City dismisses two more fire officials

The Baltimore City Fire Department has dismissed two more commanders for being "negligent" and "incompetent" in their roles at a live-burn training exercise in which instructors violated dozens of safety rules and a 29-year-old recruit died.

This brings to three the number of fire officers fired in the wake of the Feb. 9 fatal exercise, a significant development for leaders at fire departments around the country who are monitoring what's happening with training in Baltimore as they decide how -- and even if -- they will conduct live burns.

Lt. Joseph L. Crest, the lead instructor at the fatal exercise, and Lt. Barry P. Broyles, the instructor in charge of an ill-prepared rescue team, will lose their jobs effective Aug. 2 and Aug. 4. The head of the fire academy, Battalion Chief Kenneth B. Hyde Sr., was fired two weeks after the burn that led to the death of Racheal M. Wilson.

"The message here is that this kind of incompetence is not going to be tolerated at the Fire Department," said Rick Binetti, a Fire Department spokesman. "They are asked to do a job, they are asked to follow safety regulations. When that is not done, people's lives are in danger."

The developments in Baltimore are being disseminated to a network of national fire leaders via blast e-mails, online forums and trade journals.

Jay Lowry, the editor of a popular industry blog Firefighter Hourly, said he regularly receives comments about Baltimore from leaders at midsize and large fire departments.

"Baltimore is important," he said. "When it comes to training, Baltimore is going to stick out in the debate about whether or not the fire service continues to conduct live burns."

He said that readers often ask: "Will [Baltimore] spur any change?"

Lowry noted that there is considerable speculation about the fate of Fire Chief William J. Goodwin Jr. "He's a respected fire chief," said Lowry, who used to be the fire marshal for the Charleston, S.C., Fire Department. "Obviously there is interest in whether or not the fire chief gets dismissed. Certainly based on that, [other chiefs] will make decisions in the future about live burns."

Phil Welsh, the director of the Regional Emergency Services Training Center in North Carolina, said that when instructors talk about Baltimore, they express sympathy for the fire commanders but also use the fire as a reminder about following regulations.

"It brings back the realization that you have to be really careful and stay on top of what you are doing," he said. "There is a reason the standards are in place."

Baltimore fire commanders violated safety standards at virtually every phase of the live-burn exercise, according to an internal fire department report and a citation from the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, which determined that many of the violations were "willful." Fire instructors and consultants from Alabama, Connecticut and New Jersey have contacted The Sun seeking copies of those documents.

Internal department documents showed that Crest and Broyles were charged with four internal offenses -- including being "incompetent or negligent in the performance of duty," failing to give "undivided attention to assigned duties," failing to "exercise good judgment" and violating department rules.

Problems with Baltimore's exercise began when Hyde, then the training academy chief, selected a vacant building that had been ripped apart by an earlier class practicing how to tear holes in the walls and ceilings. It was a building that Hyde had previously deemed "unsuitable" for burning in an e-mail exchange with fire commanders.

The three-story house was filled with debris, including brush, a tire, mattresses and a lamppost, and nobody cleared it out before burning the house. Safety standards say that all holes should be patched and debris removed.

Recruits were not taken through the building, and emergency exits were never identified, violating other safety standards, according to the internal report and the state labor department's charging documents.

Safety rules say that only one fire can be lit in a house during a live burn, but three Baltimore instructors ignited a total of eight fires in the house. Instructors started on the third floor where they lit two, moved to the second floor and lit five, then lit one more on the first floor, according to the state labor department's charging documents.

The team of recruits that included Wilson did not have a radio, another safety violation. Other firefighters entered the house without proper breathing equipment and they did not have a backup hose ready if the fire got out of control, according to the department of labor.

The rescue team was staffed by recruits rather than seasoned firefighters, a violation of department policy. The hose for the group was coiled in the back of a pickup truck instead of being filled with water and ready to go, a safety violation noted in the state documents.

Capt. Stephan G. Fugate, the president of Baltimore's fire officers union, said that he is asking the city's civil service commission to reinstate Broyles and Crest. "My role as the union local president is to defend their position," he said.

Related topic galleries: Labor Legislation, Prosecution, Regional Authority, National Government, Riviera Beach, Government, Advanced Training

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