Firefighters disciplined for taking a frequent flyer for a ride out of the area
From rural communities and small towns to big cities, everyone who handles EMS has frequent flyers. In Everett, Washington it appears 51-year-old Kirk Spencer meets that definition. Firefighters have had more than 100 responses to assist Spencer. But on July 1 a captain and two firefighters made it clear they apparently had enough of Spencer after the second call of the day.
According to an article by Rikki King of the Herald, the firefighters of Engine 1 gave Kirk Spencer a fire truck ride. They transported the homeless and intoxicated man almost out of the city limits and left him in a grassy area underneath the shade of the highway and told him not to come back to town until he got “off the sauce.”
All three firefighters received reprimands for their actions and Chief Murray Gordon has said “that’s not a level of conduct that we will in any way condone and we’re going to move forward.”
Here’s an excerpt, but I suggest you read the entire article:
Engine One was dispatched, with three firefighters on board: Capt. Curt Low, Andrew Denzel and Ken McMillen. They found Spencer lying on the sidewalk of the 3700 block of Broadway, not far from the local homeless shelter. They recognized him from previous contacts.
Low later wrote that he had handled 911 calls about Spencer dozens of times and knew he had been hit by a car on Broadway last year. Spencer has used a wheelchair, and the sight of him passed out in his chair prompted many of those calls. He wasn’t using the wheelchair that day, however.
During the July 1 incident, Spencer was described by the firefighters as drunk but alert and talking. He boarded the fire engine and firefighters fastened his seat belt. They drove northbound onto Highway 529, turning off on Spencer Island about a mile from the Marysville city limits.
