Fire Department being sued for failure to rescue victim in the water

[BladesRobinson]

This will be an interesting case and some may find a benefit in showing the following article to the bean counters as funds are being slashed from the team. This is a "pay now" or "pay later" proposition and it costs a whole lot to pay later, as I believe the City of Alameda is likely to find out. Certainly there is no cost figure that can be placed on a lost life but I strongly suspect that the defense of the lawsuit will cost way more than the cost to maintain the team and the settlement may likely be a thousand times more than the cost to maintain the water rescue team.

Stay safe!

Blades



Alameda hit with claim over man's death in bay
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, October 14, 2011

The family of an apparently suicidal man who died off an Alameda beach on Memorial Day has filed claims against the city and Alameda County, saying firefighters were negligent because they watched the tragedy unfold and didn't save him.

Raymond Zack, 52, waded fully clothed about 150 yards from the shore of Robert Crown Memorial State Beach on May 30.
Police and firefighters watched from shore as Zack stood neck-deep in 54-degree water for 31 minutes until a bystander retrieved his motionless body. He died of hypothermia, his family said.

Zack's brother, Robert Zack, and sister, Bernice Jolliff, filed claims against the city and Alameda County on Thursday. The claims, which are precursors to lawsuits, said local officials had breached their duty to Zack "through numerous actions and inactions."

The family is seeking unspecified damages.

Interim Fire Chief Mike D'Orazi told city officials after the incident that his staff couldn't rescue Zack because the department's water-rescue program had been defunded.

An independent review conducted by former state Fire Marshal Ruben Grijalva chastised the city for not having a rescue team. By the time his report came out last month, funding had already been restored. The Fire Department bought a boat in June and a second one on Monday.

Although he commended the city for those steps, the family's attorney, Robert Cartwright Jr., said that "the level of bureaucratic bungling, mismanagement and just flat-out negligence" revealed by Zack's death "is astonishing."

The Fire Department is responsible "for not only fires on land," Cartwright said, "but, because this is an island, they are responsible for rescues and protection for things that happen on the beaches and the waterways surrounding the island."

 

[koozemani]

Shame on you blades! Don't you know it's always someone elses fault. Welcome to the nanny state.

 

[knowone]

Shame what happens when initiative stands around, arms folded, stifled chewing gum

 

[Thalassamania]

No, it is complete incompetence and turf wars, the Alameda County Sheriffs Department has two excellent Scuba Teams: Unit 9 and Unit 11. The Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services maintains a 24-hour response capability that includes the mobilization of the following volunteer units: Air Squadron, Communications Team, Mounted Posse, Search and Rescue Unit, and the two Underwater Recovery Units.



The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team is a volunteer organization made up of nearly 60 members devoted to providing a professional level of dive rescue and recovery to all Police agencies within Alameda County, for the purpose of underwater search and recovery of drowning victims or evidence of crimes. In addition, the units provide water rescue standbys for several large water-related functions. These services are available to other Counties within California through the Law Enforcement Mutual Aid System.


The unit has been in existence since the mid-1950’s and boast a reputation of being one of the oldest and most experienced public service volunteer dive rescue units in California.


For information regarding volunteering, contact the Dive Team Coordinator, Deputy R. Gandsey, at (925) 803-7808.


Web Page: http://www.acsodiveteam.org/

 

[shortdivemedic]

Being a Paramedic and police officer I don't think I could have just watched that unfold , unless of course there were other issuses involved. My concern would be rapid moving water or some real concern I had for my safety.
I hope they can sleep ok after that.

Cheers
Michael

 

[sheeper]

there must be more to the story. Would any of us stand around and watch without taking action unless it was unsafe to do so?

 

[Cave Diver]

there must be more to the story. Would any of us stand around and watch without taking action unless it was unsafe to do so?

I'm pretty certain this incident was discussed in depth in another thread when it happened. It might be in one of the Cali sub forums. If someone doesn't remember it, I'll see if I can find it and post a link later when I've got more time to search.