UPDATED: Part 2 of news report focusing on warnings about incident commander & skylights after Denver LODD
(UPDATE: This is a two part report that aired Thursday and Friday nights on KCNC-TV. Both videos are below.)
Fire departments trying to recover after line-of-duty-deaths often have to deal with a great deal of internal strife. The Denver Fire Department is no different after Firefighter John Whelan fell through a skylight during a dumpster fire at a commercial building on June 28 and died three weeks later.
In a report yesterday (Thursday), Brian Maass, an investigative reporter with KCNC-TV, is focusing on two serious complaints from current and former Denver firefighters and command officers surrounding Whelan’s death. Both have to do with the incident commander of the fire, Assistant Fire Chief Dave McGrail.
According to the news report, McGrail was IC of a 2012 commercial fire where a lieutenant fell through a similar skylight on a metal roof but was able to catch himself from dropping 25 feet. Chief McGrail wrote a report about lessons learned from that 2012 fire. Maass interviews other chief officers who complain that the report was never shared with the rest of the department.
Above is Part 1 of the two part report. Click here if the video fails to play
Fire Chief Eric Tade told Maass that he had only been made aware of that report recently. He confirms an investigation is under way looking at why that close-call report was not shared department wide.
The other focus of the news report is on McGrail’s abilities as an incident commander. Other command officers had complained on numerous occasions to the department’s senior staff about McGrail. The complaints centered on “what they perceived as over-zealousness and unnecessary risks McGrail was taking on a regular basis.”
Above is Part 2 of the two part report. Click here if the video fails to play.
Two former assistant chiefs, Rex King and Joe Hart, talked to Maass about Chief McGrail and their attempts to alert his bosses about their concerns.
The reporter also uncovered an email from a third assistant chief complaining about McGrail. It talked about concerns McGrail had become a danger to himself and others. Chief Tade, aware of that complaint, said it lacked specifics for any action to be taken. Tade described McGrail as “dedicated and passionate about his work.”
Both Chief Tade and Chief Hart confirm that Assistant Chief Joe Hart’s final complaint about McGrail came in a phone conversation the two men had on June 28, the day Hart retired from the Denver Fire Department.
According to both men, Hart said to Tade,”I promised you once before that if Dave (McGrail) hurt anybody I’m going to be sitting at the plaintiff’s table and I’ll make sure they know about you not doing anything to stop this.”
The Chief said, “Yeah, yeah, I got it” then hung up,” according to Hart.
Roughly 12 hours later, McGrail ordered Whelan up to the roof following the Blake Street dumpster fire.
“If you’re going into a vacant structure… the benefit is less and the risk should be less,” contends Hart.
