A collection of Oakland (Calif.) area public safety comm centers are part of the debate surrounding the drowning death of a suicidal man on May 30th off the city of Alameda shoreline, while several police officers and firefighters stood by and watched for nearly an hour, since they weren’t currently certified to perform water rescues. The inactions of the first responders has sparked sharp criticism from the victim’s family and city residents, but fire officials say budget cutbacks made it necessary to cancel water rescue training, and that firefighters would have been at risk if they attempted to rescue the man. A Coast Guard boat that arrived was too big to reach the man in shallow water off the island city. Alameda fire officials initially said they requested boats from other jurisdictions. But those agencies produced logging tapes that revealed city police and Alameda County fire dispatchers had merely called to ask about the status of their boats, and never requested a response. Officials from Oakland, East Bay Parks, Alameda County and others say they would have responded if requested, although it’s not clear if their crews would have reached the man before he became unconscious in the water. A passerby eventually waded out to the unconscious man and pulled his body back to shore. Firefighters performed CPR but he did not survive. Read the story and listen to the logging tapes here.
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Not the first time ACRECC (fire dispatch) has been implicated in a death.
I could list hundreds of other instances over the past 8 years or so where responses were delayed or worse. An ineffective dispatch manager who refuses to address hardware issues, and employees with chronic performance issues that the manager declines to address – to the point of being negligent retention.
When will the Grand Jury look into this dispatch center? Millions of tax dollars spent/wasted due to shenanigans involving upper management here. Maybe now at least they will get the scrutiny they deserve.
Clarification – ACRECC is Alameda County Region Emergency Communications Center. It’s part of Alameda County Fire Dept but through various contracts and other agreements ACRECC dispatches Fire and Medical for a large number of Fire Depts within Alameda County, including Alameda City Fire.
So tweets or other statement from Alameda County Fire saying they were not involved in the Zack incident? A lie.
Disgruntled much? Get a life. Get a job.
Fartley, is that your real name? Clearly you’re suffering from some cerebral flatulence if you believe that you can silence facts with personal attacks.
Are you saying it’s ok for dispatchers to “forget” to send the appropriate resources on a regular basis, year after year? If so, I don’t know how you can sleep at night. The thought of it makes me upchuck.
I should get a life? At least I have a life.
Mr. Zack didn’t have to die.
Or that 10 year old girl in cardiac arrest for 30 minutes before dispatch remembered to send an ambulance? She doesn’t have a life.
Thanks to ACRECC’s dispatch managemer, she didn’t have a chance.
I’ll refrain from citing additional examples…for now.