Gloucester Fire Department responders failed to follow proper firefighting procedures, the incident commander failed to implement command procedures, dispatch failed to record two-way radio and telephone communications, and firefighters used equipment that may have actually intensified the blaze that burned through one historic Pleasant Street building and damaged another in two early-morning stages on March 4.
Those findings are among others outlined in the city-commissioned after- incident report released this afternoon.
The report, by Municipal Resources Inc. and based on the investigation of Chief Christopher LeClaire from the Portsmouth, N.H., Fire Department, found that Gloucester's command staff and responding firefighters failed to follow proper a number of protocols for extinguishing the 14 Pleasant Street blaze.
Deputy Chief Miles Schlichte, who also serves as the city's emergency management director served as the incident commander for the Pleasant Street fire, which first broke out at 6 a.m. City firefighters and officials thought they had quelled the blaze, and returned to the station or were relieved by other firefighters coming on for their shift. But less than an hour later, the fire flared again, this time raging through the 14 Pleasant St. building and damaging the adjacent building at 16 Pleasant St. as well.
"The ensuing damage," MRI's report states, "was most likely a direct result of the initial fire being left unchecked and permitted to travel throughout void spaces between the first and second floor."
The report particularly spotlights the Fire Department's decision to use a positive pressure ventilating fan in the building's front door.
Calling that decision "troubling," the MRI report indicates that the fan could have literally fanned the flames that burned through the building's walls. The report added, however, that MRI could not determine who made the decision to use the ventilator.
The report has been the subject of public records inquiries from two city councilors — Council President Jackie Hardy and Councilor-at-large Bruce Tobey — and the Gloucester Daily Times, which sought the full report and the drafts leading up to it through the newspaper's Boston-based law firm, Prince Lobel Tye LLC.
The document released by Kirk today includes the full Municipal Resources final report, and a collection of previous drafts that were first delivered to the city in June, and were then sent back to MRI after being reviewed by city officials and cited for reported "factual errors."
State and local investigators are still looking for who or what may have started the fire. Kirk called the blaze suspicious after the initial fire, but fire officials have never reported a cause for the blaze.
We will update this story here at gloucestertimes.com as more information becomes available. To have text updates regarding this story or other local Breaking News and Sports coverage sent to your mobile phone, just sign up for the Times' free text-alert service on the gloucestertimes.com homepage.
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Steven Fletcher may be contacted at 1-978-283-7000 x3455, or sfletcher@gloucestertimes.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevengdt.
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