Last month, fire departments were put on blast in the wake of the release of a few after action reviews (AARs) and the verdict in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit that involved finding incident commanders at fault in a firefighter’s death. When the local media outlets reported on operations, citizens got behind the reports and asked more questions on social media and asked responders about their work on the street.
Reports came out that detail the Palisades Fire in January that swept through 23,000 acres in Los Angeles County and left 12 dead and damaged 6,800 structures. Two months earlier, the Mountain Fire in Ventura County consumed nearly 200 homes.
Recently released reports suggest that crews might have left the scenes of previous smaller brush fires before the flames were completely snuffed out and that Santa Ana winds later rekindled those fires, sparking widespread devastation. The reports show that firefighters efforts weren’t effective at the smaller fires, and some efforts failed during the larger suppression efforts.
In a series of text messages between Los Angeles County firefighters, members expressed their belief that the decision to leave was premature and questioned the commander’s decisions at the Palisades Fire. Two weeks after, residents filed a lawsuit and were trying to subpoena the text messages to learn more about what happened and possibly place some of the liability on the parks service, saying that the service didn’t want the firefighters using large vehicles in the area to mop up the fires.
In Illinois, two fire chiefs were found equally responsible for the death of Sterling Fire Department Lt. Garrett Ramos, and his family was awarded $31 million as the result of a lawsuit. Ramos fell into the basement nearly an hour into a residential fire, and the commanders were unaware of the basement until a mayday was called. Poor size-up and personnel accountability skills and the lack of mayday procedures and training were cited, with the court finding that members should have been pulled from the structure earlier.
The Leonardtown, MD, Volunteer Fire Department published a highly in-depth AAR that used outside experts following the death of Naval Air Station Patuxent River Firefighter Brice Trossbach in Leonardtown’s first-due territory. Trossbach responded on mutual aid to a dwelling fire, which was first reported as an automatic fire alarm just after 4 a.m.
Not only was the report critical of the actions on the fireground that resulted in Trossbach’s death but also of the management and operations of some volunteer fire companies within the county, noting that they “have largely failed to keep up with modern fire service best practices and standards, resisting any attempt to improve themselves and the fire system overall.”
The report points to varying levels of experiences across the fireground—which can happen in any community today—but also looks at the command structure, the confusion that followed a structural collapse that dropped Trossbach into the basement and a delayed mayday call, plus varying degrees of tactics that were employed.
At a time when budgets are scrutinized, legal actions are more common than using your turn signal to indicate a lane change, and in an era where there’s a lack of experience by many officers and firefighters, these incidents should cause all of our readers to reflect on the lessons from these reports and examine where your department is.
Chief Brandon Fletcher shared a timely statement based on these reports and the lawsuit in this month’s Volunteer View (page 48): “We can’t achieve mission success through planning alone, although we can fail from a lack of planning.”
Award Nominees Sought
We are seeking nominations for the Michael O. McNamee Award of Valor and the Thomas Carr Community Service Awards. I highly encourage chief officers to review the efforts of their members, whether in regard to an extraordinary rescue effort or command decision (in the case of the Award of Valor) or saving lives before 9-1-1 has to be dialed (for the Thomas Carr Community Service Awards) and nominate them. It’s a tremendous opportunity for the staff of Firehouse to review these nominations and recognize those who do honorable work. Nominate someone at www.firehouse.com/valor.
