A scathing internal report on the mishandling of a recent fire in Waldorf was leaked to the media, saying that it is a “miracle” that firefighters have not been seriously injured or killed in Charles County.
On June 5 around 6:30 p.m., the Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched to 5612 Needlefish Court for a house fire. Arriving within two minutes, responders found a single-family home with fire showing from the second floor and through the roof.
One volunteer firefighter was transported to the hospital and was released a few hours later for injuries received, according to the Office of the State Fire Marshal.
The destructive blaze caused $250,000 in structural damages to the home.
The internal report, sent to Southern Maryland News last week, was made by the Charles County Volunteer and EMS Association’s Significant Incident Response Team — which is comprised of a group of volunteer chiefs — and detailed issues with the chain of command on the scene of the June 5 fire.
“At some point around the 20-minute duration check, Chief 3 relinquished command to Chief 12B. With the lack of after-action reports from any chief of Waldorf, it is not known why this occurred,” the report reads. “In addition, Truck 1 was removed from the structure and was told to report to the Alpha Side for not following directions. Once again, without any reports from any chief of Waldorf it is not known why this occurred.”
Southern Maryland News attempted to reach the Waldorf chief through phone calls to the firehouse earlier this week but did not get a response as of Wednesday afternoon.
A source from the firefighters’ association, who asked not to be named, said that similar reports outlining issues have been occurring for about 18 months, but there had been “nothing that harsh before.”
There have been approximately 40 to 50 such incident reports, in the source’s estimation, and they are a part of an accountability process to improve operations. “They are not punitive,” the person said.
Bill Smith, the association’s public information officer, told Southern Maryland News that this was the harshest report that he’d seen yet, but it is a document that the departments can use to train and improve.
“Issues will be handled,” Smith said.
Commissioner Gilbert “BJ” Bowling (D), who serves on the Charles County Board of Fire and Rescue as the commissioner representative, told Southern Maryland News in a phone call that the after-action reports are standard, harsh or positive.
Bowling said that he did believe that it “wasn’t coincidence” that a report leaked days after that the volunteer fire departments took a stance against switching to a charter form of government in Charles County.
When Smith was asked about Bowling’s comments, he said he did not want to get involved in the politics of the county, but confirmed that the association has taken a stance against the governmental switch, which will go to Charles County voters in November’s election.
The fire and EMS association released a written statement Tuesday afternoon in response to a Washington, D.C., television news report “regarding a negative after-action report, and the allegations of laziness and lack of accountability on fire grounds.”
The statement said that, “We’d also like to reassure our citizens that our volunteers strive to provide the best service possible to our community, and that we are continuously training and evaluating ourselves to improve those services. ... In the past year we have not only implemented these after action reports and reviews, but we have also created an accountability board, and all after-action reports are published on our member website for all the members of the association to read, not just our leadership.”
While the June 5 incident report lists five things that were done well, it listed 14 items that needed attention.
According to the report, the incident commander failed to use his radio to communicate assignments, causing “confusion for everyone,” no real supervisor assignments were announced, window ventilation was “done lazily,” there was operator error in equipment being used during the fire attack, some units began self-assigning roles and the first arriving chiefs never established a formal command.
The association does not know why one firefighter was transported to the hospital during the blaze, according to the report
“Units were on cruise control and did what they wanted,” the report’s summary said. “Fortunately, the fire was small enough to avoid major problems. It’s documented in more than one place that the incident commander admitted to supervisors on scene that he had no idea what was going on and what needed to be done.”
In closing the report read, “Many of the departments do not and will not change their horrible and careless tactics. The same companies continue to operate in a careless manner, do not care about safety, fail to display a command presence on the scene and willfully disobey the ‘right thing to do’ on a fireground.”
“This behavior needs to cease immediately or Charles County is going to seriously injure or kill firefighter’s [sic] (how this has not happened yet is a miracle),” one of the final lines of the report read. “Repeatedly these reports fall on deaf ears, and it is disgraceful.”
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