I had to wait two days to post this. The anger and frustration I felt, was just too great to attempt a measured, objective post. I apologize in advance for a rather bitter, dark, angry, and very long post. There are great professional and highly trained volunteer firefighters out there, my frustration, is just from what I have actually witnessed. I also learned from police work, that in the heat (no pun intended) of the moment, A minute can seem like an hour. Also, variables like heavy equipment can make people move slowly, however anyone with a professional eye can see a lack of enthusiasm and urgency, or cavalier attitudes.

Tuesday night, I was just preparing to shut down my computer at about 10:45 pm. On the police scanner I heard a call go out regarding a fire. Of all the strange coincidences that could occur, it was the man’s home whom we are buying our trailer from. It was on fire. Michelle and I drove the 1 mile and arrived just before the large fire trucks, this is where the nightmare begins. As we park you can see there was a “command vehicle” which is basically worthless in my opinion, other than getting to paint up an SUV and decorate it with lights. The firetruck/s are pulling up as well.

As we pull up, flames are roaring out of a room on the end of the residence. Mr. Jimmy (81 years old) his nephew 15, and his daughter who has heart problems, and is on a list for transplant, are sitting on the ground. She is crying, begging someone to get her “babies” out. Her two dogs that are still in the trailer. Only one room is on fire at this time. The dogs are, one 2 rooms away that had run and hid under a chest of drawers, and one on the far end of the home that was not involved in fire for a while. You have to be there to feel the anguished cries of someone that fears for their pets and no one seems to care.

No One seemed to have a sense of urgency

No One seemed to have a sense of urgency as they arrived on the scene. Remember, these are units that respond many times a week to fires of different kinds. They are fully equipped with great firefighting gear. We stood there in amazement as it took nearly 15 minutes to get two hoses pulled from two large trucks. Most of the firemen are just standing around, doing nothing in full gear at the front door. Finally, in my video after a good while you see 4 men pulling a hose with some urgency. That will be the only urgency you see in the whole incident.

Odd thing is, three of them were not firefighters, they were ambulance drivers from an ambulance company and deputies, only ONE pulling that hose was a fireman. They begin spraying water in the front door, down the hallway towards the burning room. It’s doing nothing for the fire roaring in the bedroom. I finally ask why they don’t apply water into the burning room through the open window. “We don’t want to drive the fire through the rest of the trailer” he says. After 30 minutes they finally pull the hose from the front door, and blast water in the window, putting the fire out in less than 30 secs. There were 3 large firetrucks there, but only two hoses deployed?

 

No firefighters made an attempt to look

There was no sense of coordination, no urgency, no logical assault on the fire, no concern over the pets. Of course human life is often valued over animal life when a choice has to be made. The owner of the home says they were trying to contain the fire with fire extinguishers and had it all but out when the first firefighter arrived. They were ushered out of the home (naturally) but no firefighters made an attempt to look in the rooms to retrieve the pets, even though they were given exact locations where the pets were. The fire was allowed to grow while the fire fighters stood around at the front door, Taking an inordinate amount of time to get a water line to fight the fire.

This is what I have learned from this horrific incident, and another incident here in our park within a single year, that I also personally witnessed. Information from current, and former volunteers, on this scene that night.

• They usually automatically count a trailer fire as a total loss anyway. I guess that accounts for the non-urgency. However by allowing one to burn destroys many family items that might have been saved with a little effort to contain the fire more.
• They don’t put a priority on animals/pets. So the cute little refrigerator magnet they give out or sell for donations, mean nothing.
• There were about 30+ personnel there, most doing nothing. The most active people were the County Deputies and personnel from a private ambulance company, doing work that the firefighters that were standing around should have been doing.
• There were at least 4 “Command Vehicles”, 3 full size pumper trucks, and about 25 other personal vehicles of responders.
• Sources told me that this is a bad practice the departments in this area of response have of allowing structures to just burn instead of applying effort.
• One source said two family members had volunteered/joined, and then left, after not being given a suitable answer for allowing structures to simply burn for lack of effort.

We know that if we ever have a fire, all is lost. There is no way this group, or apparently many of the departments within miles of us, have the training and leadership to efficiently battle a fire. There were 3 separate department entities there, and numerous private volunteers, a one room fire could not be contained in an efficient manner.

I plan on delving deeper in this. I have not verified it from actual active volunteer members, but a former volunteer source stated the department receives a small amount per call responded to, and each volunteer that shows up is compensated. This would explain the mad reckless dashes, to far away calls in other jurisdictions in private vehicles. As I stated, I would like to update this with official sources. This is something that needs more improvement since lives do depend on their skills. I intend on shining a light on the departments that are poorly trained and cause unnecessary loss of property and life, be it human or animal.

Lastly, here is a video I pieced together from the 3 hours were spent on the scene with our friends during the fire. The nine-year-old dog found in the farthest area from the fire was deceased from smoke inhalation. It was revived however. The large 6-month old puppy had run and hidden under a chest or drawers scared, and snapped at the boy when he tried to get him. They hoped the fire department would go in quickly since they were there with gloves and suits on and save the puppy, which at that time was a good two rooms from the fire. However, the firefighters made no attempt to enter, or start fighting the fire for over 15 mins, and the smoke and intense heat as the fire increased, overcame the dog, it’s throat was burned to badly from the intense heat, to incubate him.

One Hero of this entire group

There was one firefighter, a female that was also a Vet Tech in personal life. She entered the building while it was more involved, and located the 9-year old small dog in the far end of the trailer. She then went in later as the others finally stopped standing around, and put some water in the hallway, and retrieved the larger 6 month old puppy. She work feverishly doing CPR but it was too injured to be revived. You will note, that while everyone else was just standing around talking, she had retrieved the pet, and she and an ambulance driver are carrying it. He is from a personal company. Why were not 2 firefighters carrying the animal.

Comments welcome,