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Fatal fire in Spotsylvania leaves many questions.
AUDIO: Click here to listen to audio of the fire dispatch call.
TRANSCRIPT 1: Call from victim to 911 in fatal fire TRANSCRIPT 2: View the text of the fire dispatch call.
Editor's Note: This audio file contains a portion of Sandy Hill’s communication with a 911 dispatcher during the Feb. 5 fire that claimed Hill’s life. Some of the contents may be disturbing to listeners. Free Lance–Star editors believe this information is important to understanding what happened in the rescue attempt. Hill’s immediate family members were informed of the newspaper’s plans. Her mother, Lillian Hill, said she was OK with posting the recording if it helps save lives in the future.
Alternative content Date published: 3/21/2010
By DAN TELVOCK For at least 20 minutes, Sandy Hill was trapped inside her smoke-filled second-floor bedroom, coughing and pleading on her cell phone with a Spotsylvania County dispatcher to send firefighters to rescue her. At about 1:21 a.m., rescuers found the 43-year-old Geico insurance worker, but it was too late. She was already not breathing and unresponsive. She was pronounced dead at Mary Washington Hospital. About nine minutes before finding Hill, rescuers had saved a 17-year-old girl through the first-floor master bedroom window. The girl's mother, Christie Brown, had safely gotten out of the house on her own and made the first call to 911. The county's Fire and Rescue Department has launched an internal review of the Feb. 5 fire, chiefly to determine why it took so long to find Hill, even though the search team knew someone was upstairs. The Free Lance-Star obtained audio recordings of the 911 call and the dispatch communications for this incident. Experts and longtime firefighters who listened to the recordings say there is enough information on them to warrant an investigation by an outside agency. Through its own review of the fire and response, The Free Lance-Star raised the following questions to fire and rescue officials: Why the rescue crews did not use thermal imaging cameras they had available to help them locate Hill? Why no ladder was placed at either of Hill's bedroom windows for a rescue attempt? Why firefighters did not ventilate the house earlier to remove the smoke that is believed to be the cause of Hill's death? Why crews on the scene did not ask the first person to escape the house more questions about the location of the other residents? County Fire and Rescue Chief Chris Eudailey declined to discuss the tactics used. He said the review should provide answers to those questions and determine whether changes are needed in the combined paid and volunteer fire and rescue system he oversees. Kevin Dillard, the administrative chief for Chancellor Volunteer Fire and Rescue, which responded to the blaze, said that response needs to be investigated. "No one wants to make those same mistakes again," he said.
http://www.local3886.com/ Mash that link and see where it takes you and then realize why what you say sounds like rantings from a lunatical type person who really has no clue.
What firefighter's union are you referring too....I don't beleive during this entire story and subsequent investigations of this fatal fire EVER mention anything about a firefighters union. Talk about something you know about and butt out of issues you know nothing about. Remember you get what you pay for....! Hope it doesnt happen to your family...
As I alluded to earlier, I don't have anything against paid firefighters personnally. However, let's face it: The paid fire fighter's union couldn't care less if our tax rate went up 10 cents, 20 cents, or 50 cents if it meant expanding their membership ranks. If there were mistakes made in fighting this fire, they should be identified and corrected. But I want to hear that from an objective, unbiased source.
The county could not afford to staff 100% of the stations 100% of the time. But they could staff 60% of the stations 100% of the time with current county staffing levels.That alone would be a SIGNIFICANT change in service levels and have the vols concentrate their efforts and consolidate there personnel to only 4 stations. Then you would have decent staffing levels at the volunteer stations.
Well, to my knowledge the county never discussed pulling career staffing out of rural stations. The commission voted to make station 9 tone only during volunteer hours so that station alone would not pull down their staffing numbers. It's a way to sweep the numbers under the rug. County Administrator did ask the vols. to staff during holidays to save some holiday pay, but the staffing levels fell significantly and people complained and that has not ever happend since. Vols. botched that too.....
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