Crash, Fire, Response Investigation

Jackson (Tenn.) fire officials are investigating the response to an auto accident and fire that claimed the life of a teenager along a rural road near the boundary line with Madison County. According to fire officials, they’ve suspended two firefighters who responded to the area, but mistakenly believed that county fire engines had arrived and were handling the incident. They didn’t approach the scene and shortly after reported in-service. In fact, a victim was trapped and died in the accident. After the accident the fire department dropped a policy that required a batallion chief to approve sending more than an engine to an auto accident, unless it could be verified that someone was trapped. A logging tape contains a conversation between the chief and a dispatcher over whether someone was trapped, even though the original caller definitively said, “Someone is in the car.” Read more here.