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Georgia Firefighters Appeal Firings; Blame Dispatchers
DOUG RICHARDS
11Alive.com
Reprinted with Permission
DUNWOODY, Ga. - Jeff Green and Tony Moats say they've relived daily the call their fire units answered January 24th at a home in Dunwoody.
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At 1:05 a.m., dispatchers sent them to 1687 Houghton Court North. When they got to the neighborhood, they say they couldn't find the right house -- the mailbox was unmarked -- and couldn't find any evidence of a fire anywhere.
"No smoke was smelled, no neighbors were out, no noises no reflections - because it was dark - no glows that we'd seen or anything," Moats recalled during a news conference. Moats and Green have hired former DeKalb District Attorney J. Tom Morgan, and his former chief assistant DA John Petrey to represent them.
Five hours later, they got another call to the same location. The house was in flames. The woman inside, 74 year old Ann Bartlett was dead.
The county fired Green and Moats, saying they didn't try hard enough the first time to find the apparently smoldering fire that killed Bartlett.
The firefighters say county dispatchers also bear responsibility for the fatal fire.
"It's a tragedy for the Bartlett family. My condolences go out to the Bartlett family," said Green.
"I'm always on board to save a life. That's the number one goal of a firefighter. And the distress that was conveyed to 911 was not conveyed to the units in the area," said Green.
Green is referring to the original 911 call made by the woman who eventually died.
"I set my house on fire... Can you come out here quick?" Bartlett told dispatchers.
"I did not know that anybody was in there trapped," said Moats.
"All we were told was, a house on fire, and we were given a set of numbers," said Green.
Moats says he got out of his fire truck and found nothing. Green says he searched the adjacent neighborhood in his truck for eight minutes before asking the dispatcher if there was any further information.
"She said no," said Moats.
The firefighters say 911 dispatchers should have stressed that the fire call was a possible entrapment.
"Had they been provided the iinformation from the 911 call, we would not be here today," said Morgan.
Moats and Green have appealed their firings.
11Alive.com
Reprinted with Permission
DUNWOODY, Ga. - Jeff Green and Tony Moats say they've relived daily the call their fire units answered January 24th at a home in Dunwoody.
Related
- Georgia Family Wants Apology from Fire Department
- Georgia Fire Officials Fired After Fatal House Fire Investigation
- Georgia Chief Resigns After Flawed Investigation
"No smoke was smelled, no neighbors were out, no noises no reflections - because it was dark - no glows that we'd seen or anything," Moats recalled during a news conference. Moats and Green have hired former DeKalb District Attorney J. Tom Morgan, and his former chief assistant DA John Petrey to represent them.
Five hours later, they got another call to the same location. The house was in flames. The woman inside, 74 year old Ann Bartlett was dead.
The county fired Green and Moats, saying they didn't try hard enough the first time to find the apparently smoldering fire that killed Bartlett.
The firefighters say county dispatchers also bear responsibility for the fatal fire.
"It's a tragedy for the Bartlett family. My condolences go out to the Bartlett family," said Green.
"I'm always on board to save a life. That's the number one goal of a firefighter. And the distress that was conveyed to 911 was not conveyed to the units in the area," said Green.
Green is referring to the original 911 call made by the woman who eventually died.
"I set my house on fire... Can you come out here quick?" Bartlett told dispatchers.
"I did not know that anybody was in there trapped," said Moats.
"All we were told was, a house on fire, and we were given a set of numbers," said Green.
Moats says he got out of his fire truck and found nothing. Green says he searched the adjacent neighborhood in his truck for eight minutes before asking the dispatcher if there was any further information.
"She said no," said Moats.
The firefighters say 911 dispatchers should have stressed that the fire call was a possible entrapment.
"Had they been provided the iinformation from the 911 call, we would not be here today," said Morgan.
Moats and Green have appealed their firings.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Doug on
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Didn't the dispatcher actually call a Battalion Chief on his cell phone, stressing how he/she felt this was a legitimate call?
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Permalink Reply by WestPhilly on
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That rings a bell.
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Permalink Reply by John Rulli Jr. on
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This might be getn off the subject a lil but people need to have there address clearly marked on there house, mailbox, or post. We deal with this issue daily.
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Permalink Reply by Jake Stoffer on
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All information that dispatch has received should be relayed to the guys in the field. They would have to check the dispatch tapes from the phone and the radio with this to see what happened.
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I still feel they could of done alot more on both the dispach and firefighters part. The crew should of had dispach call the caller back for further info! If and when they called back and no one answered dont ya think humm we just might have a problem. Common sence people!!!!!!
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Permalink Reply by Kathy D'Ambra on
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This does not deserve a firing. When the fire did not materialize for another 5 hours--whose to say the woman set the fire when she called the first time?? Could it be she was calling to just get attention--we all know people do that--and then she set the fire much later??
No one--dispatcher or firefighter--can be held responsible when the call is answered, and investigated to the best of their ability at the time. I really think this woman set this fire much later after the original phone call.
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Permalink Reply by hockey0901 on
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Im sure we all have had a similar situtation, in ways of wrong numbers on ads, not full reports of patient status, and all that. When people think emergency a sense of panic erupts. We as trained emergency workers have learned to control our emotions in a sense of harnessing that panicy feeling. I dont know about your dispatchers in your areas, but those that work here, need no "field" training. Without that time of not being in the field, they have not learned to control all these things. They get in a hurry and try to do 50 things at once and missed very important details. Like a house fire w/ possible entrapment. Just slow down, take a breath, and give a short but detailed report to all units.
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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Here's a novel approach. Why don't we walk the driveway (>100 feet and in the dark) and look? Maybe look into windows, or knock on the door and ask? The dispatchers weren't on the location, the crew was. No excuse.
I don't know, maybe that's only the way we do things out here in Hooterville!
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Permalink Reply by Roy Walker on
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I've tried hard to justify this response but sorry like most of you I can't. Now we blame the dispatcher? no numbers on mailbox? , I thought she said , they did? Sounds like everyone's responsible except those on scene. I've sent resources back to the station when I was on scene and initial investigations proved fruitless,but I kept at least one crew on site sometimes for an extended time just to error on the side of safety. Even though we all get some malicious calls we can't allow complacency in this business.
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