The Highland Park fire chief is furious over a surprising move by Detroit firefighters who were ordered to gather their hoses and depart while a fire raged behind them.
I guarantee the FIREFIGHTERS are not to blame in this, it the chiefs and administration. I work in an area where on both my career and rural volunteer FD's often worked seamlessly like we were all on one big department. Citizens don't give a damn what name is on the truck that shows up, they just want the emergency dealt with. Any FD that can't work with the neighboring FD's because they get into dick measuring contests should have their leaders go work at McDonalds.
As a Prior LT of a FD , yes you can pull people out of the building if there is a safety issue but telling them to pack up and leave while the building is still on fire is pure negligence .
I'm in my 40th year of firefighting and served in every rank from probationary firefighter to Chief of the department, and I'm currently serving the Deputy Chief and there is no way I'd pull my guys out unless there was a damn good reason and then I sure as hell wouldn't pack up and leave, especially if my apparatus is the one with the lines deployed, my apparatus and crew would be committed until released by the IC who has jurisdiction. We have excellent relationships with all the departments around us and we work and train together and if it wasn't for the department names on our turnout gear you'd think it was all one huge department because we keep everything uniform between the departments. We all use the same SCBAs, hose and couplings, extrication equipment and pretty much everything will interchange between departments. It's all about working together for a common goal, our district lines only mean which department gets what tax money, it doesn't matter who shows up first as long as someone does! We have parts of our district that other departments can beat us to and vice versa.
there's a difference between turning over the scene of a fire to another department that's ready to take over and just abandoning the fire before the other crew is ready
Oh man. I have never heard of fire fighters abandoning a fire for administrative, budgetary or jurisdictional reasons. Maybe evacuation a building before it collapses but they always form a defensive perimeter to keep the fire from spreading to nearby buildings. This is the first time I have heard of a fire crew leaving a fire scene and risk allowing fire to spread to nearby buildings.
This is why Ohio has a state wide mutual aid agreement. If another department requests manpower or equipment you go. If you get called to a scene outside of your area, you handle it until the primary department arrives on scene and then continue to provide help.
As a former firefighter I can’t say I’m surprised honestly, even though it is shocking. I quit firefighting because the problems that every fire department has: internal politics. I couldn’t take the drama and the consequences of the politics anymore and moved on to something else. It definitely wasn’t the firefighters’ fault for leaving, it was the IC’s
Comon man! Once you have lines laid and water flowing, you just pack up and go? Sounds to me like Detroits Fire Chief needs investigated for assholishness.
I’m a retired fire chief and to hear this is very unacceptable! Firefighters help each other and save lives and property. It doesn’t matter whether it is in a different town or out of your district if you are there first, you do what you should do doesn’t matter what town or district it’s in you are saving lives and property. For God sake, stop the fighting it is stupid. Do your godly thing and help people survive and save their property. Pulling out was the wrong thing to do and for HP to go crazy on Detroit is stupid too. They weren’t there why?🤷♀️ Be an American and look out for One another. 😤🤨
You only pull out after the other departments have gotten set up with water flowing on the fire. A few minutes of allowing them to set up wouldn't have caused any harm and would have kept water on the fire !!!
Never in my career have I ever heard of something so crass. How the heck can anyone from the Detroit Fire Dept justify that action. It's selfish, dangerous and demeaning to the fire service in general. i am beyond disgusted. Detroit will now never be trusted because of this action.
Even us volunteers work together with other departments. Never have we ever pulled out. If one department has a fire they call us to standby at their station, to handle their other calls. This is ridiculous.
I'm not a firefighter or have any background to stand on other than what I think should be common sense. I understand handing over the scene, but don't pull lines out until new lines are in to replace what's coming out. Just walking away from an emergency because someone else shows up does not excuse you from damage done due to not making sure the relief is in place.
Typical case of politics being put before whats best for the community. Both highland park and detroit chiefs should be ashamed of how they handled this, and from what i understand, incidents in the past as well.
