Firefighter Disciplined For Disobeying Order Not To Fight Fire

You have got to be kidding me? Here is a man who showed what a true public servant he is and he is going to be punished for it? The DC Fire Department shows once again that even though it has members that are professional and true servants of the public, their bureaucracy continues to be run by ignorant idiots. Where is your "stick his nose in everything" mayor for this one?

and people wonder why the world is going to hell in a handbasket here this poor guy is doing what he has been doing for 21 years and he is going to be disciplined for it....quite frankly saving lives is a bit more important than a training class....I understand the whole orders thing but why would he have been ordered to ignore the fire? its digusting quite honestly

Surely you jest?? Perhaps Mayor Fenty can pass a bill to oust the bureaucratic idiots who had him suspended for saving lives. DC Fire Department, truly unbelievable!

i dont think nothing should happen to him he was doing the best he can and now he have to be laid off for two days without pay that is wrong this world is so mess up it isnt funny we need to stop worry aout other country and worry about what is going on in our country

Way to go LT! The "stupid-visor" should be the one looking at the two day unpaid vacation. Sometimes, even fire department "management" seem to forget why they (firefighters) are there.

I can not tell you the number of times in the 31.5 years that I was a professional firefighter, that we have "come-up" on another emergency while responding to a call. We always stopped and took action. Notified command via radio and requested additional equipment as needed. And this was while responding to an emergency call and not going to a training session.

If every firefighter did what he or she wanted to do at a fire, most houses would burn to the ground, We have a chain of command for a reason!!!Burton didnt listen to that, he hot dogged which could have caused serious injury to other firefighters. With a couple of days off , maybe he might learn something, plus the couple of days off, he probably works a part time job so he can get more hours on his part time job.need to ask Burton, WHY DO WE HAVE A CHAIN OF COMMAND?????

You never pass by an emergency! If you arrive first, you are the incident commander until another ranking officer arrives. This firefighter is by the book. His commander is a baffoon!

Do not get upset at this. You have to understand. Most of the D.C. employees are busy stealing, loafing or sneaking out early every day and getting paid. When you have an employee who actually does his job that can't be tolerated. He must be dealt with or the other employees will actually have to follow his lead. I'M NOT KIDDING!

Are you kidding me? Was he supposed to just stand there waiting for the other truck to respond, with the possiblity of people trapped in the house and let the house burn down to the ground? He made a good choice, if my house was on fire, I would hope that they would make the same decision as he did.

You have a keen eye Jess. This firefighter needs to apply for a supervisory position down at the tax office!

As a former volunteer firefighter/EMT, I realize that there is a chain of command and procedures have to be followed. I also realize that, given the same situation, that just about any other firefighter would've done what he did. And you can bet the rent if he HAD followed orders and waited and, as a result, someone inside the burning home would've died, that HE would've been taken to task for that.

pjl wrote:

If every firefighter did what he or she wanted to do at a fire, most houses would burn to the ground, We have a chain of command for a reason!!!Burton didnt listen to that, he hot dogged which could have caused serious injury to other firefighters. With a couple of days off , maybe he might learn something, plus the couple of days off, he probably works a part time job so he can get more hours on his part time job.need to ask Burton, WHY DO WE HAVE A CHAIN OF COMMAND?????

spoken like a true adminstrative asss wipe.Get out of the office once in a while

pjl wrote:

If every firefighter did what he or she wanted to do at a fire, most houses would burn to the ground, We have a chain of command for a reason!!!Burton didnt listen to that, he hot dogged which could have caused serious injury to other firefighters. With a couple of days off , maybe he might learn something, plus the couple of days off, he probably works a part time job so he can get more hours on his part time job.need to ask Burton, WHY DO WE HAVE A CHAIN OF COMMAND?????

spoken like a true adminstrative asss wipe, get out of the office once in a while

I'd like to hear the whole story before jumping to conclusions. If he was ordered to do something else, and was by himself, and went anyway, there is a command issue that needs to be resolved. If there was a delay of other units arriving, and he made a difference being there, then he is unjustly accused. If other units were seconds behind him, and he was acting alone, he is getting what he deserves. If he was by himself, he was foolish to act unless there was indeed someone confirmed trapped. 31 years fire experience here; we firefighters are sometimes our own worst enemies, and it gets us killed. Rules and supervision are in place to let us do our jobs as safe as possible, but still save lives. Professionals need to listen to their supervisors. We need "the rest of the story"...

Wow, so I guess he was just supposed to stand there and let the house go up in flames???

This story provides further indication that the wrong people have "floated" to command level positions within the fire service nationwide and illustrate their lack of leadership and fire service knowledge. Too bad for all of us.

You really have to understand the Fire Dept. mentality, After retiring as a cop and becoming a professional firefighter, I was amazed at the difference in the perspective of how to get thing s done, when a cop rolled up on a situation, they act immediately and most of the time act alone. I the fire dept is a hand holding effort to get anything done. As a cop myself and another guy got a family out of a collapsed house, with what we was everybody, safe, when the Fire dept rolled up with about 5 pieces of equipment, nobody still wanted to go in until the cave in unit got there. They were actually pissed that we went in. All I heard was how we endangered the people by bringing them out, I basically told them to F... off. Chain of Command is necessary but with out individual commom sense its useless. Sometimes you can reduce your risk of injury , sometimes you got to take a chance and say what the hell. If you want to be safe, sell shoes or refrigerators.

He did what he had to do to save lives. Finally a good story about a decent worker in DC.

Thank you Lieutenant Burton for following your heart, head and doing your job. Shame on the people who think that an investigation needs to be done on someone who was trying to save a home and lives. This is the kind of man I would want in my neighborhood. Kudos too to Bob Olsen for stepping in and making sure this man doesn't lose what he's entitled to. This is what the true spirit of Christmas is.

I agree with " DayZie" - the whole
world is going to hell! This man is a
hero, and he is facing charges?" I just
don't understand people in this world
any more! Do something nice & right,
and your criticized."