Charleston Report Uncovers Hundreds of Failures in CFD Policies

October 17, 2007 -- Following the release of the Charleston's Fire Review Team report, IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger said Mayor Joe Riley’s characterization of the report as a ‘management review’ minimizes the significance of the June 18 tragedy that killed nine fire fighters, as well as the need for immediate and real change.

“This is a landmark report that highlights hundreds of problems and failures in a fire department whose policies and procedures contributed significantly to the deaths of nine fire fighters,” he said. The findings of the independent panel are significant because Mayor Riley hand-picked the group to investigate the June 18 tragedy.

"The report released today clearly shows that the changes our union and our fire fighters have been requesting for years were right on target, but ignored by the fire chief and the mayor," said Roger Yow, president of Charleston Local 61. "What this report says is clear, the Charleston Fire Department has to be rebuilt from the ground up, and that tells us that the Mayor and fire department management have not performed their jobs properly and have let our fire fighters and the citizens of Charleston down."

Schaitberger noted, “The mayor’s hand-picked chief developed the dangerous policies and programs implemented over the last 15 years -- the very policies that have been identified by OSHA as willful and seriously negligent violations. Clearly, with this as his legacy, the mayor and his chief are not qualified to rebuild CFD.”

The IAFF continues to question how Mayor Riley allowed CFD leadership to operate the department in such a manner that an independent panel would find hundreds of failures with the policies and procedures of the department.

“The claim by the mayor that this is a new day, a new era, by definition, requires new leadership,” said Schaitberger. “This is the third official condemnation of the way the Charleston Fire Department has been built and is run, and the report provides more than 200 reasons for new, fresh, qualified leadership at the top.”

Read the report...