“When I called, a recording picked up and I just hung up,” he said. “I didn’t leave a message.”
This time when he thought about getting involved, Remkus resolved not to let the Dallas fire department off so easily.
The retired Dallas firefighter feels he should have done more to raise questions and force accountability after the 2002 death of fellow firefighter Vincent Davis.
“Basically I chickened out because of the fear of being labeled a snitch,” he said. “I am, to this day, ashamed of my cowardice.”
So he’s not quitting so easily with the 2013 death of firefighter Stanley Wilson.
“Stan did not deserve what happened to him. Jenny and their two boys did not deserve what happened to them,” he said.
“This was not only preventable, it was predictable,” the 67-year-old Arlington resident contends.
Remkus said the mistakes leading to Wilson’s death were far more extreme than those when Davis died in a wall collapse 12 years ago.
But the retiree said he still sees a department more interested in minimizing blame than fostering change. “There should be some accountability. Such blatant violations of procedure deserve disciplinary action,” he said.
This time, rather than calling the widow, Remkus wrote to the attorney representing the Wilson family, Barry Hasten, offering whatever support he could give.
He has also contacted journalists, fellow retirees and active-duty firefighters, trying to keep attention focused on the case.
Remkus, who served in the fire department from 1972 to 2005, is far from alone in believing Wilson’s death deserves more scrutiny.
Just last week, the Dallas Fire Fighters’ Association called for an investigation into whether a deputy chief or others gave false accounts of what happened the night of May 20, 2013.
Aerial ladder trucks had been pouring tons of water on a burning apartment building in northeast Dallas when firefighters went inside to search for occupants, which state investigators called “extremely dangerous.”
The building collapsed and Wilson was trapped inside. The firefighters who narrowly escaped said Deputy Chief Bobby Ross had ordered them into the building.
Ross denied that, saying he merely ordered them to break windows from outside the building to alert anyone who might be inside.
Remkus scoffed at that. “Never heard of such a thing!” he said. “Even a non-fire-department person looks at that and says, ‘What?!’
“The ladder pipes were each pouring 4 tons of water a minute on that building. Those men had no business being anywhere near there,” he said.
He said Ross, the incident commander, was known for risky commands. “I worked under him. It was apparent to me that he lacked a lot of common sense. I was fearful that he would get me hurt.”
Ross declined to talk to me. He has been reassigned to administrative duties that will not involve command at fire scenes.
But that’s not a disciplinary action. When announcing the results of the investigation, Dallas Fire-Rescue Chief Louie Bright was firm in saying no one deserved particular blame or discipline.
Remkus had his own close call with death in the 1980s when safety procedure broke down.
He was the “nozzle man,” the first into a burning house. Visibility was zero in the smoke-filled house. Other firefighters charged in behind him, nearly pushing him into the fire.
“I was knocked down, my helmet came off and the mask was ripped from my face. I thought I was going to die,” he said.
So even in retirement, it leaves him vigilant about protecting other firefighters and learning from tragedy.
“Transparency and accountability — that’s how you keep this from happening again,” he said.
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