arson firegeezer on 29 Jul 2008 11:15 am
Texas Gov. Mansion Fire Update
THE FINAL REPORT FROM TEXAS DPS (Dept. of Public Safety) ON THE SECURITY LAPSES AT last month’s devastating fire in the Governor’s Mansion was released Monday.
The report is forthwith and highly critical of the actions and procedures of the DPS from the top echelon down to the troopers who were on duty at the mansion.
Among the findings were the facts that there were never any written orders instructing the troopers how to perform and how to operate the security equipment. There are written procedures explaining how to respond to smoke alarms, but those instructions were not available to troopers at the mansion during construction.
As we have already reported here, the intrusion alarm had been disabled for months and about 1/3 of the security cameras were not functioning.
The trooper on duty the morning of the June 8 fire, John Esposito, said he never conducted a fire watch during any of his 16 shifts between October and June, according to the report.
“Trooper Esposito said he didn’t know about the log or instructions to conduct a fire watch,” the report states. But it also states that the fire watch log shows Esposito’s name written in the log multiple times.
When the fire bomb was pitched into the front of the house, the trooper on duty, John Esposito, had his back to the camera monitors and was never aware of a fire in progress until the monitored fire alarm sounded. It was another 7 minutes before he called the DPS command center to report it. And then the DPS operator asked him if she needed to call the fire department. All told, there was a 19-minute delay from the start of the fire until the FD was notified by DPS of the fire alarm.
Earlier this month the director of DPS, Col. Tommy Davis announced his retirement effective next month.
The entire 16-page report can be read in .pdf format HERE.
Firegeezer urges you to take the time to look over it.
WOAI Ch. 4 San Antonio summarizes the security lapses in this video:
KVUE Ch. Austin shows the timeline of the delayed response:
Previous Firegeezer reports and videos on the fire and its aftermath last month can be read HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.
