Wednesday, February 18, 2015

The family of a man who died in a south side fire in 2013 filed a wrongful death lawsuit Friday against Dane County.

 

Wednesday, February 18, 2015  

MADISON, DANE COUNTY, WISCONSIN:
 
The family of a man who died in a south side fire in 2013 filed a wrongful death lawsuit Friday against Dane County.Chris Williams died in his Madison apartment on Oct. 16, 2013, when it took three minutes and 48 seconds to dispatch crews to the scene.

An attorney for the Williams family sued in September for access to records related to the fire, including an official complaint by Madison Assistant Fire Chief Lance Langer on the fact that it took nearly 4 minutes to dispatch firefighters to the Riverwood Apartments, where Williams lived.

The wrongful death lawsuit alleges the dispatch of firefighters was delayed, which caused the firefighters to be delayed in responding to help Williams.

“The delay in dispatching firefighters to the fire was a substantial factor in causing Mr. Williams' wrongful death,” the lawsuit says.

Part of the delay was because the dispatcher had to manually override the computer system twice because it tried to assign Monona firefighters to the scene which is on the border between Monona and Madison. After the delay in dispatching, it took an additional ten minutes for the first Madison fire crew to arrive on scene since the closest Madison fire units were dispatched elsewhere at the time of the call. That, too, is well above the national standard for response times.

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi has asked municipalities throughout the county to "drop their borders," essentially allowing for the closest units to fires to be sent to fight them.

When firefighters found Williams, he had collapsed at his front door, and it was determined that he died of smoke inhalation.

The Williams family directly names 911 Center Director John DeJung in the lawsuit.

William’s brother, Jim Williams, said the family wants DeJung fired.

“On the news and at the meetings I attended, he sat there and quivered and stuttered and didn’t finish sentences and wouldn’t look people in the eye. And I could tell he was lying. And I know when a person is lying. He was shaking in his own boots,” Jim Williams said.

The family also wants an un-redacted fire reports. Right now, they still have questions about 56 pages.

The Williams family had five months after they sued for access to records in September to decide if it planned to sue the county for negligence related to Williams' death.

News 3 has reported other instances of delayed responses by the Dane County 911 Center, including records that showed more than 5,000 callers who had to wait more than 40 seconds for a dispatcher to answer.

Requests for comment from DeJung, the County Executive’s Office and the Firefighter Chief’s Association have not been returned.