City dismisses two more fire officials - baltimoresun.com
The Baltimore City Fire Department has dismissed two more commanders for being "negligent" and "incompetent" in their roles at a live-burn training exercise in which instructors violated dozens of safety rules and a 29-year-old recruit died.
This brings to three the number of fire officers fired in the wake of the Feb. 9 fatal exercise, a significant development for leaders at fire departments around the country who are monitoring what's happening with training in Baltimore as they decide how -- and even if -- they will conduct live burns.
Lt. Joseph L. Crest, the lead instructor at the fatal exercise, and Lt. Barry P. Broyles, the instructor in charge of an ill-prepared rescue team, will lose their jobs effective Aug. 2 and Aug. 4. The head of the fire academy, Battalion Chief Kenneth B. Hyde Sr., was fired two weeks after the burn that led to the death of Racheal M. Wilson.
"The message here is that this kind of incompetence is not going to be tolerated at the Fire Department," said Rick Binetti, a Fire Department spokesman. "They are asked to do a job, they are asked to follow safety regulations. When that is not done, people's lives are in danger."
