Man runs to firehouse to report home burning is told to call 911
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Once again we have someone who is a member of a fire department who doesn’t know what to do when someone comes to the door to report an emergency. This story from the Plantation Fire Department in Plantation, Florida has some similarities to the situation in Washington, DC last January when a rookie firefighter didn’t follow procedure after people reported a man down across the street from the firehouse.
In this latest incident Neville Morrison ran barefoot to a Plantation fire station four doors away from his home to report his house was burning. According to the Sun-Sentinel, an EMT there told him he had to call 911 and then closed the door on Morrison. Morrison did not have a phone.
Lisa J. Huriash, Sun-Sentinal:
The Fire Department has launched an investigation into the Nov. 15 incident. “Obviously that’s not the way we do business,” fire spokesman Joel Gordon said. “Now there is an investigation going on.”
Gordon declined to name the paramedic. “The individual has been counseled already and spoken to,” he said. “It was a mistake, an obvious mistake. It appears to be a moment of bad judgment.”
Gordon said the EMT, a longtime employee with a clean record, should have kept Morrison at the station while he called dispatch himself, so volunteer crews could be mustered. “That’s not what transpired,” he said.
