By CATHY DYSON
The Free Lance-Star
KING GEORGE, Va. — Firefighters on the other side of the Potomac River paint a completely different picture of what happened Sept. 20, when a Dahlgren home was destroyed amid a response scene that Virginia and Maryland officials agree was mismanaged.
Firefighters from Charles County, Md., who crossed the Nice Bridge to provide mutual aid to King George County, were offended that they were described as grossly irresponsible. They say their personnel, along with firefighters from the Navy base at Dahlgren, were too busy to goof around.
“King George did not have adequate staff and manpower to put in the right places like we did,” said Clifton Butler, volunteer assistant chief at Newburg Volunteer Rescue Squad and Fire Department in Charles County. “When we got there, we went to work and did what we were supposed to do.”
Jason Moore, fire chief of LaPlata Volunteer Fire Department, said his unit was dispatched 30 minutes after the first trucks responded. He expected to help with cleanup and was surprised that the fire was still raging.
He could see the fireball from the Nice Bridge.
“That thing should have been well out by then,” he said, adding his ladder truck probably got to the scene 50 minutes after the first units arrived. “It was chaotic, to say it lightly, from the simple matter of who’s in charge, who’s calling the shots.”
The Maryland firefighters were reacting to comments made by King George Fire and Rescue Chief David Moody at a town hall meeting Thursday night. Residents of Monmouth Village, the Dahlgren subdivision where the fire occurred, asked for the meeting because they were concerned by firefighters’ behavior on the scene and what appeared to be a lack of control.
During the 2-hour meeting, Moody and other King George firefighters repeatedly blamed Charles County firefighters for what they called atrocious behavior. They said firefighters were dancing around and playing on a rescue stretcher, giving each other high-fives and riding a pink scooter.
Butler said firemen may have slapped a few high-fives when the fire was out, to show they were glad the situation was handled and no one got hurt.
“But there was no horseplay,” he said.
He said no one from King George was doing anything while the Maryland firefighters worked.
“We took a lot of our pieces to come over and protect the citizens of Dahlgren because we know they needed it,” Butler said.
Moore, from LaPlata, was “personally offended” that King George would place blame publicly instead of talking about the issue privately, among the departments involved.
“You don’t put your dirty laundry out on the street,” Moore said. “I’m not gonna spit in your yard, don’t spit in mine.”
Racquel Harbaugh, the neighbor of Angel and Patrick Durham, who lost their home in the fire, asked for the town hall meeting. She and others noticed there were far more personnel from Maryland than King George on the scene. And that some of the firefighters were acting too playfully for the situation—she didn’t know which department they were from.
“Everybody keeps saying it was Newburg,” Harbaugh said, during the town hall meeting when the audience watched a video of the fire response. “Do you have proof it was them? The reason I ask was no one was in uniform.”
Some firefighters wore the typical jackets, pants and helmets, but others, including those who were supposed to be incident commanders, wore plainclothes. No one established command quickly, and there were conflicting reports as to whether a Maryland or King George firefighter eventually took control.
There also were conflicting statements about when the 911 call was made. The Sheriff’s Office said the first report came from Sgt. Timothy Lyons, a deputy in the area who pulled into the driveway and reported the fire.
More calls came from neighbors after that, but Angel Durham and Harbaugh said others had called 10 to 15 minutes before Lyons.
No other calls were recorded on the 911 system, Maj. Steve Dempsey said yesterday. If someone called on a cell phone, the call probably bounced to Charles County and one of its dispatchers would have forwarded it to King George.
That call wouldn’t have been recorded, but Dempsey said communication officers had no report of such a call.
Another witness said he didn’t see anything like the chaotic atmosphere described.
Neighbor Don Diehl said he lives nine houses down and went to the fire scene at least half an hour after the first trucks got there. He didn’t go earlier because he was watching Monday night football.
“What I saw was an orchestrated effort to put the fire out,” said Diehl. “That would be my judgement as a layman.”
Harbaugh said she was glad that fire officials listened to the residents’ concerns, but there’s much more to be done. She asked Moody to make his final report on the incident open to the public, and Supervisor James Mullen, who attended the meeting, said he would try to make that happen.
“There was a lot of finger-pointing going on, which is normal, but there are so many gaps and holes and lack of communication and cooperation,” Harbaugh said. “What I want to know is, how are they gonna fix it?”
Republished with permission from the Free Lance-Star.