Morning Lineup – September 7

Although we didn’t report on it, there was an incident earlier this week that got wide attention on many fire sites as well as national coverage.  I’m referring to the unbelievable case in Hastings, Michigan (between Grand Rapids and Lansing), where the local fire department of the small town of 7,000+ residents botched a car fire.

It wasn’t the fire that they messed up, but what happened afterwards.  The car was burning in the driveway of a home around 11 am and the FD arrived to put it out, which they did.  It was reported that there were seven FF’s on the scene.  But after they extinguished the fire they wrapped up, left a note on the windshield and went back to quarters.  Nobody saw the charred body of the driver sitting at the steering wheel.

Two hours later, the dead man’s daughter was wondering why she hadn’t heard from him and drove over to his house along with her husband and the first thing they saw was the burned-out car and the skull of the cadaver sitting in the driver’s seat.

“As we came up the drive my wife started screaming,” says Johnny Montes, the dead man’s son-in-law. “She noticed the burned car before I did.” Montes says he could see the charred remains of Paul Bailey even before he exited his truck.  “I knew he was in there,” says Montes. “I could see his head. Then I got over here and I could see everything.”

However in the world those guys could be standing there and miss that is just inexcusable.  After a fire is out, isn’t it standard practice to check for the hot spots?  That would involve opening the doors and looking around.  I don’t need to go on and on about that because you already know.  The only thing that I can guess is that they were in a big rush to get back to the station (or someplace) so they could resume whatever they were doing at the time.  Lunch maybe?  Hot TV soap opera?  Whatever it was, they were obviously putting the fire victim’s best interests behind their own.  For seven people to be on the scene and not a one of them even taking a moment to check inside the car.  Well ……. what can you say?

Firegeezer reader Adam R. writes to tell us that on Thursday the FD and the town Mayor sent a letter of apology to the family for the distress caused by their failure to see the remains in the car before they hustled away.  Yep, that’s a head-shaker all right.

Ok, let’s get this equipment checked out.  I’ll get the coffee started and then when we get back to the day room, let’s chat about what we’re really here for and remind ourselves that we need to keep our mind on what our priorities are.

This week’s photo art comes from the archives:

[photopress:swan_fog.jpg,full,centered]