Last night on the Firefighter Netcast, we discussed the Dekalb County, GA incident. At the time of our discussion, we were joined by ChiefReason Art, and Christopher Naum. I enjoy talking to guys like the two of them. The reason why I like talking to them is that they usually offer a thought, a mindset, or an ideal that I might not have thought of on my own. I am not talking about a varying opinion per say, but more of broadening the scope of the discussion to bring up issues I didn’t have the inclination to.

While the incident happened in Dekalb, this is not about the Dekalb County Fire Rescue Department. This is about the incident, why it happened, and preventing it from happening again….anywhere.

In case you just crawled out from underneath a rock, the Dekalb County incident I am referring to is best portrayed by Dave Statter’s coverage here and here.

Chief Reason Art offers his view of the incident:

And if I was a resident of this county, I would want some assurances that asses will come out of the seats of the trucks and check my welfare, if needed. And that’s really my biggest beef. Even after not smelling smoke or seeing fire, someone could have, at the very least, checked on this lady’s welfare, just to re-assure her. Continue reading his full post on the subject.

There has been an investigation report published by the Dekalb County Fire Rescue Department. The report can be viewed here. I am unclear if there is a further investigation going on or not.

The incident occurred at 1687 North Houghton Court in Dekalb County, Georgia on January 24th. To this point, 5 personnel have been fired over the events and the Fire Chief David Foster resigned.

Art Goodrich brought up some thoughts last night about how long it will take for Dekalb Fire and Rescue to overcome this incident.

Think about how many departments are facing budget cutbacks. Year after year, we have to cut more and more. Now think about hard your locality would be hit by a big dollar lawsuit.  How will anyone be able to afford a settlement or lawsuit and where will they take the money from to pay for it?

How will this incident reflect on the public’s confidence in their department. I don’t know about you but I think I might be second guessing my department if something like this were to happen. The public doesn’t understand what we do and this incident only complicates things. It is unacceptable and the entire incident should be thoroughly investigated to find any underlying issues which need to be corrected.

I feel as though there might be an underlying problem here. Potentially the way in which firefighters do business. If doing a visual from the street is an every day occurrence, there needs to be remedial training done from the bottom up and top down to address the tunnel vision and ensure compliance with strict SOP’s.

If we get a fire alarm, we get out of the truck and do a 360 walk around. We look in windows and shine flashlights into them to get a visual on the inside of the building. We make sure that it is false alarm and we do not take others words for it. If we are able to gain access, we check the area where the alarm is going off and make sure that there are no issues.

If we get a call for a fire, we do the same. This woman called and reported a fire in her house. I will be damned if I am not knocking on her door.

Complacency kills. This is a case study for that.

I have ALWAYS maintained that we can have all the fun at the firehouse. We can play practical jokes on one another. We can cut up and enjoy camaraderie. HOWEVER, once those tones hit we go to work. We should be serious, professional, thorough, and responsible. We are being held accountable…rightfully so!

I am sure that the members of the Dekalb County Fire Rescue Department are VERY committed to their customers. I am sure that they are great at what they do and are great firefighters. I certainly hope they are able to overcome the obstacles which might present themselves after this incident. I realize that this incident and mistakes made during it do not reflect the entire department.

If you take anything away from this, let it be that you have learned from their mistakes.