Law enforcement fines fire cheif for blocking roadway

[knxemt1983]

I don't know if all that occured, but I want your guys input on this. My opinion is my safety is more important than getting traffic moving.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-listop0823,0,5773122.story

A $50 ticket issued to a Suffolk assistant fire chief by a Suffolk County police officer last week has bruised feelings between the two departments and highlighted the sometimes vague rules about who is in charge during emergencies.

"There is no anger, but I'm not going to say this is a routine thing," said Center Moriches Fire Chief Graham Madigan, who has asked the department's attorney to fight the ticket given to his first assistant chief, William Renzetti.

 

[MMiz]

This is just plain stupid. The PD and the FD need to work together.

The FF wanted to close the lane for safety, the PD wanted to keep it open. One of them needed to suck it up and find a way to make it work.

When a local police officer was t-boned at 90+ MPH on the freeway, you should have seen the local departments respond. They had the freeway closed down and every street from the accident scene to the local trauma center closed down.

My scenario isn't the norm, it's understood that we all need to work together for all of our safety.

It's just absurd that two public departments in the same city going to go to court over this. This doesn't help the FD, PD, or public image. The only one coming away winning something is the city's lawyer.

 

[jmaccauley]

It sounds more personal than professional.

 

[Asclepius]

All about ego. Who is the person in charge? Mine is bigger than yours. That's why we have protocols. Where were the protocols and who violated them?

 

[jmaccauley]

In the federally mandated ICS (incident command system), the road is LE and the rescue is FD. There obviously was no one to call the shots. Even though most agencies have had the training, no one wants to give up their little piece of turf. Soon, it will happen at a major incident and there will finally be some attention brought to this problem. In the above case, it would appear that the FD Asst. Chief had the authority to call the shots until replaced by a higher ranking person.

 

[MMiz]

In the federally mandated ICS (incident command system), the road is LE and the rescue is FD. There obviously was no one to call the shots. Even though most agencies have had the training, no one wants to give up their little piece of turf. Soon, it will happen at a major incident and there will finally be some attention brought to this problem. In the above case, it would appear that the FD Asst. Chief had the authority to call the shots until replaced by a higher ranking person.

From what I understand, this is fairly common in many communities. You have the FD and PD fighting for control over a situation, and sometimes it gets ugly.

The ICS was supposed to help solve this problem, but it appears as though it wasn't followed. It's my belief that every professional responder should have an good understanding of the ICS. Heck, they even made us teachers take ICS100 in case of an incident happened at school.

 

[Asclepius]

A couple of years ago I worked a scene as the staging officer for a small community we serviced after a tornado devastated it. All volunteer FD, one paid town marshal and our agency were the first responders. An MCI was declared after the first rescuer arrived and witnessed the devastation of this small rural town. The response was incredible. We sent in the neighborhood of 10 ambulances and our MCI trailer, the Red Cross and Salvation Army arrived with their mobile platforms, our system Medical Director came to the scene to assist, the VFD and the town marshal and of course the state police.

Problem was, the state police officer decided that he wanted to be the big cheese. Not his town...the fire chief, town marshal and the state police got into a pissing contest there at the scene. Meanwhile, our system medical director who was not only our medical director, but also a licensed attorney got involved. In the end, the scene lacked leadership because the ego's were too big.

Fortunately, we had only very mild injuries despite the destruction. Injuries like someone stepped on a nail...I recall having a bad breather, but no serious injury related from the tornado.

A debriefing several days later determined that the state police officer should have arrived as support and not command. The fire chief, despite his volunteer status, should have been in charge of the rescue and it's efforts. He should have been the one directing and coordinating. The town marshal, as the towns highest ranking and full-time employee of the PD should have been in charge of the enforcement of the scene and the access. The state police should only have acted as support to these two officials.

Consequently, since the state police officer was so arrogant and such a jerk on scene, he was later reprimanded by his department.

 

[Jon]

stuff like this happens occasionally... and usually involves big egos on both sides. That LEO may have a sore spot for the FD, or that FF for some reason.

I grew up in a firehouse that was first due on a FF fatally struck on the PA Turnpike... Highway safety has been one of my worries since I first got into an ambulance... I know what can happen... I've seen the photos. http://www.lionvillefire.org/hwy%5Fsafety/