WASHINGTON, D.C. -- 9NEWS NOW has learned that on Saturday, three days after a fire destroyed a multi-million dollar mansion in Northwest Washington, the DC Fire & EMS Department quietly moved to partially implement one of the recommendations from a 2007 report that looked at water supply issues in the Nation's Capital.
The order from Assistant Chief of Operations Lawrence Schultz provides a driver-operator for two of the city's six water supply engine companies and outlines how the units will respond on the initial dispatch to fires in two large areas of the city.
Previously other fire companies had to provide a driver for the units and they normally weren't dispatched until a second-alarm was requested because of a large amount of fire. Now the two staffed water supply engines will be sent on all reports of fires in a large portion of Northwest and anywhere east of the Anacostia River.
Department spokesman Pete Piringer confirms it is one of a number of steps the city is taking in an effort to address issues that surfaced after the fire on July 29 at the home of former school board president Peggy Cooper Cafritz.
Prior to this order being issued, none of the unit's were staffed and relied on other fire companies to respond to the station where the units are housed. The water supply companies that are now staffed around-the-clock are at the firehouse on Lanier Place in Adams Morgan and the one at 2813 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE.
The companies carry large diameter hose able to move a greater volume of water than the city's standard fire engines.
DC Fire & EMS Department Chief Dennis Rubin said last week it took two hours Wednesday evening for firefighters to secure a reliable water supply to handle the fire at 3030 Chain Bridge Road, NW. The lack of available water at the fire was very similar to water issues the department faced during a blaze that destroyed a large apartment building on October 1, 2007. That four-alarm fire on Adams Mill Road highlighted problems between the fire department and the DC Water & Sewer Authority (WASA).
A consultant's report ordered by the DC Fire & EMS Department after the 2007 fire addressed the water supply companies in its recommendations:
DC Fire & EMS Department should seek funding to operate the water supply engines as additional fully-staffed engine companies.
The morning after the Chain Bridge Road fire Chief Rubin told 9NEWS NOW the funds have not been available to follow all of the recommendations.
As 9NEWS NOW first reported on Tuesday, the 2007 report by fire service consultant J. Gordon Routley was not formally presented to the DC City Council during a hearing looking into the Adams Mill Road fire.
Until now, water supply companies were only automatically dispatched on a second-alarm and on the initial alarm in a small number of areas of the city where there were known water supply issues. One of those locations is the campus of St. Elizabeth's Hospital.
Republished with permission of WUSA-TV.
