Fire Districts

[karieduckworth]

I am just kinda curious on everybodys thoughts on this.

Watch the video and read the article

[web]http://www.kmiz.com/news/story.php?id=10546&author=Brynn%20Gingras&category=Fire&franchise=&county=Randolph&city=&partner=[/web]

(Hope I did this right) :wink:

[JPINFV]

link (fixed)

It's generally better to just post the link instead of embedding the page. I only embed if I can't directly link an image [and then it's only the image]. There have been problems in the past, especially if the page is a .pdf, with too many embedded pages breaking a thread.

After watching the video, I thank god that I've always lived in a place with professional fire suppression with automatic mutual aid (my understanding is that fire units in Orange County, CA are dispatched without regard to city limits) I don't buy the liability argument, especially since fires are not that common to begin with. Just because the fire company's actions were correct doesn't make it right.

[karieduckworth]

Thats what I am trying to do...help!! How do ya do that

[karieduckworth]

Ok, sorry all...how bout I just do this. I will just copy/paste the article.

Fire Response Run Around

Why protocol allowed a Mid-Missouri home to burn down.

Moberly fire district protocol leaves family with a total loss

A Mid-Missouri family is homeless after their house burned down and they say one fire department just watched it happen.

The fire started from a space heater in the home that sits just a tenth of a mile outside Moberly city limits.

The Moberly Fire Department says it couldn't respond because the home is outside its jurisdiction and instead the family waited for other units until their home eventually became a total loss.

"I've got a 7 year old son, the only thing he was worried about was his pair of K-Swiss Sneakers because they make him run faster. My four year old was worried about his video games. There is nothing left in my house, nothing," said homeowner Dennis Price.

The night of the fire Price's wife called 911. That call went to dispatchers in Moberly who alerted the Higbee Fire District.

But officials say there was confusion about whether Price's home was within the Moberly city limits. So a Moberly fire truck responded as well, that truck arrived to the area first, but because of protocol was forced to sit at the city limit line.

"They told us everyone was out of the house and it was out of city limits so therefore it's not our jurisdiction," said Robert Creed Moberly's Assistant Fire Chief. He added unless the Higbee Fire District requested their help they couldn't move past the line.

"Everything is gone because I'm out of their jurisdiction. It's hard for me to think that somebody could sit there about a 10th of a mile away when your house is burning down and not come down here and help," said Price.

But I discovered that Price's home is at least three miles closer to the Moberly Fire Station than Higbee's.

"Technically we could have gotten there faster", said Creed.

Higbee Fire Captain Greg Eustace says since his crew are all volunteers it takes longer for them to respond because they are not housed at the station, so they would not be able to ask for help until it was too late.

So was the Moberly fire crew needed?

"Yes, had we gotten out there at the station and made an initial attack, I believe we could have saved 90% of the house," said the Higbee captain.

Moberly says it has to worry about liability, for example, if a separate fire started in the city limits at the same time, Moberly would be at fault for not responding as fast.

"We do feel bad, but we have to follow rules," said the Moberly Assistant Fire Chief.

We made a call to the State Fire Marshal's office who says a state statue shows Moberly is in the right.

He also says more fire districts are adopting these rules because of the liability.

The Higbee Fire Captain told us the area fire districts will be reviewing the incident to see if a change in protocal, which has been in place for more than twenty years, is needed.

[JPINFV]

To get the link to work I cut down the URl to just the story ID

http://www.kmiz.com/news/story.php?id=10546

and used the link button to format how it looks in the post. All of the extra stuff in the link is what is messing up the link.

[karieduckworth]

oppss...thank you JP...didn't see you fixed it before I copy/pasted the story. Guess I am still learning.

-10 points to self for totally messing this forum up

[JPINFV]

No worries... you didn't mess up the forum, its just that it's happened before. Besides, I fixed my link [it took me a few edits to get it] while you were posting the article.

[AZCEP]

This incident shouldn't really surprise anyone.

The department followed the response procedures that were agreed to by the bordering districts, and one family is now without. The fire department is suddenly supposed to be willing to violate their protocol to protect a citizen that is not in their own district?

What do you suppose would have happened to the crew that responded if they had started working the structure fire in front of them, and their own district would have needed them for something else? They would have been hung out to dry is what.

Maybe this will allow for some new procedures to be put into action, but I doubt it.