Hartford Deputy Fire Chief Suspended 15 Days Without Pay
Hartford Courant
By Steven Goode
A Hartford deputy fire chief is suspended without pay for 15 days
HARTFORD, CT
Deputy Fire Chief James McLoughlin has been suspended for 15 days without pay by fire officials who said he endangered firefighters under his command at a fire in April.
McLoughlin was suspended Friday after an investigation found that he disobeyed orders and failed to exercise due care in providing for the safety of personnel under his charge at a fire, fire officials said.
Interim Assistant Fire Chief Scott Brady said Tuesday that the suspension stemmed from an incident that happened the day after a fire on April 17 at a multifamily home at 2604 North Main St.
McLoughlin's company was sent to the house the next day to extinguish a "rekindle" of the fire but was told by an assistant chief not to enter the building because it had been compromised.
McLoughlin, who told investigators that he did not receive that information, sent his men into the building, then pulled them out when the assistant chief realized what he had done and told him again that the building was possibly hazardous to enter.
"Jim said he had no recollection of being told that the building was potentially compromised," Brady said.
Brady, however, said that McLoughlin failed to see a "number of red flags" that he should have noticed before sending his men into the building, including the partial collapse of the front wall, the roof and the internal floor.
"The building was unsaveable," Brady said.
In a letter to McLoughlin informing him of the suspension, Hartford Fire Chief Carlos Huertas said that while McLoughlin accepted responsibility for his decisions at the fire, his actions were "not consistent with the risk-reward decision-making process required of deputy chief-level officers."
McLoughlin was the incident commander at the fire last October in which firefighter Kevin Bell was killed and several others were injured.
A board of inquiry into Bell's death conducted by the department and released last month found that McLoughlin failed to acknowledge a mayday call that was made by another firefighter during the fire in which Bell was killed.
McLoughlin could not be reached for comment Tuesday.