Number	24745
Subject	Fire Departments
Source	Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.)
State	VA
Year	2010
Publication Date	03/10/2010; 03/13/2010; 03/20/2010; 03/21/2010; 04/20/2010; 04/30/2010; 05/12/2010; 05/16/2010; 05/23/2010; 06/06/2010; 08/09/2010; 08/29/2010; 09/09/2010; 10/15/2010; 12/15/2010
Summary	This series looked at why fire-and-rescue workers were unable to save a woman trapped inside her home even though she was on the phone with a dispatcher giving directions to her upstairs bedroom. The reporting found that volunteers who responded that night did not use thermal imaging equipment that could have helped them find the victim, Sandy Hill; that they did not place a ladder at either of the windows in her bedroom; that they were slow to ventilate the house and remove the smoke that killed her; and that they did not question people who had escaped the house about her location. Additional reporting exposed systemic weaknesses in Spotsylvania's fire-and-rescue services, which rely on self-governing volunteer departments and a smaller number of career personnel hired and directed by the county. These weaknesses include a poorly structured chain of command, lack of communication, insufficient training for man volunteers, and a failure to enforce existing regulations due in large part to friction between the career and volunteer units.
Category	Computer-Assisted Reporting
Pages	32
Keywords	Firefighters; Fire Department; asphyxiation; volunteer; equipment; protocol; Spotsylvania; fire-and-rescue; training; regulation
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