“Deeply Troubling” - Kerry Calls for Investigation of Firefighter Unit

[kerrygoddess]

“Deeply Troubling” - Kerry Calls for Investigation of Firefighter Unit
Posted by Pamela Leavey
February 5th, 2007 @ 4:12 pm



An MSNBC.com investigation was a call to action today for John Kerry, as he called for an investigation with “hours of the story’s publication.” The MSNBC investigation and story is, “based on federal investigative reports, documents made public under the Freedom of Information Act and extensive interviews, revealed that 15 firefighters have died since 1998 in fires where a PASS, or Personal Alert Safety System, either didn’t sound or was so quiet that rescuers weren’t given a chance to find the firefighter quickly.”

Nine of those deaths came after the federal government blocked the investigation by its own expert into possible failures of PASS alarms and other firefighting equipment, the documents show.

Kerry sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asking that they “investigate “deeply troubling” information in an MSNBC.com special report indicating that the federal unit charged with probing firefighter deaths ignored a warning in 2000 that personal alarms used at fire scenes might be failing.”

“It is completely unacceptable that our first responders don’t have the proper safety equipment, and if these allegations prove true, it’s unfathomable that the CDC would cover up something so detrimental to our firefighters’ safety,” Kerry told MSNBC.com. “I have asked the Department of Health and Human Services to launch a full investigation into these allegations. Nearly 1 million brave men and women risk their lives every day; we owe it to them and to the families of the deceased firefighters to get answers and hold the negligent parties accountable.”

Bill Dedman, MSNBC investigative reporter noted in his stroy that “Donald White, a spokesman for the inspector general’s office at HHS, said the office would review Kerry’s request over the next several weeks, after which “it will get assigned to the proper component within the office of IG for further investigation as warranted.””

“Over the next several weeks?” “Investigation as warranted?” Where the heck are the priorities of these fools?

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=5247

[TayTay]

1. This devices were supposed to prevent another Worcester tragedy

from happening. The Worcester fire Department lost six men in Dec of 1999 at a warehouse fire. Here's the details from the Worcester Telegram site:

Two who escaped fire describe harrowing search
Trying to rescue others in blackness

Saturday, December 11, 1999

By John J. Monahan
Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER-- Two firefighters from Engine Company 3 who narrowly escaped the warehouse fire that claimed two members of their own unit spoke last night about the harrowing fire and the courageous repeated entries they made into the pitch blackness as they tried to rescue others.

Firefighter Mark Fleming and Fire Lt. John F. Sullivan entered the fifth floor of the building as a rescue team and were on the upper floors of the windowless and dark warehouse when a rush of smoke and heat filled the building.

“Within a matter of seconds we couldn't see anything. There was zero visibility,” Firefighter Fleming said. As the flames erupted and the building filled with thick black smoke, there was a tremendous amount of noise, and crashing sounds added to the confusion.

“You couldn't hear anything,” Firefighter Fleming said, adding that he had to yell to communicate with Lt. Sullivan. “Literally holding on to him was the only way I knew where he was.”

Lt. Sullivan said all the while in the darkness, the pair was still searching for two men who had radioed that they couldn't find their way out and were running out of air. They were Firefighters Paul A. Brotherton and Jeremiah M. Lucey, both from Rescue 1, who were among the six who never escaped the blaze.

“We were calling out and sounding for them,” Lt. Sullivan said, describing how he was banging his ax on the floor and Firefighter Fleming was tapping with his tools, hoping the two men would sound back or call out for them if they could hear.

Read this article: Sen. Kerry was there for those people in Worcester. (Shit, we have all seen the photos with Denis Leary at benefit hockey games. That came from somewhere. It came from the Worcester fire where Leary lost a cousin and a friend and where Kerry was silently there for the people of Worcester. This is awful.)
http://www.telegram.com/static/fire/pol121191.html

These devices that have that bad failure rate are supposed to prevent tragedies like the Worcester warehouse fire from happening again. No wonder Kerry jumped on this so fast. He must have been pissed. Kerry did fight for new technology to help prevent future tragedies from occuring.

http://kerry.senate.gov/low/record.cfm?id=181413

And these sons of bitches had failures in the devices they sold and they swept it under the carpet? There simply is no low, no bottom that the Bush Admin can't sink beneath.

[kerrygoddess]

3. Son of bitches

is putting it mildly. This is really astounding. I have a friend who lost a relative in the Worcester fire.

[wisteria]

2. Good work on Sen. Kerry's part. Now, maybe we will need to keep and eye on

Donald White and make sure that something gets done.