Report on Fatal Mamaroneck fire during Nor'easter

[Monty 35]

Surprised no-one commented on this story from the Journal. Again, interesting to see if any changes result. Seems that the family is being very reasonable about the situation, especially given the litigious environment out there. I'm sure there's plenty of lawyers calling offering to take their case to court.

Errors, flooding slowed response to fatal fire in Mamaroneck, report says

By LESLIE KORNGOLD

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original Publication: July 4, 2007)

MAMARONECK - A report on a fatal fire during April's nor'easter says firefighters took 27 minutes to reach the smoke-filled home because dispatchers initially gave the alarm a low priority and were then delayed by a nonworking telephone number. Flooded streets further hindered firefighters once they got on the road.

By the time they arrived at 243 Knollwood Ave. in Harbor Heights it was too late for 78-year-old Jacques Kirsch,

who was trapped on the second floor.

The report, commissioned by the village, was released yesterday. It was written by Tom Broderick, a 21-year veteran volunteer firefighter who has served in Saratoga and Westchester counties and was a deputy chief in the Larchmont Fire Department for five years. He was not paid.

Broderick found that a confluence of events delayed the dispatch of firefighters in the first place and slowed them as they responded.

Later this week the fire chiefs and village manager will gather to review the report and determine what they would do differently next time.

Under normal circumstances, Broderick wrote, an automatic fire alarm would have been responded to immediately. But the nor'easter significantly complicated matters.

"This record-breaking rainfall caused major flooding ... that had not been seen in the last 100 years. In addition to responding to hundreds of calls prompted by this flooding, the village of Mamaroneck Fire Department also had a working structure fire," Broderick wrote.

The fire call came in as a residential alarm about 1:21 a.m. April 16. The response was initially delayed due to numerous calls ahead of it on the priority list, Broderick concluded.

About 1:27 a.m., Westchester County central fire dispatchers received a call that there was smoke in the house. That information would have upgraded the dispatch priority, but county dispatchers could not transmit that information to Mamaroneck because they were calling a nonworking number. Village Manager Leonard Verrastro said yesterday he has no idea where the county got that number. It was not for the command center, he said. County dispatchers finally reached Mamaroneck about 2 1/2 minutes later, about 1:29 a.m.

Six minutes later - and 14 minutes after the initial alarm - a rescue vehicle on North Barry Avenue on the other side of the village was dispatched. The trip to the house took about 12 minutes, Broderick wrote. Flooded streets forced a roundabout route.

Broderick noted that the rescue engine that responded to the fire had been stationed just a few unflooded blocks from the house to cover the Harbor Heights area because of the day's flooding. It was there until an hour and a half before the fatal fire began.

Once dispatched, Rescue 35 was on the road in 32 seconds, according to the report. Firefighters removed Kirsch from the second floor of the house within two minutes of arriving, Broderick determined, but it was too late. The medical examiner's report showed he died from smoke inhalation, Broderick wrote.

A second engine that was supposed to cover the area, Broderick noted, was farther away than the first engine on the scene and did not hear the initial dispatch to Knollwood Avenue because it did not have the secondary frequency that the village was using.

Verrastro said he plans to meet with the fire chiefs late Thursday or Friday to gather their thoughts and comments on what changes could be made. "Could some things have been done differently? Yes, I think so," he said.

The day after the fire, 10 additional phone lines were run into the command center so no calls would be missed, he said. There had been only two lines, he said.

Verrastro said he was looking into the six minutes it took to dispatch Rescue 35. A copy of the report has been sent to Westchester Emergency Services Commissioner Anthony Sutton.

"We're not trying to punish anybody or go on a witch hunt," said Jeannine Kirsch, the victim's widow, after a cursory reading of the report. She is staying at a daughter's New Rochelle home since hers has to be demolished. She noted that she was told some tapes were inaudible. Her third phone call for help, for example, is not listed, she said.

She hopes that any lack of communication indicated in the report be remedied so no other family has to suffer, she said.

"So you see, everything (the weather, the rescue truck being moved, communications) was against us," she said. "It's just tragic."

Fatal fire timeline

1:21 a.m. County Control receives a residential alarm for 243 Knollwood Ave. from USA Central Station, an alarm company. No notice of smoke in the house.

1:27 a.m. County Control receives a cellular 911 call from Jeannine Kirsch advising there was water in the basement and smoke in the house.

1:29 a.m. County Control advises the Mamaroneck village command center of the upgraded condition after two attempts to call a "nonworking number."

1:35 a.m. County Control receives a second 911 call from Jeannine Kirsch that a handicapped man is trapped upstairs in the smoke-filled house.

1:35 a.m. Mamaroneck dispatches Rescue 35 and Engine 239 to 243 Knollwood Ave. Engine 239 does not respond due to an incompatible radio frequency.

1:47 a.m. Rescue 35 arrives at 243 Knollwood Ave.

[firemoose827 324]

Its a tragic story, and exactly why every possible pre-plan for your district should be reviewed routinely and practiced with all mutual aid companies involved atleast annually. This just proves that nothing is routine, and truly anything can happen. I feel for the victims family and the Mamaroneck FD, keep your chins up everyone, you cant control nature.

Moose