REPORT RELEASED ON EQUIPMENT FAILURE AT FREMONT MULTIPLE FATALITY FIRE

Submitted by tanya on Fri, 07/02/2010 - 3:32pm

June 24, 2010     Today a definitive and creditable report was released regarding the pump failure on the Seattle Fire Department Engine that responded to the recent Fremont multiple fatality fire.  Outside experts and the manufacturer of the equipment determined that the Fire Engine’s Electronic Transmission Controller failed. The official ruling is that “a line signal discrepancy code interrupted the pump procedure.” When this occurred the instrumentation gave the driver / operator false reading that everything was operating properly when in fact it was not.  The driver continued to unsuccessfully work with the malfunctioning engine until next engine arrived.

Local 27 would like to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of the driver of the malfunctioning engine and other fire fighters on the scene for adapting to this unfortunate equipment failure.

Kenny Stuart the President of Local 27 said “I would like to commend the driver of the engine for adapting to an extraordinarily difficult and gut wrenching situation.”  Kenny Stuart went on to say that “this is a classic example of why redundancies are so important in the Fire Department and why minimum levels of resources in both equipment and staffing have potentially dire consequences.  We will continue work hard to make sure that we have the equipment and staffing levels necessary to keep the citizens of Seattle and Seattle Fire Fighters safe.”