The history of the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, which grew gradually as volunteer companies formed between 1770 and 1860, then more rapidly with the addition of paid members starting in 1864 and the transition to a fully paid department in 1871, has been marked in recent years by various controversies and scandals.
Known today by a number of acronyms — DC FEMS, FEMS, DCFD, DC Fire, or Fire & EMS — DCFEMS remains the municipal fire department and emergency medical service (EMS) agency for District of Columbia, providing fire suppression, ambulance service, technical rescue and hazardous materials containment.
19th century
The earliest official record about firefighting in the District of Columbia is a purchase authorization for a pumper in 1800. (The Fire Department of Georgetown, founded in 1776, would not become a part of the District of Columbia Fire Department until 1871.)
In 1804, after the city was organized into wards, citizens created two volunteer companies: the Columbia Fire Company on Capitol Hill and the Anacostia Fire Company. In 1814, the building that housed the Columbia Fire Company was burned to the ground by the British.
The names of the first firefighters killed in the line of duty in the District of Columbia are unknown, but they are alluded to in 1856 records of the death and funeral of John G. Anderson of the Western Hose Company in Georgetown and, two months later, of Benjamin Greenup of the Columbia Fire Company. Greenup was killed when he was run over by a pumper, which is today on display at the Fire Museum, housed at DC's oldest fire station on Capitol Hill.
The first bill to authorize a paid fire department in Washington was presented to Congress' Committee on District Matters during the session of 1860-61; it was defeated.
The first fire alarm telegraph system was installed in the city on October 12, 1864, and the first alarm was sent using it on October 21 at 12:05 am, to Box 24, near 8th and L Streets, NW.
On April 25, 1864, an act of Congress authorized the formation of a paid fire department in the District of Columbia. Months later, a part-paid department was organized: the Washington City Fire Department, consisting of three engine companies and a truck company under Chief John H. Sessford. A fully paid department was authorized by the mayor in 1870, and the following year, the department was reorganized, expanded to include the Fire Department of Georgetown, and renamed the District of Columbia Fire Department.
In 1873, the fire department was called to help the Baltimore City Fire Department with a fire on Clay Street. Engines 2 and 3 were loaded onto a train that transported them to Baltimore in just 39 minutes. Four years later, the Baltimore City Fire Department responded in kind, sending four engine companies when the U.S. Patent Office caught fire. Two helped fight the Patent Office fire, while the other two responded to a fire that started on G Street.
20th century
In 1904, the District of Columbia Fire Department again helped Baltimore, sending Chief Engineer William T. Belt, Fire Marshal Sidney Bieber, and several engine companies.
The first arrest of a serial arsonist in the District of Columbia took place in 1911. Thomas Collins was identified when firefighters recognized him from several fire scenes, where he often volunteered his help. He later admitted to having set 18 fires while drunk and, after a hearing, was confined to St. Elizabeths Hospital.
World War I little affected the department, but a fire at the Quartermaster's Storehouse at the Washington Barracks caused an estimated loss of $100,000 (more than $1.7 million today). The Spanish flu killed six firefighters who contracted it on duty.
In 1922, the Knickerbocker Theater collapsed, killing almost 100 people in one of the deadliest events in the city's history. Firefighters dug for days in freezing weather to save the injured and recover the bodies of the dead.
January 16 and 17, 1928, brought another serial arsonist, and five large fires that required assistance from fire companies as far away as Baltimore, which sent Deputy Chief Reinhardt and 10 companies. Witnesses identified John Joseph Fisher as the person who activated the fire box, and he was arrested and later confessed to having started the fires. After his trial, he was confined at St. Elizabeths Hospital.
During the four days of the 1968 riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., all DCFEMS firefighters and EMS personnel were mobilized to battle more than 500 fires and perform 120 rescues.
The department was riven by racial tension in the 1970s and 1980s, as the nearly all-white department became much more racially integrated and African American firefighters sought upper-level supervisory and management positions.Hsu, Spencer S. "Black D.C. Firefighters File Lawsuit". The Washington Post. October 16, 2010.
21st century By 2000, the D.C. fire and emergency medical services (EMS) departments had 33 engine companies, 16 truck companies, three rescue squad trucks, and two fire boats. At least five vehicles a day were used to serve the President of the United States.Honawar, Vaishali. "New Firetrucks Sought". The Washington Times. August 20, 2000. The department had a $140 million budget and 1,900 employees, including about 1,400 firefighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians (EMTs).Santana, Arthur. "D.C. Policy Results in Two More Suspensions". The Washington Post. April 4, 2001.
But the department was troubled. Training and customer service were poor. The city's fleet was aging and in constant disrepair. Several fire stations were closed because they lacked firefighting equipment.Keary, Jim. "D.C. Firetrucks in Woeful Shape, Supply". The Washington Times. January 14, 2002. The delivery of a few new trucks and engines in 2000 left the department still needing to replace at least $7 million worth of old vehicles.
Two scandals were also hurting the department. The city paid $1.75 million to settle a lawsuit by the family of a transgender person after firefighters ridiculed the person rather than treating her after an automobile accident. The death led to allegations by D.C.'s large LGBT population that the department was plagued by widespread homophobia.Miller, Bill. "D.C. Settles Bias Suit in 1995 Death". The Washington Post. August 11, 2000. As well, it came to light that D.C. fire department radio equipment did not work on the same frequencies as the Washington Metro, and for years firefighters' radios had not worked in subway tunnels.Layton, Lyndsey. "Radios Hampered Response to Metro Fire". The Washington Post. May 2, 2000; Keary, Jim. "Fire Departments, Metro Often at Odds on Rescues". The Washington Times. May 8, 2000. The public also learned that the fire department was encouraging wealthy, mostly white, citizens in upper Northwest to call the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad for emergency medical services instead of serving the area with its own ambulances (which took much longer to respond). Members of the D.C. City Council said this gave wealthy residents better service than poor ones.DeMillo, Andrew. "Ambulance Pact for NW Scrutinized". The Washington Post. June 28, 2001.
The department also saw a shift in the type of services it was called upon to provide. The number of fire alarms plummeted, thanks to improvements in building fire safety and fire suppression, but worsening public health and a crisis in health-care availability led the public to call on DCFEMS to provide much more emergency health care. In 2002, there were fewer than 100 fire alarms per month but 8,000 to 9,000 calls for medical assistance. By 2013, calls per month had risen to almost 13,350, of which about 10,700 were for emergency medical care.
Few: Turbulence
On July 10, 2000, Ronnie Few took over as Fire Chief at DCFEMS, becoming the fourth fire chief or acting fire chief in 18 months. He replaced Don Edwards, who was fired after it was found that he lived in Maryland despite a D.C. law that required cabinet-level city officials to live in the District of Columbia. Few was hired over Acting Fire Chief Thomas N. Tippett, a highly popular career firefighter and former firefighter's union official. Few had little experience overseeing the provision of emergency medical care, although 80 percent of calls in D.C. were of that nature. Few was also only the second fire chief hired from outside the department, and had extremely poor relations with the firefighter's union.Cohen, Mark Francis. "Under Fire". Washington City Paper. August 10, 2001. Accessed 2013-08-15.
The department had serious problems. Equipment was old, in disrepair, or missing. The workforce was short of employees. At the fire academy, training structures were in serious disrepair and trainees were found to be extensively cheating on tests. The dispatching system could not identify the exact location of structures like the United States Capitol or the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and dispatchers sent crews to the wrong locations or in the wrong directions. Fire engines and ambulances were having more accidents while responding to calls. Ambulances took twice as long to respond to calls (11 minutes and 21 seconds) than the national average. Firefighters didn't know how to use life-saving emergency equipment such as defibrillators. Injuries to civilians during fires were on the increase. Three firefighters died in 1999 in two months, creating a deep morale problem. (Before 1999, just a single firefighter had died in 11 years.)
Grooming policy controversy Few turned a latent legal problem into an active one in March 2001, when he began implementing a never-enforced 1977 policy requiring DCFEMS personnel to have short hair and trimmed beards. Three firefighters were suspended and others threatened with suspension for refusing to adhere to the policy. Chief Few claimed firefighters were unable to wear their helmets or properly seal their safety helmets due to over-long hair.Holly, Derrill. "Union Challenges D.C. Fire Department Grooming Policy". Associated Press. April 3, 2001; Santana, Arthur. "While Focusing on Hair, D.C. Skips Fire Mask Safety Test". Washington Post. April 6, 2001. On June 21, 2001, Judge James Robertson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia imposed a temporary injunction against the department, preventing it from applying the short-hair policy to people (such as Rastafarians or Muslims) who wore long hair or beards for religious purposes.Greenfield, Heather. "Judge Boots Grooming Policy for D.C. Firefighters". Associated Press. June 22, 2001.
A May 2001 performance report showed that the D.C. fire department was deteriorating rapidly under Few. Halfway through the budget year, Few had met only one of four major goals: filling 120 firefighter vacancies. The number of injuries to firefighters and civilian injuries and deaths had far outstripped the year's goals, and building inspections were far below the expected level. Ambulances were supposed to reach patients 90 percent of the time within eight minutes. Few changed this to 70 percent without explanation, and still the department could not reach the goal. The department was also caught manipulating data to improve the response times. (For example, fire engines with paramedics aboard often responded faster to a medical emergency than a paramedic-driven ambulance with life-saving equipment. DCFEMS began incorporating fire engine response times and neglected to make the change clear.)Drake, John. "Few Fails to Meet Own Lower Standards". Washington Times. May 22, 2001.
Haz-mat training controversy