By Steve Patterson
The Florida Times-Union
ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — “Complacency in response” and a lack of investigation helped lead to St. Johns County firefighters missing a condominium blaze last month that burned unrecognized for more than 45 minutes, a report released Thursday said.
A dispatcher was fired and a firefighter quit over the finding of that review by county officials, which listed “inactions and missed opportunities” surrounding the reaction to the July 13 fire that ravaged the Belleza at Ponte Vedra condos.
The report concluded an engineer on the first fire truck sent to the complex should have investigated the first report of smoke closer, and a dispatcher should have sent the fire crew back to the scene.
“Where there is smoke or smoke odor, the responsibility of the fire officer is to investigate and determine the source,” Fire Rescue Chief Carl Shank wrote in the report.
Firefighters were sent to the condos at 4:08 a.m., but the call was written off as “unfounded” seven minutes later, a dispatch log showed.
People around the condos kept dialing 911, and at 5:03 a.m. the same fire crew sent to the first call, Engine 10 from a station 2 miles away, reported heavy smoke at a 20-unit building on Boardwalk Drive west of Florida A1A.
The fire truck hadn’t entered the complex during the first call, and “spent approximately 26 seconds investigating the smoke odor while driving Engine 10 on Ponte Vedra Lakes Boulevard,” Shank wrote.
The engineer on that truck, Alton Robey, resigned effective Aug. 2 after receiving an “intent to terminate” letter, the report said. It said Robey was the member of the three-person crew who made the decision to leave the scene. The dispatcher, Lona Williams, was given the same type of notice. Her firing was effective on Aug. 2.
When the report was released, Shank issued a statement that the department “remains a professional fire rescue response agency dedicated to the protection of our public with the highest level of service and care. ... We place great value in the high standards of trust placed on us by the public and our profession.”
Robey had worked 10 years for the fire department and Williams 15 years, said department spokesman Jeremy Robshaw.
The report described the two as “valued, professional members” of the agency.
“Their inactions and missed opportunities the morning of July 13,” the report said, " ... do not reflect the commitment and dedication .... each has demonstrated for this department.”
Firefighters from South Ponte Vedra, Nocatee, St. Augustine, Jacksonville and Jacksonville Beach ended up joining efforts to control the blaze, during which one firefighter and one resident had medical problems.
Damage was initially estimated at $2.5 million, but that could change as insurance companies report on clients’ losses, said John Moore, a spokesman for the state Fire Marshal’s Office.
The state Fire Marshal’s Office is still doing interviews and collecting evidence for its own investigation of the fire, said a state spokesman, John Moore.
The fire’s size and the amount of damage have made it harder to set a firm date for when the investigation will be finished, Moore said.
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(c)2015 The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, Fla.)
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