Copyright 2006 Post-Standard
All Rights Reserved
By AARON GIFFORD
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)
The Turning Stone Casino and Resort in Verona is one of Central New York’s top visitor attractions. Its 20-story hotel is the tallest building between Syracuse and Albany.
Yet none of the firefighters who would be first responders to an emergency there has been trained to battle fires in large buildings or high-rises. And the department that would respond first has not brought the minimum number of firefighters required in five of the six emergencies at the resort since 2000.
Those are some of the ways in which the training and the manpower intended to deal with an emergency at Turning Stone fall short, according to a Post-Standard review of fire safety records and plans for a fire at the resort.
Turning Stone employs more than 4,500 people and attracts 12,000 to 15,000 patrons each day, making it host to some of the largest gatherings in Central New York, outside of a big game at the Carrier Dome or a busy day at Carousel Center mall.
The dome and the mall are protected by full-time professional firefighters. So are other Indian-run casino/hotel complexes in the Northeast.
In case of a fire at Turning Stone, emergency dispatchers would alert the Verona Fire Department by sounding a siren at the station and paging its 44 members. Available Verona volunteers - and no one is sure how many that would be - would be the first sent.
If the fire was serious, Verona’s commander would have to decide whether to call backup, almost all of whom would also be volunteers.
“It’s a gigantic life-safety issue that presents a significant hazard,” said Glenn Corbett, fire science professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. “This is something that may only happen once in a lifetime or once in a couple of lifetimes. But if it happens, you’ve got to be ready.”
Volunteers, he said, “shouldn’t be responsible for this.”
Turning Stone’s emergency response plan was drawn up early in 2004 by Verona Fire Commissioner Phil DuChene, with help from Oneida nation Public Safety Commissioner Art Pierce and Mark Schroeder, a lieutenant with the Syracuse Fire Department.
“The Verona Fire Department recognizes there are times when we will be short-handed,” DuChene said. But, he said, that’s the reason the Verona plan calls for mutual aid from eight surrounding departments. Two are professional agencies - Rome and Oneida - though they would supply fewer than 20 of the expected additional 80 firefighters.
The Oneidas also endorse the emergency plan.
“The nation is satisfied with the mutual response plan and is satisfied with the nation’s training program,” said nation spokesman Mark Emery. “However, these approaches are always under review.”
There has never been a fire at Turning Stone that set the backup plan into motion.
No full-time department
The Oneida Indian Nation pays the Verona Fire Department $100,000 a year to protect Turning Stone Casino, the hotel and other buildings at the Oneida County resort, DuChene said.
Long before there was a resort, however, the Oneidas opened a bingo hall in an effort to raise enough money to help protect their lands and people from fire. In 2001, they went so far as to charge a 5 percent “sales tax” on goods sold at their SavOn convenience stores to fatten the fire fund. Some of that money goes “indirectly” for fire protection, according to Emery.
Yet after so much growth, nation leaders have no plans for a tribal fire department.
“It’s always been discussed,” said Oneida Men’s Council member Brian Patterson. “But, with us, it’s something that works better with mutual aid and partnerships with the community.”
It’s different at comparable Indian-run resorts.
The Seneca Niagara Casino and Hotel in Niagara Falls is covered by a full-time city department, as is the Senecas’ smaller casino/hotel complex in Salamanca. Among other major Indian-run casinos in the Northeast, the Mohegans, owners of Mohegan Sun, and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, owners of Foxwoods, run their own paid, full-time departments less than a mile from their casinos and high-rise hotels in Connecticut.
The Pequots spend about $1.5million annually on public safety, the bulk of which funds the 31-member fire department, said tribal spokesman Bruce MacDonald.
Duchene, of the Verona fire department, says his department could change to include some professionals, but only if expansion in the area creates financial sources that could pay for it.
“As we move into the future, we have plans to initiate a combined fire department structure in Verona (with both volunteer and paid staff) similar to departments in the Syracuse suburbs (Fayetteville, Manlius),” he said.
As a sovereign Indian nation, meanwhile, the Oneidas also argue that nation property is beyond the reach of state and local laws, including inspections of sprinkler systems, smoke alarms and fire escapes.
Emery said all inspections are conducted by the nation itself, not by municipal inspectors.
That situation could change. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the nation could not reclaim control over land out of its possession for 200 years. Since then, the nation has allowed Oneida County officials to tour the resort as they prepare to start enforcing health laws there, including the statewide smoking ban.
Town officials have not said whether they’ll send fire marshals to conduct safety checks at the resort. Emery said there are no current plans to bring them in.
Smoking, meanwhile, is allowed in 17 percent of the resort’s buildings, according to the nation.
Training issues
Eight area fire departments have signed onto the fire response plan drawn up by the Verona Fire Department early in 2004.
Since then, there has been one training drill, on Oct. 29.
Emery, the Oneida spokesman, said 81 firefighters practiced maneuvering hoses through halls and stairwells, putting water on a mock multiroom fire and rescuing a 200-pound dummy. Two departments didn’t participate.
The vast majority of firefighters in the departments have never responded to a real emergency there.
Volunteer firefighters who are accustomed to house and barn fires should train monthly to prepare for potential mass-casualty incidents at Turning Stone, said Corbett, the fire science professor at John Jay College.
Even though his department was unable to make the Oct. 29 drill, and has never trained there, Rome Fire Chief Roger Sabia agreed regular hands-on drills at the complex are vital.
“It lets us know what’s there and where there are hazards, the roadways to get there,” Sabia said. “It’s very, very important.”
Volunteer firefighters in New York state are not required to meet individual state training mandates, but department chiefs often encourage their members to meet the state’s basic recommended training.
There are more than 225 volunteers who could be called to a major fire at Turning Stone. Four of them have taken what is currently recognized as the state’s most basic level of training, according to Department of State records.
That basic training, called Firefighter I, mainly covers house fires, the most serious incidents rural volunteers are expected to see. In the class, they learn how to ventilate the structure, rescue victims and extinguish the blaze from the outside.
But a hotel fire is different, experts say, especially if the responders are unfamiliar with the scene.
When firefighters attack a fire in a large building, they crawl deep inside the corridors feeling around for victims, windows, doors and other possible ventilation points or exits. Even blinded by toxic smoke or darkness, a well-trained firefighter can maintain confidence in his ability, airpack and team members, firefighters and instructors said.
Corbett said the volunteers who protect Turning Stone should also complete Firefighter II, a course that focuses on large gathering places or tall buildings.
The paid Rome and Oneida firefighters have completed professional-level training at a state fire academy, which exceeds Firefighter I and II. But firefighters from those departments would represent fewer than 20 of those responding to a major fire at Turning Stone.
“The training for interior firefighting is paramount,” said Doug Whittacker, fire protection coordinator of Onondaga Community College’s fire protection technology program. “If a firefighter gets hurt and he hasn’t had adequate training, the fire department administration is going to hang.”
Manpower issues
It’s virtually impossible to predict how many and how quickly volunteers from any of the fire departments would respond to a fire at Turning Stone because many work 20 or 30 miles away, near Utica and Syracuse.
But this much is a matter of record: In the six fires at the resort since 2000, Verona firefighters failed five times to bring in the minimum manpower recommended by the National Fire Protection Association, reports filed with the state Department of State revealed.
The only serious fire occurred March 10, 2004, when the tower and other expansions to Turning Stone were being built. A construction vehicle was reported ablaze at 9:23 a.m. in the uncompleted Event Center. According to the Oneida County 911 center, it took a dozen Verona firefighters 14 minutes to get there.
Under 2004 national standards set by the NFPA for volunteer departments, the response time and turnout were unacceptable. The NFPA calls for at least 15 people at the fire within nine minutes in any emergency where 1,000 people occupy one square mile.
In its emergency response plan, the Verona fire department expects at least 80 firefighters from the eight other participating departments to arrive at Turning Stone within 20 minutes.
Former Oneida Fire Chief Tom Laurin, who participated in the 2003 conversations that led to the resort’s emergency response plan, is skeptical about those manpower expectations.
“A lot of it depends on volunteers,” he said. “My only concern is: Is the response going to be there?”
Volunteer response is limited by the distance those firefighters must travel when the call is sounded, and by whether they are at work or otherwise unavailable.
Because of work and other commitments, volunteer firefighters in western Oneida County are so scarce that the Sherrill-Kenwood, Vernon, Vernon Center and Oneida Castle departments have an automatic response plan for fire-related emergencies that immediately dispatches two agencies while the others remain on standby.
Syracuse is the only other Central New York fire department responsible for buildings as large as those at the Turning Stone complex. If the Syracuse department were to respond to a blaze at the 20-story Marx hotel, 28 firefighters would be expected to arrive at the scene in under three minutes, said Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Daly. Another 50 on-duty firefighters and nearly 300 off-duty firefighters are available if more help is needed.
Chiefs in suburban Onondaga County departments say a high-rise fire in a 20-story hotel requires a guaranteed, immediate response far beyond what’s laid out in Turning Stone’s emergency plan. DeWitt Chief Gary MacLachlan and East Syracuse Chief Joe McAllister estimate they’d need 100 firefighters in the first half-hour alone.
“You need a huge amount of manpower,” said MacLachlan, whose mostly volunteer department is supplemented with paid professionals. “At least 50 people on scene to start is crucial. ... Keep in mind 30 minutes from then you’ll need to double the amount of manpower.”
He said every firefighter in action should have another firefighter outside waiting to replace him or her when their air bottles run low. Most air bottles will last 20 or 30 minutes, and many departments limit their firefighters to two trips per fire because of the intense heat, smoke exposure and physical trauma that comes with hauling heavy equipment.