Four fire officials put on leave after fatal fire
- 2/3/10
- Categorized in: DeKalb News
- 1/29/10
Four DeKalb County Fire Rescue Department officers have been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation of a fire that killed an elderly Dunwoody woman.
Acting Officer in Charge William Greene, Captain Tony L. Motes, Captain Sell Caldwell, and Battalion Chief Lesley Clark have been placed on administrative leave with pay by DeKalb County Public Safety Director William Miller, according to a statement released the night of Jan. 25.
The body of Ann Bartlett, 74, was found by firefighters after the blaze that engulfed a house in the 1600 block of Houghton Court in Dunwoody was put out.
According to the statement, DeKalb County 911 received a call reporting a fire at about 1:03 a.m. While a dispatcher took the information, the call was cut off. Dispatch attempted to re-establish the call several times, but could not. Meanwhile, a DeKalb Fire Rescue went to the area but saw no signs of a fire.
Five hours later, at about 6:40 a.m., another call was received reporting a fire in the same area. Emergency personnel went to the scene and found a home fully engulfed in flames. County officials said they believe that the 911 calls were made by different people, county spokeswoman Sheila Edwards said.
According to the statement, it is standard procedure to launch an internal investigation of emergency response when there is a fatality.
If the firefighters had located the given address they certainly would have gone up the driveway to the door. The lack of an incident command did not cause the death of this victim and the firefighters did not cause it either. However many other factors did contribute to her death and that is where this investigation should be headed instead of head hunting.
Now Andrew, take your break and try to get your head out of your butt so you can pay closer attention.
1. Anyone who does not have their address clearly marked (so that it’s visible from the street) needs to do it immediately and if possible in more than one way.
2. If you are aware of out of sequence numbering or anything else unusual in an area, make it known immediately to your local fire station. Ask them to post it in the station and notify their neighboring stations to do the same.
3. If you or anyone else you know of commonly uses an automatic garage door for entrance and exit of their home, be sure everyone in the home is aware of how to open it or take the next best exit in case the door malfunctions in an emergency.
4. Install smoke detectors throughout your home, each bedroom, each hallway, each utility area and on all floors regardless of use. Test them monthly and replace the batteries yearly. They are inexpensive and many fire departments (such as Dakalb County GA) provide them free of charge if you cannot afford them and will even install them and provide replacement batteries.
5. Keep a check on your elderly loved ones and be sure these things are done. Also be aware of their method of use with respect to things like oxygen equipment.
Any one of these things could have saved this woman’s life.
Rest assured the firefighters will get their due if they are negligent.
However, every firefighter I’ve ever met would rather fight a fire in its early stages instead of when it becomes an inferno.
No matter how lazy or tired or hungry or cold or wet or burned out they may be.
If Dekalb County fired every fire officer who did not properly implement the incident command system within the last 6 weeks, they would probably have to shut down the service until they could hire, train and promote several hundred firefighters. There are many reasons to fire someone but an honest mistake is not one of them.
If the firefighters had located the given address they certainly would have gone up the driveway to the door. The lack of an incident command did not cause the death of this victim and the firefighters did not cause it either. However many other factors did contribute to her death and that is where this investigation should be headed instead of head hunting.
All the misdirected anger and publicity could be better used to inform the public of things that may well prevent a similar tragedy in the future.
I would not be surprised if the remaining firefighters chose not to act as officer in the future for fear of loosing their jobs. Under this kind of scrutiny, who would want to risk it? It’s hard enough to make decisions in that position without being second-guessed by everyone.