A difference in the definition of “rescue” left a squad of firefighters feeling slighted and generated conflicting statements about whether students were actually rescued from a burning Hartwick Tower apartment early Friday morning.
At the scene of the fire Friday morning, members of a Riverdale Volunteer Fire Department inaccurately reported pulling two women from the charred apartment. Despite the initial inaccuracy, the same firefighters clarified yesterday that they did, in fact, escort students from the blazing building.
Jerry Engle, an aide to the Riverdale fire chief, said many students thought they were trapped when they smelled smoke in the stairwell, leading firefighters on the scene to believe they were performing a rescue operation.
“If somebody can’t get out on their own willpower … that’s considered a rescue by the fire department,” Engle said.
Mark Brady, the spokesman for the Prince George’s County Fire Department, denied Engle’s initial report that rescues were made and stood by his statement yesterday, clarifying that students weren’t physically trapped in the burning building.
“There were several that were assisted to get outside the building,” Brady said. “Were these rescues? Were these people in any imminent danger or harm? No. … I’m not exactly sure what it is Riverdale is looking for.”
Engle said he and the other firefighters who were quick to rush into the building deserve recognition for their efforts.
“Everyone deserves a little credit for what went down that night,” Engle said.
He also claimed that Brady represents people for whom fighting fires is a career, not the volunteers who were the first to go into the building. Engle said Brady shouldn’t have commented on their actions, especially because he arrived on the scene after they happened.
Brady once again countered Engle’s statements, saying he represents all of Prince George’s County’s firefighters, both career and volunteer.
“As far my role in the department, our philosophy is one county, one department, one future,” Brady said. “I don’t practice any exclusionary policy based on your employment staff.”
Both Engle and Brady agreed much of the confusion the night of the fire stemmed from a chaotic evacuation because no alarms sounded in the building. Many students said they weren’t aware of the fire until they heard other students pounding on doors or shouting.
Firefighters in Riverdale said the response to the fire was also a bit hectic because the first fire department on the scene told others to standby because there was no visible fire. That agency was in front of the building, however, out of eyesight of the flames that burst through a window in the rear.
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