Inspector general launches probe of DC fire department staffing

WASHINGTON – The D.C. inspector general has begun an investigation into the D.C. fire department’s staffing levels to see if it can support around the clock emergency response.

The probe was launched in late January after a hundred firefighters called in sick on New Year’s Eve.

That is some work ethic right there folks. Not a good one though. Part of being a fire fighter, paramedic, EMT, or police officer is understanding that while your family and friends are out celebrating on the big holidays, you might have to suck it up and go to work. It’s part of the package and I missed a lot of good times because I had to be at work.

FOX 5 has also obtained a document showing the fire department is looking for 20 of its ambulances.

In an email, sent by Deputy Chief John Donnelly to as many as seven other officials in the department, asks for help in locating the rigs.

Hint: It’s big. It’s red and white. It has blinky lights on it. Oh, and it will say “District of Columbia”, “Fire and EMS Unit”, and might even have the part of the District it allegedly serves written on it. That’s if it actually exists and is not a Potemkin ambulance. In which case it won’t actually be an ambulance.

Donnelly is conducting an audit of the department’s entire fleet after FOX 5 reported last Wednesday the number of trucks and pumpers given to the city council were false, and that as many as six pumpers and two ladder trucks claimed as reserves in the city are no longer in the fleet and have actually been sold. Still, others were unaccounted for.

I think that this calls for another blue ribbon commission to study ways to improve the service and make recommendations that the city can ignore. After all, there are phony baloney jobs to save!

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