DC Fire Union Head: Delays Hampered Fatal Fire Response

The head of the Washington, D.C. firefighters union is voicing concerns over delays that hampered the response to a fatal house fire early Wednesday.

The fast-moving fire began at around 4 a.m. at a home on the district's northeast side, WRC-TV reports. A man was trapped on the second floor, and he and his pet dog died in the fire.

According to WRC, the first 9-1-1 call concerning the fire was received at 4:01 a.m., but dispatchers didn't alert firefighters until 4:09 a.m.

And once crews reached the scene, they were held back by department policy, according to IAFF Local 36 President Dabney Hudson. Under the policy, which was enacted two years ago, arriving firefighters must wait two blocks away from the location of a call until command orders them to go in.

“Our units knew there was someone inside the house, and yet they had to stage," Hudson told WRC. "They had to park blocks away and wait for a battalion chief to arrive and tell them how to perform the jobs they knew how to do and should have been doing while they were parked."

According to dispatch records, crews were alerted about someone inside the burning house at around 4:11 a.m. A rescue team wasn't deployed until 4:23 a.m.

An official with D.C. Fire & EMS told WRC that the times in the dispatch records are correct, but he added that 30 firefighters were inside the home within minutes of arriving. Hudson, however, claims that those firefighters were working on extinguishing the flames and not trying to rescue anyone trapped inside.

“(The victim) wasn’t given the best chance that he should have had for survival,” Hudson said.