Houston Fire Department releases report on fatal mid-rise blaze

(9/04/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- What really happened inside a north Houston mid-rise during a massive, four-alarm fire which killed three people back in March? After repeated requests in the past few months, 13 undercover has its hands on the fire department's final report.

The building is still unoccupied today and as we first told you here on abc13.com, a confidential report is raising questions about the department's response. 13 Undercover has been following this story for months and has the exclusive information.

We've been trying to get the confidential fire department report for months. It paints a disturbing portrait of the safety of the building on the North Loop, the confusing response of the Houston Fire Department and the long wait for help that didn't come in time.

It was a four-alarm fire inferno that claimed three lives. We know now that one of the victims died while waiting for help for a very long time. We've told Jeannette Hargrove's family what you're about to read, evidence she was alive for nearly 30 minutes after the first fire calls came in at 5:09 that March afternoon.

"I think it verifies in writing that at least the city recognizes there were victims who were alive, who were in communication with the 911 operators and unfortunately who were able to express their last living moments with the city," said Randy Sorrels, the Hargrove family attorney.

At 5:17pm, Hargrove begins a long conversation with a 911 operator. Apparently no one ever asked her where on the fifth floor she was.

"I can confirm the report's conclusion that no one from 911 asked her where she was located in the building until the communication ceased to exist," said Sorrels.

Hargrove was assured firefighters were in the building. At 5:22pm, she was asked if she could hear the fire apparatus. The response was decidedly weaker.

But the fire department report paints a portrait of a confusing rescue operation that violated procedure where some fire officials freelanced. Efforts to save a fire captain who became trapped by himself jeopardized safety.

"I can't really blame that firefighter," said Sorrels. "The fact that he made a subtle effort to make a heroic move, OK, maybe that shouldn't have been done. But that means the rest of the fire department should have been on that floor or looking in that floor."

At 5:34pm, 911 operators just hear weak coughing on the phone line. At 5:39pm, 911 calls out, 'There is no verbal reply.'

"Their very graphic and sad depiction of the last moments of human life that we don't often see in lawsuits or in life in general," said Sorrens. HFD Chief Boriske's response

More than 100 of Houston Fire Department Chief Phil Boriske's firefighters were at the scene of the fire back in March and with that many firefighters at a scene, it's incredibly important to have them follow a command structure. But the report is very clear. That structure broke down, allowing some officers to freelance, act on their own outside of command's orders. The report also says some of those decisions jeopardized safety.

There is no doubt it was an awful fire. Houston Fire Chief Phil Boriske called it a fire of a lifetime.

"It was very bad from the get go," he said.

From the minute firefighters arrived, smoke filled the entire building and office workers were desperate for rescue. In the end, eight of them were brought down ladders. More than 100 office workers got themselves out of the building without the help of sprinklers or a central smoke alarm.

But the building's construction is not all the report is critical of. It details an, at times, frightening lack of command, including firefighters who dispatch themselves.

"Are firefighters supposed to dispatch themselves to fires, even fires of a lifetime," we asked the chief.

"No they're not," he answered. "But I want to tell you, we had a brother firefighter call for a mayday."

That afternoon, several victims were trapped on the fifth floor of the burning building and fire captain Eric Abbt was heading there with two other firefighters. When Abbt got to the fifth floor, the report says he sent the other firefighters down for equipment and went into the smoke-filled floor alone. He got trapped and there was no help at arm's reach.

"I'm out of air. I'm out of air. I'm out of air," Abbt could be heard on the fire department radio.

"He did not follow the exact letter of the guidelines of the Houston Fire Department concerning crew continuity," said Boriske.

But Boriske was very clear that those are guidelines and not rules or policy and that sometimes they do get broken. The report says Abbt's decisions forced other crews to risk their own safety in order to rescue him. No one was disciplined following the release of this report. T he chief says there will be more training and that ultimately, when faced with the same situation, the Houston Fire Department will always go in to rescue their own.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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