No Discipline for Absence

Grand Rapids (Mich.) fire chief John VanSlokema will not discipline the crew of a fire engine that was out of the station on errands when a man suffered a heart attack in their district and later died. An editorial in the Grand Rapids Press newspaper said there are still questions about why the fire unit was retrieving dry boots from another station during the incident, and why it took dispatchers 90 seconds to alert units to the incident. The second-due unit responed and arrived 9 minutes after the first 911 call. The newspaper said, “But there were better options to getting dry boots than leaving a fire station empty to pick them up.” Read more here.