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,
I click ‘like’ for your impassioned writing, not for the service that family received. What were they all doing, standing near the entrance for so long? Why were they wearing breathing apparatus, when none of them intended to go inside? And how would putting water on the visible fire ever ‘spread it’?
I am sorry for your neighbours having to lose a much-loved dog, as well as possessions. That fire could have been out in moments.
Bu contrast, there was a fire in our street on Monday evening. (A rare occurrence) It was in a single garage behind a house, and it went up quite spectacularly, with flames reaching about 40 feet. The professional fire crews had to come from Fakenham, 14 miles away, and they made it in just under 15 minutes. Not bad, on country roads. Within a minute of their arrival, they had extinguished the fire, stopping it spreading to an adjacent garage, or nearby houses. I am pleased to be living somewhere that doesn’t rely on those buffoons in your neck of the woods.
I also noticed that some of those in uniform were very large people. Not a good idea to be so overweight, and doing such a physical job, even as a volunteer.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thank you for the like Pete. I had to wait to write, and for a bit that night I thought I might be doing it from a jail cell.
Most of these guys, heck most everyone in the south seems to be rather round these days. As sad as it sounds, most of them are in it for the ego, they get to drive like idiots to a call, dress up in gear, equip their personal vehicles with lights (even though it is illegal). There are some great departments around, but sadly ours is not one of them. I plan to do more on this in the future. Thanks for the comment Pete.
Sounds like this should be a letter to the editor. What a bunch of doofuses!
I agree Kate. That may happen as someone from the area stumbles on my Blog. It could launch more investigation into it. However these departments are no strangers to investigations. One department around this area, was caught setting fire to vacant houses so they could respond and get paid.
This was not a team of firefighters, apart from the one or two exceptional responders. This was a lazy-ass bunch of money grubbing opportunists, you should please excuse my language.
OK, so a trailer fire is a total loss. Fine, that makes a certain amount of sense. But that does not mean that its’ permissible to stand stand around with their thumbs up their butts while animals lives are at stake. That’s inexcusable. It’s criminal, whether or not an actual written law is being broken.
I feel so sorry for the pets’ owners to have suffered that anguish and loss.
I agree completely Maggie. Even though smoke damage would be throughout, pictures, and important documents may be recovered if not allowed to just sit and burn. Thanks for the comment.
That must have been so shocking and frustrating to have had to watch the inaction of the “firemen.” I guess they are much more interested in tricking out their SUVs than in actually fighting fires.
It was horribly frustrating. I thought for a short time that I might need bail money. Yes, tricking out their semi official SUV’s and personal vehicles is all the thing. Crazy part is, they are not “legal” emergency vehicles, other than the large real-life firetrucks.
A truly disturbing and sad story.
Thanks for the comment Kathy, it was disturbing to watch first hand.
What a mess! I’m sure all who read your excellent post will have their hackles up.
Thanks Anne, I appreciate the kind words on the post. I hope it does get some hackles up.
What a sad situation. Too bad it had to happen. Too many irons in the pot. Someone didn’t know how to supervise. Poor puppy.
Thanks Sandy, there were three or four separate departments that responded to what should have been a minor one room fire. You would think with three chiefs/commanders there, someone would have made sure it was coordinated.
Wow! I’m angry reading about it, I can’t imagine having to stand there and watch this all unfold! That poor puppy. It must have been so scared and went through so much pain and it sounds like it was all for no reason. They could have done something. It makes me sick. The owners will probably feel guilty about it now forever because they didn’t put their foot down and say they weren’t leaving until someone took 2 seconds to grab their dog. What a horrible situation! I feel terrible for everyone involved and I think those departments need some leadership and restructuring.
Yes Jen, they need something. Both animals could have been saved at the beginning. I just spoke to a former volunteer and his idea is human lives are more important, than wasting time on searching for pets and endangering his own. Animals also deserve at least an attempt at life if you can render it.
The occupants took the word of the firefighters that they would look for the pets as they were rushed out of the trailer. At that moment there was only small fire in the end bedroom. The first dog was located two rooms away, the second dog was in the other end of the trailer closed in a room.
The occupants needed help, there was the 15 year old that had attempted to get his dog, but it was scared and nipped him. The man was 81 years old with a healing from a broken hip, the other occupant has heart trouble and limited mobility. I didn’t tell the boy naturally. But from my observation of the evidence, his puppy died of inhaling super heated air which burned it’s throat preventing any aid, and it’s legs had skin missing where the fire had gotten close enough to bubble the skin off without charring or burning the fur. This incident should not have happened this way.
I am forever grateful to the fire fighters who helped me out twice, once with a chimney fire and once with a brush pile fire that got out of control. I also taught English to fire fighters when Oregon wanted them to get their Bachelor Degree. I found them caring and thoughtful with a real desire to help people. Yours seem to have created their own negative culture of entitlement and disregard for people. I was sorry to read this.
Firefighters are great people and much needed. Your right about the culture, it seems down here, most (not all) just play at being firefighters. Thanks for the comment.
Gosh – that’s unbelievable. I can see why you are angry!
Thanks for the comment Mary. If is aggravating and makes me furious to see such inefficiency, when it comes to protecting life and property.
OMG Ron! What a horrible disgusting bunch of idiots!!!! I wish you could find out their names and spread this story into the public arena. Maybe copy/paste this post into an email, send to your biggest local paper. Heads should roll! No excuses. Shaking my head. Poor family.
You may have a good idea Ellie. Perhaps I should get a local to leak it. The problem should not exist, no excuse for it. Thanks for the comment.
It is a little bit infuriating to watch that video. You just want to scream, “What are you doing???”.
Yes, I wanted to grab a helmet and run around knocking them on the heads! Thanks for the comment.