I want to view!

Let us look at some of the brain-buster comments from RT (thanks Jay):

--Charleston Fire Chief Rusty Thomas said Friday that he does not know whether his department’s policies mirror federal and state guidelines for managing a fire scene. “I don’t know,” he said. “I know we have our own.”

--"I’m just going to let you know we have our own incident command system. We have it written that the highest-ranking official is automatically in charge. I don’t care how it is anyplace else.”

--"Our firefighting techniques are not going to change in the city of Charleston Fire Department,”

Are you convinced yet Brad or any other doubters?

M

Objective reporting? Why not release the speech Chief Rusty give on nepotism in the Charleston fire dept. training tapes release two months ago? View video ant firefighter hourly.com, third tape 6 and a half minutes into it. This will speak volumes about how Rusty Thomas views his dept.

It’s obvious that RT was guilty of gross negligence in the management of this department. The problem is that instead of embracing change and advancing this department he is reluctantly giving in whenever forced to.
This is evidenced by his failure to implement a change in the 35’ 2 man ladder raise even when the fire service IFSTA manuals recommends a MINIMUM of 3 men to raise.
Fast forward a firefighter gets injured and he is forced to change what he recently declined.
Why must injury or death preclude any changes in the CFD?

M, and Alfred, thank you both for keeping the conversation constructive. I will however, disagree with M on one point. I will never sacrifice objectivity in my reporting.

I agree that the denial of the use of boosters in that fire is at the very lease puzzling given the pictures, and recent NIOSH assertions.

This coming Thursday’s release of the Routely team’s second phase will likely provide incontrovertible evidence on that and other tactics questioned by experts and critics alike.  But even then, it is not up to the media to make the decisions.  All we can do is report the findings, ask the questions of those who are accountable, and let the taxpayers of Charleston hear the answers.

Dr. Harry Carter, an expert you guys know very well, told me that Routely’s report is going to be more cause and effect than the NIOSH report. He also said it’s going to be “ugly”. Crew integrity, and incident command (or lack of it) will be hit extremely hard. Not to mentionthe water supply issues that he touched on during our broadcast on Friday.

How about this for critical journalism Brad, RT stated that the SSS fire was not fought with booster lines. Were you there? I was and I saw it happen. I also saw it in the B-roll of the story when the NIOSH report came out on 2, 4 and 5. There is a time to be an objective journalist (which Charleston Media deems this story reportable at convenience) and time to know the difference between right and wrong.

Mayor Riley amazes me. He stands by Rusty Thomas.
Well I suppose that is pollically correct, to support your employees. The Question then becomes who was supervising the overall fire department operation and standards as compared to standards that were previously set up by National Fire Chiefs Associaton or OSHA. Where were the fire retardant uniforms, where was the larger hoses,
where were the specialty cameras. Don,t tell me I don’t know. If you are running a Fire Department this large you are paid to have the answers before they are needed; provide the quality training from day one for every employee. If Rusty
Thomas is not responsible, Then Mr. Riley it is my opinon you are and you should step down.

First off “Why”...if you are going to accuse me of something please have the courtesy to use your real name. If you can provide an instance in which I said something that in any way can be interpreted as protecting, please let me know.

Secondly...it is not the job of a journalist in any situation to conduct themselves in way that can be considered biased or vengeful. I present the facts as they are discovered. It is up to viewers, readers, or visitors to decide. We present all sides of the issue.

Those who are calling for the chief and mayor’s jobs, and those who are not. My opnion on the matter is not important...yours is!

Brad, you come from a smart fire department family, do not stick up for RT. That man should be in jail. Your news channel must realize that he has not been fired because Rusty and his Dad have something on Joe Riley that would devastate this City if anybody ever found out. Why do you think he is sticking up for him so much, if one goes down they all go down.

M, I won’t sit here and tell you that I know how you feel. It’s no doubt going to be a rough few months ahead for everyone in the community, but even worse for people like you who were impacted directly.

Great but is Riley or Thomas listening to what he or anyone much smarter than them have to say? I think not. Thank you two for killing my friend.

OK...the videos are posted!

I have been inundated with emails from people wanting to see the segments with Dr. Carter.  I am working on getting the video uploaded and will post them as soon as possible.