DC stays in the news: Post profiles chief’s battle with firefighters & Quander says rookie’s actions ‘not germane’
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Mayor Gray refuses to talk with reporter Paul Wagner about Quander report
The video above is WUSA-TV reporter Surae Chinn’s interview with Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Paul Quander. Quander tries to convince us the actions of the probationary firefighter at the center of the Mills case are “not germane” to the investigation. Really?
When people ran across the street to the quarters of Truck 15 on January 25 to get help for 77-year-old Cecil Mills, probie Remy Jones was the first person they met at the firehouse. Everyone, including Quander and Chief Kenneth Ellerbe, are now on the record agreeing with what we pointed out a week ago (and even before that), that Jones should have immediately hit the bells and turned out the crew of Truck 15 to handle this walk-up emergency.
Read Statter report on Quander report
Read Quander report on Mills Case
Read excerpt from DC Fire & EMS Department internal affairs report
If Jones had followed that procedure we wouldn’t still be talking about the death of Cecil Mills and it likely wouldn’t have made the news at all. Yet Paul Quander is still trying to convince us there was no reason for his February 21 report to mention any details about the actions Remy Jones didn’t take and that there is no reason to take a closer look at the training Jones received in the high school cadet program.
We are just supposed to believe what Quander and even Mayor Vincent Gray tell us without any indication of a thorough investigation into all of the factors that may have lead to this tragic case. How can the Mayor Gray say the training Jones received was adequate when no one evaluated the training program?
Quander’s explanation that it isn’t germane because he says so defies credibility and will keep reporters looking into what he is trying to keep the public from knowing. Usually, the purpose of a report like this is to provide accountability and transparency. Quander failed miserably on both counts with his report.
Quander and Ellerbe seem determined that the way to get beyond this case is to keep it in the news. Ellerbe, who went into hiding for about 10 days after the incident, refusing all requests for interviews, is now very talkative. On Friday, Chief Ellerbe was on the Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU-FM. An excerpt of the interview is in the video above. Click here for the entire interview.
Ellerbe also sat down with Washington Post reporter Amy Brittain, who wrote an article that takes a close look at the chief’s strained relationship with much of his firefighting force. You can read that article here. Also check out a transcript of some key parts of Brittain’s interview with Ellerbe.
So, with Washington expecting a blanket of snow overnight, the local news may finally take a break from its focus on the DC Fire and EMS Department. But on Friday the department has another oversight hearing with the City Council.
I will end with one historical note from Surae Chinn’s report. In the problem plagued history of the department’s cadet program Surae mentioned a 1992 class that had problems. It was only after the class graduated and the new firefighters sent out to the stations was it determined that some of those young firefighters did not meet the department’s standards. You can watch that story below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzLyPxylkis
