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Georgia Family Wants Apology from Fire Department
MASHAUN D. SIMON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An apology. That's what the family of an elderly woman who died in a Dunwoody house fire early Sunday morning wants from DeKalb County and fire department officials.
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Five hours later, after a neighbor called, firefighters returned and the home was completely engulfed in flames. Bartlett was found dead in the garage.
On Monday night, county Public Safety Director William "Wiz" Miller placed acting Officer in Charge William Greene, Capt. Tony L. Motes, Capt. Sell Caldwell and Battalion Chief Lesley Clark on leave with pay.
An investigation of the department's response to the fatal fire was launched earlier. Sheila Edwards, spokeswoman from the CEO's office, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the investigation was completed Wednesday night and shared with the family in a meeting with officials Thursday morning.
In the report, DeKalb officials said Greene, Motes, Caldwell and Clark "failed to establish incident command as required by Departmental Guidelines."
"They violated their own policy," said Pitts Carr, the family attorney and spokesman. "Their own standard procedure when responding to a 911 call is to do a full investigation of the premises, to exhaust everything you can do."
According to the report, officers arrived to the scene at around 1:15 a.m., 12 minutes after Bartlett called 911 saying, "I set the house on fire with the thing from my nose." Bartlett's reference was to an oxygen concentrator she used when she slept, said Linda Bartlett Marett, one of Bartlett's daughters. The concentrator was used to create oxygen to help Bartlett deal with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Officers report they found no signs of a fire when they first arrived. They drove around the cul-de-sac, slowly, but no one exited the engine or walked up the driveway to investigate further, the report said.
They stayed for a few minutes and left.
"Getting some of the report has been comforting," said Ruth Bartlett, another daughter. "An apology would give us some closure."
During the meeting with DeKalb officials, family members said they wanted officers who were on the scene that night to personally apologize, Edwards said.
Apologies and condolences have been offered by the CEO, the fire chief and the public safety director, she added. Further disciplinary action is pending.
Copyright 2010 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
January 29, 2010
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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I'm with Jack here, there seems to be more to this story that what is out right now. If the FF's didn't get off the truck, I can see an issue there, but I think the 911 tapes would also be important tidbits of info here too. There have been times we have been called to fires that were not there, we would get off the truck and check things out, but there are numerous times of a drive by cell phone report etc without any real confirmation or location.
Now this caller called in a fire, nothing showing, but the issue is the 5 hours later issue there is a fire. Now I'm not a super wizard here, but if the house was on fire at the time of the original call....then why wasn't anything noticed until 5 hours later? Not saying there couldn't be an issue going on, but a 5 hour time differential is curious. Personally I would think the cause and orgin of the fire should be determined BEFORE any apology is made. If this was a cooking, candle, or smoking related fire then how could it be for what the victim originally called for?
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Permalink Reply by Robert Grove on
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I have to tell ya'll from what I know atleasted about My county 911's Cad system for high band.. we have several opperations channels, several repeaters and several fire ground channels... NONE of those channels record transmissions. the only channel that records opperations is dispatch.. hopefully this county isnt using this certain cad system it sucks but god bless everyone involved
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Permalink Reply by John Rulli Jr. on
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That is total BULLSHIT!!!! I dont care what time of the day you get called out investigate the scene! Those guys on the truck should be relieved of there duties in the fire service permintly!!!!
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Permalink Reply by Christopher J Ostrander on
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Well that is your opinion and I have not sentenced them that is not my job but do you get called out on a so called fire and just drive by without getting out of the truck? We don't, If we get called we get out and start knocking on doors even if it is a false alarm to cover our asses. And for the whole captain thing that I think was a little childish so on that note SO MUCH FOR THE BROTHERHOOD!!!!
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Permalink Reply by Derek R. on
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Well, the investigation must have found something wrong because the four of them have been fired over the event. Maybe now we can say our piece. And to think, it would have only taken one of the four to say that it should be checked out which could have changed everything.
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Permalink Reply by james woodson on
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sorry ,sorry ,firefighter brothers yall didnt do ur jobs well as we are thought thur lots of training we get.so let this be a good lesson to my firefighter brothers out here in this world .
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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well apparently, an apology was not enough... end of story...
ATLANTA – Four firefighters were terminated Thursday and they are being investigated by police for their response to a house fire that killed an elderly woman. The DeKalb County firefighters responded to a 911 call from the home about 1 a.m. Sunday and left after they didn’t see any signs of flames or smoke. But according to an investigative report, they didn’t follow department procedure to approach the home, verify the address and make contact with the 911 caller. (entire story)
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So reading the latest here, some things still stick out to me. First of all is this from the article referred:
Most of the firefighters who responded to the call stayed in their vehicles, only getting out to help the trucks turn around in the cul-de-sac near the home, according to the report.
I have absolutely NO problem, none whatsoever here. I come from a dept where ONE rig is in charge for investigating. When a first in report is given with NOTHING SHOWING as the case here, sorry, if you are on the second, third in, etc rig, you don't just jump off. If the first in rig states all can go back, then you go, and yes that may mean people getting off rigs to back up the engineer. So, I see this info as some extra "filler" without a reporter checking into the procedure. Audio recordings would be VERY beneficial here to know what was said, but if Dekalb is like us, only info that is saved is from actual incidents. A nothing showing call wouldn't be recorded the same way a working fire is.
The four firefighters are acting officer in charge William Greene, Capt. Tony L. Motes, Battalion Chief Lesley Clark and Battalion Chief Bennie J. Paige. A fifth firefighter, Capt. Sell Caldwell, has been put on leave with pay as an investigation into his actions continues, DeKalb County spokeswoman Shelia Edwards said
Now when I seen 4 FF's were terminated, my thoughts went to the crew of the first in rig. What I see here is more of a witch hunt type of thing. Now really the ranking person should be in charge and does accept responsibility for actions, but there is again more CRITICAL info being let out of this story. This again goes back to radio traffic and information given from the FIRST IN officer. If nothing is showing and they say they can handle the call etc, it isn't up to the rest of the crew officers to babysit that first in company officer. If say this is a capt off a second due pump or truck, they don't have to take command, nor even babysit the first in company officer. In the case of a battalion chief, were they even on scene? Again they don't have to take command either, especially if the first in crew states they got it.
Personally, I don't know the details and my comments are based off of information not really known. IMO though I think this is a head hunting case of a dept caving to pressures from the family instead of perhaps knowing all the details. We don't know how rigs were staged, if they had a visual of the scene, we don't know if they even got on scene, we don't know if ACTING OFFICER in charge Greene really had good training or even time in the seat to make the call to take command etc. (in our system one can work one grade up)...is this a newer FF/engineer who gets bumped up to an officer position without much experience?
To me, if there should really be any blame on this it should be the lack of face to face contact with the caller and a check of the residence (if the story as such is accuate) which is the issue here. The finger pointing at ranking officers may not be justified....one can be checking a hydrant book, looking at staging issues, etc. To me, the mindest going in for a report of a working fire is stressful and chaotic, when a report of NOTHING SHOWING is given, it can relax you a bit, but there are other factors to consider and watching what the first in crew is doing is not one of them. Again I see this as the dept caving into the family with these reactions, not saying some reaction isn't justified, but with these reactions, I'm suspicious.
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Permalink Reply by Rusty Mancini on
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We have only heard one side of the story here! Until all the facts are in, I wouldn't be too quick to judge what happened.
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Permalink Reply by Arlene M. Zang on
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Agree, more to it, Investigate, accurately report, learn from it
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I have been following this since it began. Hard to believe it could happen the way it is portrayed here. I just hope that everyone can learn from this one incident, and no one is put into this rediculous situation ever again.
Like John said, its unfortunate that logger tapes/recordings are not available. Perhaps this will serve as a reminder to all that it might be a great idea to CYA and implement recordings for all responses. I know money is always an issue for that though. If the first due company failed to investigate the situation fully, I can't understand how the members of the other responding units are held accountable. I think it will damage the trust that officers have in each other and the system. If one officer says it's clear, why would any other officer have grounds to doubt it? The Batt. chief could have requested a second in to confirm the first in, and the third in to confirm the 2nd in.. and blah blah blah. BUT, like most departments I suspect, he trusted his officers' good judgment. How will this change the system? To me, TRUST is serious. We trust our brothers and sisters to do the right thing, especially in critical situations (like dragging our asses out of harms way when needed) How will this effect us? Another question that I have, is IF the department gives the family an appology, isn't that the same as admitting guilt? Does that open the doors for the family to file suit against.. well.. everyone they can? My guess is once the family hears the appology, it will only give them more grounds to file. Personally, I would be careful admitting anything until the final T's are crossed and the i's dotted. Food for thought I guess.
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