By Johanna Somers
The Virginian-Pilot
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — On March 7, twin babies and a 3-year-old boy died after a fire erupted in their home in Truxtun.
The community, near the intersection of Portsmouth Boulevard and Deep Creek Boulevard, does not have a fire station.
Without a station in Truxtun, according to a recent report from fire officials to City Manager Lydia Pettis Patton, the department cannot meet “minimum response times for fire and emergency medical calls” there. The Virginian-Pilot obtained the report through a Freedom of Information Act request. It did not cite the March fire but said that recent fires were evidence of a need for a station in Truxtun.
Last month, the City Council instructed Pettis Patton to strip $4.5 million from Portsmouth’s capital budget to build a station in Truxtun.
According to a story in The Pilot, the twins’ parents woke up that day to a house full of thick black smoke after falling asleep on the couch.
When firefighters arrived in the early morning of March 7, the flames had engulfed about half of the house. It was too late for 9-month-old twins Rachel and Rahliel Douglas, but firefighters thought their cousin Marcell Speller might survive, according to the Pilot story. Speller was taken to Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center.
At the hospital, the boy’s mother was told her son was dead, said Felicia Hasty, the grandmother of the boy and twins.
Hasty said last week she wants the city to build a fire station in Truxtun.
Last month, when Mayor Kenny Wright and Councilmen Danny Meeks and Paige Cherry requested that the Truxtun station be removed from the capital budget, $800,000 was left for several recreation center enhancements, some of which could go to a facility in the neighborhod. Another $4.5 million remains for seawall reinforcement.
“I realize we need those things, but I just don’t want us to put more emphasis on social things like that as opposed to things that could ultimately save a life,” Hasty said.
The city used to have a fire station in Brighton that served residents there as well as in Truxtun. It was closed in 1998 to build Brighton Elementary School, said Rusty Quillin, president of the local firefighters’ union. There’s been talk ever since about a new one, but it has never materialized.
Quillin said the city has tried to serve Truxtun with Station 7 at Winchester Drive and Airline Boulevard and Station 11 at 32 Prospect Pkwy. in Cradock.
“But you know it didn’t take away all of the burden and additional time obviously,” Quillin said.
Other stations that respond to the area include Station 1 at 1601 Effingham St. and Station 10 at 3230 Victory Blvd. But stations 1 and 7 could be delayed by rail traffic, he said. Ken Willette, the division manager of the public fire protection division for the National Fire Protection Association, praised the fire department for alerting the public to the problem.
“They are using the criteria in the standard exactly as it was intended to be used,” he said. “They are measuring their ability to meet the recommendation, and when they are not able to, they are telling the community, with your tax dollars we are not able to provide this level of service in this area.”
The fire department is telling the public: “If you are in this neighborhood, you are not going to get the same level of service,” Willette said.
The fire association recommends a 7- to 8-minute total response time. That accounts for the time it takes the first fire engine to arrive at a scene after a 911 call, Willette said. Fire departments generally focus on the time it takes them to get ready to the time their first fire engine arrives. That should not exceed 5 minutes and 20 seconds, he said.
“The further you go beyond the recommended response times, that means the fire is going to grow bigger so the person inside the building is now exposed to more risk,” Willette said.
Quillin said as a union leader, his job is to protect employees’ safety and provide the best customer service for residents.
“If we have to take a minute extra to get to something just strictly because we are placed strategically farther away, then that is not acceptable,” he said.
The Virginian-Pilot requested interviews this month with Fire Chief Beck E. Barfield III, Deputy Fire Chief Mike Stockton and Deputy Chief Jim Hoffler about Portsmouth’s response times.
The requests were denied.
Councilman Curtis Edmonds said he wasn’t told that there were response time concerns in Truxtun.
“Nobody said we have problems,” he said.
Councilman Bill Moody said the city should follow the recommendations from the fire department and emergency personnel. “If we are not making the response times, people’s lives could be in danger,” he said.
Wright, Cherry and council members Elizabeth Psimas and Mark Whitaker did not return calls. Meeks could not be reached.
The council is scheduled to continue discussions on the city’s capital budget later this month, according to Pettis Patton at last month’s meeting.
Elvira Johnson, president of the Wilson Ward Civic League, which includes the communities of Truxtun and North Truxtun, said although she has been blessed with the fire department and wants the recreation center in Truxtun to be completed, the community would “definitely” like to have a fire station.
“We have quite a few seniors in the Truxtun area who live alone,” Johnson said. “I am looking at traffic situations with the closure of Frederick Boulevard, traffic is so messed up, we would catch the devil trying to get responses out there now.”
Hasty said she couldn’t say “100 percent” whether a Truxtun fire station would have helped her grandchildren. Maybe it would have saved Marcell, she said.
A month after the fire, she said all the memories from that day came back when the dentist office called to remind her about Marcell’s appointment.
“You have your moments definitely,” Hasty said. “But it’s just our faith; it just kind of keeps us above water.”
Johanna Somers, 757-446-2478, johanna.somers@pilotonline.com
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