Listen to radio traffic from Flint close call video — Chief cites broken ladder trucks & staffing
We now have the radio traffic (above) from the close call video (below) showing three Flint, Michigan firefighters bailing from a November 22 apartment fire. The firefighters were taken to the hospital but none of them missed work.
In addition, Flint’s fire chief now says, in the article below, the city’s two broken ladder trucks and a lack of firefighters contributed to the close call.
Click here if the video above fails to play properly
Not only did it require every firefighter on duty that day — 14 in all — the fire at Village Shores Apartments also forced the city to call in mutual aid because the department’s two ladder trucks were both in the repair shop.
“We didn’t have enough people,” said Flint Fire Chief Ray Barton said. “Realistically, we needed double what we had.”
Even with additional firefighters, Barton said the injuries the firefighters received at the Nov. 22 blaze may not have been able to be prevented.
“Fires are unpredictable,” he said. “We still don’t understand why there was a flash. It changed so quickly. (Firefighters) did everything they were supposed to.”
