r/Firefighting • u/The_Road_is_Calling NH FF • Nov 25 '24

News Ohio fire department confronted about response to double fatal fire

https://chroniclet.com/news/411559/wakeman-fire-board-meeting-ends-in-shouting-match-over-fatal-fire/
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u/dwil22 Nov 25 '24

What am I missing. A volunteer department got there in 3 minutes and 30 seconds? That seems like a very appropriately timed response.

250

u/Rhino676971 Nov 25 '24

3.5 minutes for a response is unheard of for a volunteer department to show up; that is faster than many career departments. Now, if that house was fully involved, there is nothing they can do without probably having a LODD, and that's the tragic part of firefighting: having to know when you can't save someone.

35

u/-TheWidowsSon- Firefighter/Paramedic Nov 25 '24 edited Nov 25 '24

There’s also no telling who or what arrived at 3.5 minutes.

I’m pretty sure a lot of volunteer departments don’t have everyone trained or equipped to be interior, and depending on who or what arrived they literally may not have been able to go inside an IDLH environment.

That would explain why one of the articles is talking about how the firefighters were apologizing saying how they couldn’t go inside because they couldn’t breathe because of the smoke and heat or whatever.

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u/firesquasher Nov 25 '24

Chief can arrive on scene and be considered the response time by FD. Not sure of the case here, but a lot of FD response times are skewed by command staff arriving vs first arriving apparatus.