thats a REALLY REALLY long time for a fire from an oxygen tank under that much pressure to explode PLUS the materials that her residence was constructed up would have ignited and burned in a lot less time than 5 minutes.
No prosecutor will ever be able to say that their failure to walk up the driveway is why Ms. Barlett is dead today.
And the text the operator sent to the screen is important b/c it usually has way more details than the voice traffic. She could have said, "complaintent adv that residence is on fire..no further"...hell am I supposed to do with no further after i've checked used all my senses except the ability to walk my ass up a no numbered driveway and I cant establish a callback?
And Caldwell couldn't be fired until they were unable to locate him to serve him his papers.
On the issue of the truck not starting up, I wouldn't say thats its something we should ignore BUT that will be times when things for whatever reason break down, and unfortunately thats how we find problems and are able to then correct them. However motor maintenance does suck ass though.
And lastly, WE ALL KNOW, that if this shit wasn't in Dunwoody it wouldn't be on the news and no one would too much give a shit. B/c thats just how the cookie crumbles.
The bottom line is they did not do their job.
I cannot believe that some people are actually trying to blame this on the caller, deny that there was a fire and defend these crews for not getting off the truck and checking the house. First off even if there weren’t numbers on the mailbox all you have to do is find one or two that have numbers then COUNT until you locate the correct address. Second how can you say that there was no fire when she called? OK the whole house wasn’t engulfed but she called and said it was on fire and then later it burned to the ground. What was she psychic? Was she just calling in advance because she knew it would be on fire later? And lastly I don’t care how many false alarms you get, get your fat A$$ off the truck and walk up and check the house. Obviously this lady was calling because she thought she had some kind of emergency there is no way you can justify not even attempting to make contact with her.
Can anyone explain how the fire took 5 hours to engulf the entire house when it usually only takes about 15 minutes? And I'm not blaming the victim here, but if it took 5 hours for the fire to spread through her house, why couldn't she make it out?
Until you work in the fire rescue filed, you will never understand why we want to know why it took the fire soo long to eveolve.
And I am not blaming the caller and I am not saying that the firefighters did everything they should have. BUt, does that constitute their firing? NO. They were nt fired for not checking, they were fired b/c no one established command. If we're gonna fire somebody for that lets fire every single officer or AOIC who has never "formally" established command. We wouldn't have any. Lets not completely loook at the negative before we just blame blame blame, but we can ATLEAST note they they made efforts in attempting to locate.
And in the end, we still cannot YET prove they those officvers actions caused the death of Ann Bartlett.
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