NJ Fire Chief suspended

[Monty 35]

It will be interesting to see what comes out of this ....

And in New Jersey, local officials announced the suspension of Dumont Fire Chief Jason Dalton yesterday as the state's Fire Safety Division investigates a training exercise that went very wrong in September.

5 Firefighters (2 in their teens) had to be hospitalized after an training exercise at residence that was later demolished. Instead of using their smoke m achine, they used smoke bombs....and the 5 Firefighters were hurt because they were exposed to that smoke and weren't wearing SCBA's. WTF !?!

The borough is considering whether it should conduct its own investigation and expects to make that determination this week but criminal charges have not been sought.

The Dumont Firefighters don't normally conduct practice drills in borough residences and they usually don't use smoke devices but the house was to be destroyed, and the borough's smoke machine was not working...so they used smoke bombs. The instructions that accompany the devices warn users to wear respirators when using. FF's chose not to and these FF's were under supervision. Here is info on the smoke devices: http://www.superiorsignal.com/superior018.htm

Additionally, it is unclear whether the teenagers should have been allowed participated in the exercise....but their parents and their attorneys may be able to clarify that. Having this ha ppen is probably not the best way to verify what roles teenage FF's should and are allowed to play...a better way might be to determine that BEFORE we put them in these conditions and get them hurt. Or follow smoke bomb instructions. Or follow NFPA 1403 without exception. Just a thought. Another example of :Everything is fine until something goes wrong....NTS strikes again.

Not sure what NTS is supposed to mean here?

[BIGRED1 71]

Not Too Smart maybe?

[COMMANDCHIEF 4]

We roll our eyes, and say "How could somsone be so stupid". But believe me. There are at least half a dozen FD's in this county alone that would do the same thing. As for the teenagers being FF's. I think the question should be :who are the people teaching our teenagers? not should teens be used in the fire service.

Teenagers, both male and female have made great contributions to the fire service. I think it would be a disservice to us all to hamper their participation.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

I really can't understand how it is that there are still persons out there that cause firefighters to get injured or killed during training. I don't blame the teenagers at all, I blame those whom were supposed to be not only supervising them but managing them also. The only thing that is questionable is whether or not they should have been partaking in the training and more importantly if they were qualified to wear a SCBA. I cannot tell you how many times I have been around as a firefighter where untrained persons were allowed to don a SCBA when they shouldn't have and I've even seen it as an instructor when department drills have gone on when I've been teaching. Controlled or not there are qualifications to wear such devices for reasons and there are instructional techniques in the event the person is having difficulty adapting to wearing the device or is flat out phobic of it. The lack of proper instruction can cause the loss of a potentially good member, only because of the inability of someone to do the right thing.