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Incident Commander Tony Dennis tells task force reviewing Feb. 5 fatal fire that nothing could have prepared him for what happened that early morning on Spotswood Furnace Road Date published: 6/6/2010
By DAN TELVOCK With about 3 inches of snow on the ground in the early morning of Feb. 5, Chancellor Volunteer Assistant Fire Chief Tony Dennis set up a command post at Riverbend High School for a nearby house fire. At about 1 a.m., light smoke hung over the trees near the brick two-story Cape Code-style house on Spotswood Furnace Road. From Dennis' vantage point across the street, this appeared to be a routine house fire. Units with dozens of volunteers arrived within four minutes of the initial report. However, this wasn't a routine house fire. Early reports came in that possibly three people were trapped inside. One escaped on her own, and firefighters rescued another. But Sandy Hill, 43, died in an upstairs bedroom while she was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher. It took firefighters at least 20 minutes before Hill was found facedown on her floor. Dennis said that nothing could have prepared him for what he encountered, according to notes from his interview with a county task force. The interview is part of a voluminous binder of documents gathered by the Spotsylvania County task force of volunteer and career firefighters probing the incident. "When a life is lost like that, especially when such an effort was put forth, there is nothing that can prepare people with dealing with that," Dennis said during a short interview with The Free Lance-Star on Thursday, his first with the media since the fatal fire. Christie Brown escaped and called 911 at 12:54 a.m. Her teenage daughter was rescued at about 1:12 a.m. When that rescue was made, many volunteers thought their jobs were done. But Hill was still upstairs. 'GREAT CONFUSIONS' Dennis was in charge that morning, and his was the third unit to arrive at the scene. He gave out some assignments, but it wasn't much longer before "great confusions" set in, Dennis told the task force. Fire and Rescue Chief Chris Eudailey launched the internal review of the fire in March, and the task force completed the investigation in May. The following details come from interviews the task force conducted with the volunteers who were at the scene of the fire. Some units never reported to Dennis for duties. Other volunteers "freelanced" jobs without orders.
Read more stories about Spotsylvania Date published: 6/6/2010
No need to be sorry. FLS pulled this before, on myself and others on various subjects. If I'm viewed as condescending, it's only because they know what I am talking about. Any group of people in any profession, is a direct reflection of their management. I can post things here informally, but any official involvement would be a conflict of interest. Spotsy needs to fix this themselves. And, be quick about it. And, someone needs to answer for the death that occurred.
I am sorry your voice is not allowed to be heard. You mentioned the world professional, is that as some sort of expert in the field of cluster flops like this was? This accident does not need any type of expert to realize and understand the major mistakes that was made and what the county needs to do to try and prevent this from ever happening again. Once again I'm sorry your not being heard from but ... maybe your to condescending in how your responding?
I guess if I posted insults an inuendo like everyone else, then the FLS would have posted my last comment. Or maybe it's because listing my professional background to back up the facts I presented really kind of make Spotsy Fire Dept. look really bad. But, they didn't so I am bowing out of this discussion. seems to me the FLS is more interested in petty bickering on here, than they are in an intelligent discussion. You children have it.
but ... not this time. This was a serious cluster flop of serious proportion. Those who want to fully support the volunteers and say we dont really need change I want you to honestly answer this question ... what if this "great confusions" incident happened at an elementary school full of children or a old folks home or ... how many would die because of the confusion of the leadership and control over there own volunteers. Maybe its best you we dont ask that "what if" question at all.
I like how they keep mentioning how fast they all responded ... yep ... fast when the scene is less than a 1/2 mile driving distance from the station. I also remember that within that 1/2 mile ride the "Chief" had to inquire from the dispatcher where the closest hydrant was and it took another unit to tell him there was a hydrant across the street instead of the other side of Rt 3. These volunteers may be trained and do deserve some praise for what they do at times but ...
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