Below is the report from the State of Connecticut detailing violations and fines for the City of Hartford's actions that may have been responsible for the line of duty death of firefighter Kevin Bell. The report from the State Police and State Fire Marshall is yet to be released.
Note that the letter is addressed directly to Mayor Pedro Segarra as the responsible party.
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59 comments:
Segarra, "HFD cited for SERIOUS safety violations in blaze that killed a FF."
Segarra, SERIOUS violations, FF killed. Do you get that, Segarra?
What are you going to do about that? How about yet another task force? What did you know about violations and moral problems in the FD and when did you know it?
3:58 PM anonymous: the question is if Segarra, Kee-Borges or Terry Walker have blood on their hands because of the death of firefighter Bell.
Segarra, Kee-Borges and Terry Walker weren't in there there acting like cowards. One wasn't even in there. The report addresses things that had nothing to do with what happened. A guy that gets hit in the face with a line would have a broken neck with a chin strap on. Opening up a line not knowing where it's pointed is what is the most dangerous. Not being with your private and leaving him for dead is most sickening!
Don't blame Pedro, he's way too busy with his reelection campaign, firing and hiring campaign managers, campaign directors, becoming co-chair for whatever in next year presidential elections, you know, stuff like that. He doesn't have any time left to deal with the nonsense of Hartford.
Saundra and Pedro may be the ones to blame for installing Terry as Ass Chief
How could you blame Pedro, he's clueless about the day to day operation of a city, about what needs to be done
The problems with the SCBA units are the responsibility of Shop Superintendent Michael Smith.
The fire hoods falls on either the Training Division, or the Firefighters Union. They were issued to a few recruit classes and then no more were handed out. Most guys are buying there own hoods.
As much as everyone wants to blame Pedro Segarra, he is not the one to go after.
Chief Huertas however is at the top of the food chain above the Machine Shop, And the Training Division. Feel free to blame him!
Ear flaps and chin straps are our fault, they are a pain in the ass.
Where is Terry? Staying at home, on Terry Rd., collecting salaries without doing nothing. Oh, I forgot, he had an accident while driving a FREE city car he was never allowed to drive, at a time and place he and Sandy were not supposed to be with that FREE city car. You crooks.
Anonymous 5:05 pm
Agree. Maybe with more pressure to do something Huertas and the Union might come out with what they really know happened. If not they can be the scape-goats and take the blame.
Pedro Segarra comment this evening about the violations: D I S T U R B I N G (his word). What's disturbing here is that Segarra is still a mayor.
Where are Hilda Munoz and Maribel LaLose? After an investigation that found serious safety issues, after our firefighter was killed, all they have to comment on behalf of Segarra is: "disturbing."
There's plenty of blame to go around here. But the individual firefighters and their union need to man up and take responsibility for their faults. The hoods chin straps and ear straps fall squarely on their shoulders. All the protective equipment in the world is useless if they don't wear it. I remember when they fought the city's move to better helmets. They wanted the traditional leather helmet and took it all the way to the labor board and forced the city to continue using them. To this day the union has demonstrated its lack of concern about ff safety.
The truth is that Commanding Officers at HFD - D/C's are not doing their job and they need to be written up. At the end the Chief is responsible, but the ones that complain the most are the ones that are not doing their jobs. Its time to start holding those in accountable and if they dont do their job to demote them.
To the 5:05 post There was maybe a dozen guys on the firefloor at the Blue Hills fire. My guess is you weren't one of them. Please cite one instance of a firefighter breaking his neck because he wore a chinstrap. Im sure when the other reports come out you'll have a problem with those FACTS as well.
Anonymous 5:05PM
"Not being with your private and leaving him for dead is most sickening" Can you expand on that please. Any information is appreciated
Where is the toxicology report for Bell? What was in his system? How much cash was in his pocket? Report the real story!
Very few people wear hoods and even fewer ever wear a chin strap. If those were really part of the true cause we would have had hundreds of serious injuries and deaths over the years. The problem that no one wants to deal with is poor firefighting, most obvious is the front line supervisors.
Kevin, you should go down to training and crawl in the smoke house with your buddy Danny and see if you think you could lose someone you were supposedly crawling with, with a vibra-alert going off. Then you'll understand why so many FF's don't believe that story.
I have been reading this blog for a while. everyone keeps complaining about the present administration. But the complaint should be about the previous. Casares caused most of the problems. He was more worried with making him self look good. If I remember right of all the promotions made while he was sitting in that chiefs chair he was not even there he was off at some conference or promotional interviews with other departments, the AC's had to do all the swearing in. He is the one that cut the AC position to save money and now they say its needed. He cut the budget so the present administration has work with nothing and hold up promotions to stay in budget . He would tell training to do something and they would start then he would change his mind and tell them to stop and do something different this is why training does did not train. He never disciplined anyone. If everyone remembers he is the one that started putting people off on administration (paid leave). And now he is on a panel to determine what went wrong. As for the Hoods go back and find out which Chief tried to issue hoods without the Unions agreement and got in trouble and then would never work with the Union on selecting one that both would agree on. Oh is that Chief on the review panel too.
Kevin the word is that when the Lt at the fire scene was asked where is Bell, his response was it was not his job to baby sit him or something to that affect
It appears there are many disgruntled Fire-Sleepers on your blog.I want to know how a 42 year old man got on the HFD-who did he have to know?
Huertas got his A/C from the outside, now he only needs to hire 1 from within. Doesn't look good to be a little fool or a Celtic Fairy Tale.
I wonder if Vinny told the chief before he hired Scott or if he just E-mailed him after the fact.
I'm sure he emailed Danny to tell him Scott was back to make his day. Everything that has been tried to discredit Huertas and make him leave has failed, now he just got stronger. Tough days are ahead for the farm system. Gonna be a lot of tough questions to answer.
Danny won't fail, just wait and see what is in store for Huertas and the rest of his cowardly supporters over the next few weeks.
Why is all the attention still not put on the commanding officers of that night? Where is Steve Goode? Why does he & Kevin continuously publish the same garbage instead of going after the true ppl at fault danny & his crew of cowards.
The reason the attention is put on the commanding officers is because that is what they are paid to do is COMMAND . If they were paid to leave Firefighters that they are responsible for to die in a hallway we could probably call them a different name, the one you used, COWARD would probably be suitable, I can't answer for Steve Goode but for myself the reason you don"t see what you want reported is because I deal in facts not high school gossip and crap. The fact of the matter is that dan Nolan is not the Chief of the department and that is where the responsibility should lie, and another fact Dan Nolan was in Ireland that night, about as far from blue hills as you can get. But apparently your hatred is only for the Nolan"s not orhers like huertas and Waller who were there that night and should be called out as responsible parties. Are you possibly the LT that left Bell to die in that hallway?
Huertas is starting his farewell tour this week. He is actually visiting the firehouses to bid farewell to his scant group of supporters. Too bad he didnt visit the houses sooner or with more frequency. He might have noticed how far downhill the HFD has slid in the last few years, in enough time to actually do something about it. Too little, too late.
If only Charlie had a real set of stones on him, but no he is hung like a mouse. He is all smiles when he is around the corrupt Hartford politicos though. He really admires the mayor who will struggle to get six thousand lousy votes in the next election. Lets face it, Charlie has no problem bending over for these corrupt Hartford fools, in fact he prefers them to his own men, many of whom are decorated heroes.
Charlie chose sides against his own brothers and has been cast out. The politicos who he has sought to impress will be even quicker to dump this liability when the creeps realize that Huertas is costing Segarra the Mayors seat.
The only shocking thing that Danny could do at this point is to train someone. Especially some of his cowards. Maybe some proper hose advancement or how to go to a roof.
Response to - Anonymous 7:58 p.m. April 12, 2015
The Chief is invited to dinner at Two’s firehouse by firefighters, you decide to speculate that he is bidding farewell to his supporters. What would make a person make up such non-sense? The chief is not going anywhere.
Also the Chief works for the mayor, the residents and the fire department. Why don’t you work with the Chief instead of constantly butting heads?
Scant supporters are those who respect and show their allegiance to the chief.
Others are out for themselves and some are here for financial reasons with no respect for the rank and purely think for their own gains.
Wake up! This Chief has done so more discipline than the past chiefs combined and many keep saying he has not done anything, what would make a person make up such non-sense?
I suspect because the Chief does not give a play by play to the troops as to the results of the discipline some may speculate that nothing is being done.
This Chief has implemented measures to bring down the operating costs of the department by holding those under him accountable. (Taking away phones-tablets and vehicles)
This Chief has implemented measures to bring down OT, which has inflamed many.
This Chief supervised a funeral for a fallen fighter with no costs to the City or the Department.
Kevin is right the Chief is responsible for what happens within the department. Note that the Training Chief if also responsible to ensure that the men are properly trained even when he his gone whether on vacation or military leave, would you agree?
Danny is only responsible for supporting his own agenda. He doesn't have time to do what he is actually paid to do. That's why training is so far behind. His few supporters think that by spreading lies about Huertas leaving that it might actually make him leave. Just like they thought that spreading lies about what really happened on Blue Hills Ave. would make people not go after the real truth. The only thing that they have accomplished is waking up a lot of the younger generation as to what they really are.
To "Anonymous April 13, 2015 at 8:47 A.M.", a.k.a. Charlie Huertas,
Elsa Ronningstam, associate clinical professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and author of Identifying and Understanding the Narcissistic Personality: Referring to yourself in the third person creates distance between "I" and "he." So if you have an exaggerated view of how great you are, you could be using this distance to make yourself even bigger. Or, if you've achieved major success suddenly, using the third person could be a way to adjust to the bigger role that's been assigned to you. It's a way to enlarge yourself to fit that role.
It seems that a mans life is worth 5K at HFD. The headlines read "serious violations" "fines" but if I read right, all totaled 5 grand. And they will meet with OSHA and that will get reduced. So where is the real incentive for change.It's cheaper to save on the safety gear and equipment and take a chance nothing will go wrong. Even if we get fined, the fines are cheaper than the equipment. Guess that is a "cost VS. Risk analysis I was not aware of.
I wish we had access to all the info, but I don't believe Bell died from a hose line to the head and my gut tells me he did not run out of air and die. But whatever the reason he passed, it is inexcusable that he wasn't found sooner. Whole scenario for E16 is Hinky. seemed like a long time to get in and get water going. I know the L4 officer in this fire, no way any normal door unless unbelievably fortified delayed him much in getting in.
No way I'm not right back in if I have a guy missing, you don't even change bottles, you grab the first pack you can find, even if it means taking it from the RIT team.
Barring collapse, and falling the biggest single factor in losing a guy is visibility. How can you loose a guy in a room if you can see. So what I'm getting at is we need to put more empahsis on ventilation. Get the roofs open guys, never mind structural damage I will trade 2 sheets of plywood and a square of shingles for a mans life any day. D/C's get the place opened up or get them out. that simple.
Response to April 13, 2015 at 10:39 AM
The details are all true, and no it's not Charlie writing the blog, so why do you waist our time trying to guess who it is. Come up with solutions and not BS from Harvard, stop wasting the readers time.
Response to 8:47AM
This weak chief has disgraced the once great HFD, the Mayor, and the city by presiding over the decline of our organization.
This Chief has reversed the progression of technology in the HFD.
This chief provides plenty of OT due to members being on administrative leave for extended periods of time.
This Chief has established no levels trust with his subordinates.
This chief has been nowhere to be found.
This Chief presided over a crooked promotional list which put an inexperienced and slow, politically connected imposter and an crazy cop wannabe ahead of real firemen with volumes of experience. One of these was the incident commander at the fatal fire.
Even This Chief must regret that decision.
This Chief will cost Segarra the election.
I think Pedro is losing this election on his own, but Chief Huertas's help is appreciated
I don't think it's fair to constantly connect Dan Nolan with the death of our brother Kevin. Nolan was not there that night we lost him. How can Kevins death be so frequently connected to a guy who was out of the country at the time? We have lost focus here. As far as any responsibility for Kevins training, I heard that training division tried to remove Kevin from his class due to a lack of ability on his part. This was squashed by higher powers.
No one is connecting Dan to the death, just to the main contributor of one of the 2 cover-ups afterwards. The 1st being SKB trying to cover for Terry so he could still get promoted. The 2nd being trying to come up with multiple ways to blame anyone possible for what happened at that fire instead of the people who were there that did not do their jobs. The 1st line supervisors that choked were all whose boys!
I have no idea whose boys is whose boys. Those relationships become murky on the HFD. All I know is that we need answers and new direction and leadership, not unsubstantiated finger pointing, to fix this organization.
There are no murky relationships, you either support the Chief or you don't.
Despite the few Nolan supporters trying to make it seem different. Huertas is well supported by the Union and by it's membership.
I believe the majority of us on the job do not have any confidence in Huertas nor do we support Nolan. This would be a much better place if the 2 of them left and took the union president with them.
Talk to the FF'S privately, that's what I do, you'll find no support to Huertas.
You must be one of the FF's that was sent home for not having done what he was ordered to do so. Get used to it. The Chief is not perfect and what makes you the spokes person for the entire workforce. Do you job and stop your complaining.
Huertas is well supported by the union? You obviously know nothing. Those union guys constantly knock the tiny balls right off Charlie. The only reason they tolerate Huertas is that Vinny is able to walk all over the guy. He is a weak wet dream for the union leadership.
Kevin can you look into D/C Ford again. Word is that Lt. Gentry from Hartford Fire caught him and his wife(officer Mirella Gentry) hooking up at 600 Asylum St on duty and off duty. He was using his city car to pick her up while she parked her car @ High St. I've seen her several times getting into and out of his city issued vehicle. This has to be some misuse of city property and city time and direct violation of some HPD code seeing that he is her commanding officer of the north end where she is assigned. Word is that Lt. Gentry even confronted Ford after seeing them leaving together from the apartment and denied it like the coward he is. Must be some truth to it because Lt. Gentry has filed divorce proceedings against her at Hartford Superior court.
6:56 A.M. Turn the D/C in he is not above the law and rules of the organization. I'm sure that you never violated any rules of the department. Why are you re-sorting to the blog. That is what is wrong with HPD Officers, didn't they cover this in ethics training. Don't be scared if the actions really bother you.
What about the L3 Capt. who was at the Fire when Bell died-he was just transferred to E11 because he evidently did not write his report of the incident and actions that night the way the Chief wanted him to.
I thought that the L-3 Capt. was transferred because the department is tired of ladder officers who are afraid to get in a bucket and open a roof.
Don't think the report had anything to do with the transfer. What difference would one more report that didn't match the outcome of the events make!
Who Cares who's doing who oh yes, the anonymous writer at 6:56 am does. Why don't you identify yourself so you can give a first hand account of the situation so we can get all the juicy details. What does a D/C or a Lt or officer business have to do with the topic anyways? Disgruntled are you? I think you need to learn to respect the badge and the blue. A shame you resorted to blogging false information
How do you know it is false? Or just blindly taking sides?
I like to open roofs and I know how to cut. But Charlie does not know this or care. Therefore I ride the wagon.
Easy engine jockey. I'm sure you put band aids on better than cut roofs.
Damn...Nolan put Bambi(Charlie) over his knee and spanked him like the little punk he is...Brady had to step in to keep Nolan off of Huertas...all in front of the useless, self serving and fake task force. But the cameras were there and people across the state got to see Charlie in deep water, clearly out of his league. What and embarrassment he is, Segarra must have written off his election or Charlie would certainly be gone by now.
Easy there Ladder Hero! I know it's tough screwing the city everyday sleeping 20 per shift while you watch the Engines go on run after run. You sound like a guy who is upset that the trip lights and tones disturb your beauty sleep.
you can't even fathom how much those lights bother me. Almost as much as the siren you have the nerve of using before you are a block away. Very inconsiderate.
Umm, isn't that the reason for the lights and siren , to warn you they are coming, fro ore than block away? Even though most people continue to ignore them and don't pull over to clear their way. Hopefully those annoying lights and sirens aren't on the way to your home when seconds count
I didn't expect the sarcasm to be lost on you Kevin
And sirens are for the safety of poor people. At 275 Pearl St the rich renters across the street don't like the sound of sirens so the chief doesn't let the Tac unit use the siren till they're a block away. Rich people need less safety but more sleep than poor people apparently.
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