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FF Gets Prison in Fatal Responding Crash
From the Secret List...
Missouri Volunteer Firefighter Dominic Gillen received a 3 year prison sentence yesterday for a fatal responding traffic crash that happened in November of 2006. Gillen pleaded guilty last summer for voluntary manslaughter for the death of 17 year old Jacob Yeates. The Missouri Highway Patrol estimates Gillen was speeding at 84 mph and he passed a family of four in a no-passing zone on a blind hill on Missouri 76. His car hit head-on a car driven by Yeates, a high school Junior. Gillen, a member of the Goodhope FD, was responding to a brush fire in a POV with no lights or siren. He received minor injuries in the crash.
3 years in prison is what Prosecutors recommended. At the sentencing hearing, the victim's mother gave a victim impact statement and urged the judge not to grant probation.
Take Care-BE CAREFUL. SLOW DOWN.
Please drive carefully and follow your HTA. Obey the limits, stop at all stops and red lights (and do not proceed through in personal vehicle), and as learned in this tragic lesson, do not pass on a blind hill, double line. You would think it wouldn't need to be said, it's common sense, but apparently it does. Be careful out there, we face enough dangers without creating added risk on the roads.
Missouri Volunteer Firefighter Dominic Gillen received a 3 year prison sentence yesterday for a fatal responding traffic crash that happened in November of 2006. Gillen pleaded guilty last summer for voluntary manslaughter for the death of 17 year old Jacob Yeates. The Missouri Highway Patrol estimates Gillen was speeding at 84 mph and he passed a family of four in a no-passing zone on a blind hill on Missouri 76. His car hit head-on a car driven by Yeates, a high school Junior. Gillen, a member of the Goodhope FD, was responding to a brush fire in a POV with no lights or siren. He received minor injuries in the crash.
3 years in prison is what Prosecutors recommended. At the sentencing hearing, the victim's mother gave a victim impact statement and urged the judge not to grant probation.
Take Care-BE CAREFUL. SLOW DOWN.
Please drive carefully and follow your HTA. Obey the limits, stop at all stops and red lights (and do not proceed through in personal vehicle), and as learned in this tragic lesson, do not pass on a blind hill, double line. You would think it wouldn't need to be said, it's common sense, but apparently it does. Be careful out there, we face enough dangers without creating added risk on the roads.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Matt on
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Flappers can prove to be very beneficial if used in the proper manner. I.E. what are you going to use should your water supply run out. Now brush fires in the western portion of the U.S. are totally different that here in T.N. but again you totally missed my point. In my first statement I said never to overlook "just a brush fire" because you never know what you may encounter. Just couldn't let that slide. No offense ;o)
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Permalink Reply by Spanner 122 on
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Cut and paste. Voluntary manslaughter in basic terms means something that could be prevented, or that his voluntary actions, not actions beyond his control, resulted directly in the death.
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Permalink Reply by Firegal77 on
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LOL.. I acknowledge that you did say you never know what you are gonna get, it was the use of "just a brush fire" that got me all passionate! lol I think your term "if used in a proper manner" is the key here. Most people fail to understand that you arent actually supposed to flap a flapper but use it to suffocate the flame. The flailing that seems to occur more often than not with flappers tends to fan the flames more than put it out. Give me a shovel and dirt over a flapper any day! lol I also dont like flappers for the high likelyhood of reignition. It is awful hard to assure a fire is totally out in tall grass/brush. I prefer to use a shovel/McCloud/pulaski so I can get all the way down to mineral soil and avoid having to go back for reignition. It is a little harder to scrape down to mineral then blotting with a flapper, but in real flashy fuels, you may not have the time to blot with a flapper. That being said, I am curious how often you guys use the flappers, and what type fuels you are dealing with.
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Pretty much use them everytime we have a brush fire. Fuels are dried grass, scrub brush, leaves...etc. As far as using a flapper properly just like all the Equipment used in the fire service can be more detrimental to a fire scene than effective if used improperly. I.E. using positive pressure ventilation to vent a house fire used properly can vent a house very safely and effectively, but used improperly can push the fire throughout a house and increase the intensity of the flames. (Which is another debate between vertical and positive pressure ventilaiton)
All the members of the paid fire dept which I am a part of are all trained how to use a flapper, as well as a shovel. Most at my Volunteer Fire Dept as also trained. As far as the size of the brush fires (as I stated in my 1st response) require little more than a couple of flappers to extinguish. The size of these fires are nothing compared to the size of the ones you probably face out west.
Oddly enough I have never responded to a brush fire with the city (Paid) fire dept but have fought several with the county (Volunteer).
I guess the sarcasm in my use of the phrase "just a brush fire" was missed I apoligize for the confusion.
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