'Unorganized Rescue Effort' Cited in Fatal Wichita, KS, Apartment Fire
The Wichita Eagle
(TNS)
Dec. 16—Both Wichita and Sedgwick County agencies had "systemic shortcomings" that led to an "unorganized rescue effort" at a Wichita apartment fire that killed Paoly Bedeski on Oct. 13, 2023, according to national public safety consultant Jensen Hughes.
"Had these significant shortcomings not occurred, it would have provided Ms. Bedeski with a better chance of early rescue, a subsequent increased potential for survival, provided she was still alive," Jensen Hughes representatives said in prepared statements to the Sedgwick County Commission on Monday morning.
Bedeski, a 22-year-old woman who reported the fire to 911 from apartment 306 at the Brookhollow Apartments in east Wichita, told a Sedgwick County dispatcher her apartment number twice. But the 911 operator never dispatched that information to Wichita firefighters on the scene.
Firefighters did not find Bedeski until up to 28 minutes after her call. She was unresponsive and CPR attempts were unsuccessful.
Jensen Hughes found it plausible that the 911 operator did not hear or understand Bedeski, even though Bedeski can be clearly heard saying "Unit 306" in audio released by Sedgwick County Emergency Communications.
" Jensen Hughes listened to the recording released — and we can hear and understand Ms. Bedeski provided 'Unit 306' twice."
"We believe it's entirely possible, and likely, that the call taker/dispatcher did not understand the apartment unit number given by Ms. Bedeski, despite what can be heard in the released recording," the Jensen Hughes report says, noting that the headphones used by dispatchers receive lower quality audio than what is captured on the recording.
The dispatcher did not use a recall feature that allows 911 operators to listen back to a call, which Jensen Hughes said should have been used.
Jensen Hughes did not mention additional technology the 911 dispatcher had — but did not use — to help identify Bedeski's location, such as a GPS location that pinpointed her call to the building she was in.
Commissioner Jim Howell asked Jensen Hughes representatives about it after the presentation. They said it is noted in the full report — which was not immediately available to the public — but not the public presentation. The city of Wichita later posted the report on the city's website.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The Jensen Hughes findings largely matched early criticisms of Sedgwick County 911's problems with training, technology and dispatching. But some of the sharpest criticism was reserved for the Wichita Fire Department, which it said "appears to lack an emphasis on self-reflection and accountability within its culture."
Jensen Hughes gave a nearly identical presentation to the Wichita City Council at noon on Monday.
Representatives for the consultant said the Wichita Fire Department departed from its written policies several times throughout the response at the Brookhollow Apartments, starting with a "weak" pre-incident plan, such as the first arriving engine going on the attack against the fire instead of laying a water supply line, trucks parking in front of the water supply line, and seven trucks arriving before anyone took command of the scene.
Three trucks began hosing down the fire from a 600-gallon water tank without a continuous water supply from a hydrant. The tank ran out of water, leaving firefighters without water when the roof partially collapsed resulting in a mayday call.
The report is critical of Wichita fire leadership on the call. The commanding firefighter directed some firefighters to search "uninvolved buildings" before crews had completed the search of the building Bedeski and others were in, the one that was actually on fire. That was a deviation from the department's operations manual.
"Recommendation: Searches should begin closest to the fire area, per the operations manual," the Jensen Hughes report says.
Jensen Hughes also said it has reasons to believe the fire department's investigations unit "may lack adequate training to perform investigations in accordance with internationally accepted practices and procedures."
"It's concerning to me that the fire investigation unit actually left, I believe it's about 45 minutes before [the first responding truck] cleared the scene," Vernon Champlin, a Jensen Hughes investigator, told county commissioners. "The fire investigators left the scene, both of them, in my opinion, very early."
Wichita Fire Chief Tammy Snow would not comment on the report or talk about why the fire is still under investigation.
Firefighters union president Ted Bush, who brought attention to the Brookhollow fire at a news conference last year, said the report highlights a "leadership vacuum" in the Wichita Fire Department.
"You heard it here today. We have a leadership vacuum," Bush said. "We have a vacuum and when you have a vacuum, firefighters will take it into their own hands to do it themselves. It has to get done. That fire has to go out. We have to do it. That's what he's talking about. And they'll do it. They'll do anything they can to save that person's life or that person's property. It doesn't matter. We're going to get it done."
This story was originally published December 16, 2024, 11:04 AM.
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