Complicated City-County Response to Fatal Fire

The town of Selma (Calif.) is entangled in the aftermath of a fatal fire, trying to reconstruct a timeline of how its police and fire departments responded to the incident, and what role the state’s CAL FIRE agency might have played in a delayed response. City officials say transients living in a vacant house started a fire, and that three persons were trapped inside. A 911 from an occupant went to Selma PD, who contacted CAL FIRE, who then dispatched fire units. The caller mentioned that people were trapped in the house. Since the house was within feet of the city line, CAL FIRE requested Selma FD to respond. But when the police dispatcher contacted the fire captain on duty, he/she didn’t mention trapped people, only that CAL FIRE had requested assistance. At the time, the Selma FD ambulance was out of service, limiting the engine staffing. So the fire captain declined to respond with only one person on the engine. The fire captain now says he would have responded had he known people were trapped. City officials say the police dispatcher is not currently the subject of discipline. Read the story and a timeline here.