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Spotsylvania resident who founded a coalition for around the clock fire and rescue coverage seeks action after Feb. 5 fatal fire Date published: 4/20/2010
By DAN TELVOCK Sheryl Bennett has seen her share of shortcomings in Spotsylvania County's fire and rescue system. The Fawn Lake resident founded the Spotsylvania Coalition for 24/7 Fire and Emergency Services in 2004, after watching a neighbor's home burn down because it took crews an "agonizing" 18 minutes to respond to the 911 call. In 2002, her husband, Robert, needed an ambulance for a heart condition, but it took crews more than 15 minutes to respond to her home in the afternoon, she said. On both occasions, the closest station, Wilderness Fire and Rescue, was not staffed. Six years later, the county's combined system of volunteers and paid personnel failed to meet its goal of staffing all 10 stations around the clock by 2009. The system's leaders continue to work toward having all stations manned around the clock by 2011. But that's not why Bennett was recently back in front of fire and rescue officials. Bennett said when she read The Free Lance-Star's reports on the Feb. 5 fire on Spotswood Furnace Road that killed local actress and singer Sandy Hill, she had flashbacks. "Knowing what I do know, and I am certainly no expert in fighting fires, but the confusion that I heard as a citizen troubled me," she said, after listening to the dispatch recordings of the fire on newspaper's Web site, fredericksburg.com. The questions raised by Hill's death aren't about response times. They center on what happened after Chancellorsville Volunteer Fire and Rescue units arrived. The first volunteers arrived to the scene within four minutes of the 911 call. But it took about 12 minutes for crews to locate and rescue a teenager trapped in a first-floor bedroom. Firefighters searched the second floor of the 2,000-square-foot Cape Cod for about 20 minutes before they found Hill facedown in her second-floor bedroom, even though she had been on the phone with a 911 dispatcher providing directions. By the time crews reached her, she was unresponsive and not breathing. Hill, 43, is believed to have died from breathing in smoke.
Your RC post is revealing. I apologize that my comments reduced you to name calling. Remember the old adage...sticks and stones...etc.
I have a question: Who in the fire and rescue community is trying to spin the Feb. 5, 2010 as an arson?
Apparently Ms. Hill didn't get the message an arson was in play that would consume her life, while she layed in wait on THE SECOND FLOOR or can we call her death a suicide? Don't think so. WE identified the problem and a years worth solutions but chose a years worth of excuses to stand in the way. If the County Culture is born of fear from both sides, maybe we should ALL make up the middle, without lines or lies, and start all over again...from the top down, or until we make it to the bottom of the barrel.
Just a little too much KOOMBAHYAH being served up here. What's the price any of us should have to pay for going along to get along? I can't imagine any one person, concerned group, local government and their elected officials capable of changing Spotsylvania County's CULTURE. Look at the spin Fire and Rescue personnel would put on the table to make February 5, 2010 into something it was'nt and knowingly serving up distractions to make this stragesic screw-up look like the makings of an arson.
Koombahyah and all that ... career vs. volunteer ... volunteer vs. career ... Koombahyah and all that ... some know what they are doing and some have no clue ... Koombahyah and all that ... you might feel safe and I dont feel safe ... Koombahyah and all that ... the Commission and BoS want to avoid this incident but the public wants answers ... Koombahyah and all that ... nothing is going to change and this will happen again and again and nothing will ever change ... Koombahyah and all that ... KOOMBAHYAH!
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