9 Investigates: Seminole County firefighters did not respond to call

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — An investigation is complete after a group of Seminole County firefighters failed to respond to a house fire call.

It happened while the firefighters were displaced into a temporary trailer. The 12-bunk trailer was moved to Fire Station 42 in Geneva due to mold remediation being done inside the station.

Investigative reporter Karla Ray first broke the story about the mold and the temporary sleeping quarters, and she learned firefighters believe that chain of events may have played a role in missing the dispatch call.

The fire call turned out to be a false alarm, but dispatch tried to get in touch with units at Station 42 repeatedly, with no response.

The crews were inside the temporary trailer, which was parked outside the station due to the mold remediation.

County leaders learned through an investigation that crews did not have their radio equipment inside the trailer, and backup calls to cellphones did not connect.

“There was a smell of a fire, and we saw an orange glow coming from the house,” a caller told a dispatcher in the early morning hours of Aug. 12.

Dispatchers tried calling Station 42 fire crews three times over the course of 11 minutes.

“It's unfortunate circumstances.  You never want to miss a call.  Our duty is to serve the public and that's our number one priority,” fire union president Jon Divita said.

9 Investigates obtained an email detailing the timeline. It states multiple attempts were made to contact the crews via cellphone and radio with no response.

The phones that were inside the trailer didn’t even ring due to poor service.

The review, however, found the crews did not have their digital pagers or their portable radios with them in the trailer, and the Engine 42 pager was set on silent.

“That’s the part we own,” Divita said.

Divita said while the crews should have had all their equipment nearby, there are questions about whether it would have made a difference.  He believes poor service may have impacted the portable radios.

“It still wouldn’t have gone off with the connectivity issues,” Divita said.

9 Investigates uncovered concerns about potentially missing calls were first raised in July, before the crews even began sleeping in the trailer.  A lieutenant wrote in an email then, “You may need to re-alert them and/or call them to make certain that fire station 42’s staff received the alarm and is responding.”

A nearby crew in Oviedo responded to the call, which turned out to be a false alarm.

“There are so many issues that caused this to happen, and it's not a good thing to happen to anybody.  We'll do anything we can to make sure this doesn't happen again,” Divita said.

Bottom line, not having the equipment in the trailer was a violation of a written directive.

County leaders said the pager that was set on silent did work properly.

The lieutenant in charge received a written reprimand.

Cox Media Group