The widow of Dallas firefighter Stanley Wilson called for an independent investigation of his death.
Wilson, 51, died when a condominium complex collapsed during a six-alarm fire in May 2013.
Wilson's wife, Jenny, was surrounded by family who were wearing red t-shirts that read "Stand Up for Stan" during a Tuesday press conference, NBCDFW.com reports.
"Jenny never wanted to file a lawsuit in this case, she did not want to sue Dallas Fire-Rescue, but we had hoped we could bring a lawsuit, if nothing else, to expose the people who allow this culture of indifference to exist unchecked and to bring about much-needed change," Wilson's attorney, Barry Hasten said.
The department conducted an internal investigation that was captured in a 700-page report.
"The recommendations and findings of this team were then covered up and replaced with a sanitized 109-page report, the shorter report did not address serious findings and recommendations," said Hasten. "Both reports were withheld for 15 months under the guise that there was an ongoing arson investigation which we now know was blatantly false."
"All I wanted was a sincere apology from the fire department saying 'We're sorry.' That didn't happen," said Jenny Wilson.
The department said flawed communication errors led Wilson's death and no members of the department were disciplined.
"I understand there's human error, I understand that and things happen, but we are calling on Mayor Rawlings, on the City Council, on Chief Bright, to get fire ground communication recordings implemented into the fire department. This is not to punish... it's just to hold everybody at the fire scene accountable for their actions. And most of all, so that this doesn't ever happen to another family in the Dallas Fire Department," Jenny Wilson said.
