fire department

UPDATED: Stores Evacuated, Road Closed Due to Gas Leak Along Columbia Pike

By ARLnow.com
1/5

(Updated at 2:10 p.m.) A reported ruptured gas line behind Papillon Cycles prompted evacuations and a road closure near the intersection of Columbia Pike and S. Walter Reed Drive.

As of 2:10 p.m., the gas leak has been stopped and police re-opened Walter Reed Drive, after temporarily closing it between the Pike and 9th Street S.

Some stores in the area, on the 2800 block of Columbia Pike, were evacuated during the incident, according to scanner traffic.

One restaurant owner said that means their business had to close, but told ARLnow, “but that’s fine, it’s a Wednesday so it’s slow anyway.”

A full fire department response has been dispatched to the scene as a precaution, as gas company crews work to stop the leak.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Storms Expected Today — “Strong to locally severe thunderstorms are in the forecast Tuesday afternoon and evening, and the potential exists for this to be a significant severe weather event.” [Capital Weather Gang]

ACPD: Expect Police at Fair — “As in years past, the [Arlington County Fair] will have dedicated police staffing and resources and fairgoers can expect to see a visible police presence… There are no known threats to Arlington County, however, the public is encouraged to remain aware of your surroundings at all times.” [Arlington County]

Local Volunteer Firefighting Legacy — “Tucked inside the Clarendon fire station on N. 10th St. is a special closed-off room. By long-standing arrangement with the county, it is dedicated to honoring the station’s decades of reliance on volunteer firefighters. Today’s professionally staffed Fire Station 4 deploys ‘no active volunteers, but retains a volunteer presence.'” [Falls Church News-Press]

Hotel Near HQ2 Sells For Big Bucks — “Host Hotels & Resorts sold the Residence Inn Arlington Pentagon City, a 299-room high-rise property at 550 Army Navy Drive, for $99.1M in a deal that closed July 1, according to Arlington County property records.” [Bisnow]

Deer Rescued from Fence — “Last week, Officer Solano and several neighbors were able to safely untangle this juvenile deer from a soccer net in a resident’s backyard. The deer immediately ran away, uninjured, back into the woods nearby.” [Twitter]

Man Brings Loaded Shotgun to Pentagon — “A Kentucky man taken into custody at the Pentagon last week had a shotgun, ammunition and a machete in his pickup truck, according to court documents… While speaking to the officers, [the man] made ‘incoherent statements about being in the area for ‘liberty business.”” [Fox 5]

Bocce-Playing Seniors in Ballston Spot Brush Fire, Help Save the Day

By Vernon Miles
1/3

Some seniors in the right place at the right time helped to stop a fire in Ballston.

A group of seniors from the Arlington Neighborhood Village program were playing their weekly bocce match Monday (Aug. 5) at the courts near the Ballston public parking garage when they noticed a distinctly smoky smell.

“All of us kept smelling smoke, but at first we couldn’t tell where it was coming from,” Gary Eiserman, one of the players on the green team, told ARLnow in an email. “Then I noticed smoke rising out of the bushes near the bocce courts.”

As the players approached, they poked around and saw smoke coming up through the mulch at the base of the bushes.

“We stomped on what embers we could find, then doused the area with water from one of our water bottles,” Eiserman said. “We figured the fire was out, and went back to the game, but shortly after that we smelled smoke and saw more smoke in the bushes.  We didn’t have more water to put on the fire, and it was very close to a large transformer, so at that point we decided to call for help, telling them that it wasn’t an emergency, but someone should come and put it out.”

Arlington County Fire Department spokesman Capt. Ben O’Bryant said firefighters from Engine 102 were able to extinguish the smoldering fire with a fire extinguisher. Firefighters at the scene told the players that the dryness of the mulch meant it was a good thing the seniors called when they did, according to Eiserman.

“We were very impressed with the firefighters,” Helen Onufrak, one of the players on the red team, said. “It certainly added excitement to our weekly bocce game.”

The group posed for a photo with the firefighters, before the ACFD squad departed. The game then continued, with red team beating the green team 16 to 7.

While recounting the eventful bocce outing to ARLnow, Eiserman offered some headline ideas.

“I also have a couple of suggestions for titles: ‘Great Bocce Balls of Fire!'” Eiserman said, “or: ‘Bocce Ballers Battle Burning Bush, Blaze Beaten By Ballston’s Bravest.'”

Part of Glebe Road Closed Due to House Fire

By ARLnow.com
1/2

An under-construction home caught fire this morning, prompting an emergency response that closed part of N. Glebe Road during the morning rush hour.

Video from the scene shows smoke coming from the top of the home, at the intersection of Glebe and 33rd Street N., just north of Washington Golf and Country Club.

The fire, which was first reported just before 7 a.m., has since been extinguished. No visible signs of fire damage can be seen on the front of the home.

Arlington Man Survived on Coca-Cola for Five Days After Falling at Home

By Vernon Miles

An elderly resident who lives in Arlington’s Williamsburg neighborhood was rescued by an attentive mail carrier, neighbors, and first responders after falling at home and not being able to get up.

The man survived on his kitchen floor for five days by drinking Coca-Cola that was within arm’s reach, we’re told.

Jared Agnew, a neighbor, said a mail carrier who goes by “E” was the first one to notice something was amiss last Friday (Aug. 2) on the 3000 block of N. Trinidad Street.

“She asked if anybody had seen [the resident],” Agnew said. “His door had been open for a couple days and E noticed that the mail hadn’t been moved.”

Agnew said after E asked around, one of the neighbors called police, who responded to investigate the open door. Officers subsequently found the man on the floor and called for paramedics, who took the man to a local hospital.

According to the Arlington County Police Department:

At approximately 12:45 p.m. on August 2, police were dispatched to the report of suspicious circumstances after a neighbor observed the door to a residence left open and mail piling up. Upon arrival, officers located an adult male in need of medical assistance inside the residence. The male was transported to an area hospital by Arlington County Fire Department medics.

Residents are most well-acquainted with what may be uncommon or unusual in their neighborhoods and communities. Suspicious circumstances can be reported for police investigation by calling the Emergency Communications Center at 703-558-2222.

Agnew said he was told by police at the time that the man had fallen on Monday and, unable to get up, had survived by drinking Cokes on the floor near him.

Captain Ben O’Bryant, a spokesman for the Fire Department, said the elderly adult male was in relatively good condition when he was transported to Virginia Hospital Center.

The man was not at home when an ARLnow reporter visited his house on Tuesday, but a bottle could be seen on the ground inside the house.

File photo

BREAKING: ART Bus Rolls Into Building on Columbia Pike

By ARLnow.com
1/6

(Updated at 2:20 p.m.) An out-of-control Arlington Transit bus rolled into a number of parked vehicles and into a building along Columbia Pike.

The crash happened around noon today at the intersection of the Pike and S. George Mason Drive.

Around 10 passengers were on the bus, according to a fire department spokesman, when it rolled through a rental truck depot on the southeastern side of the intersection, near a 7-Eleven store. The bus struck several trucks and a car, which was pushed into a small building on the lot.

The bus passengers were evaluated by medics on scene. One person suffered a minor injury and was taken to the hospital, according to Arlington County Fire Department spokesman Capt. Ben O’Bryant.

Three witnesses told ARLnow that the bus started rolling downhill after the driver exited the bus at a bus stop. Two of those witnesses, who were on the bus at the time, said one of the passengers jumped into the driver’s seat and steered the bus off to the side, away from traffic, thus running into the parking lot and the building.

The person who was injured was inside the building at the time of the crash, the witnesses said.

Police were unable to immediately corroborate the witness accounts provided to ARLnow. Officers remain on scene investigating the cause, an ACPD spokeswoman said, and a building inspector has been called to “evaluate structural integrity of the building.”

ART buses have been involved in a series of significant crashes over the past few years, including:

In January of this year ART blamed a shortage of drivers and persistent maintenance issues for a series of service disruptions.

Vernon Miles contributed to this report.

Officials: More Overtime for Fire Department Means Bigger Cuts Elsewhere

By Vernon Miles

The Arlington County Fire Department’s overtime crisis is having a ripple effect on other programs, leaving training and logistics to take a hit.

Between the 2016 and 2018 fiscal years, the department exceeded its overtime budget every year.

At a meeting yesterday (Thursday) at county government headquarters, County Auditor Chris Horton met with Arlington officials and ACFD staff to review the recent audit of the department’s chronic overtime usage and suggestions to fix it.

One area where all involved parties agreed was that the overtime was the main source of the department’s fiscal troubles.

“Overtime use in the fire department has caused budget management challenges in  2016-2018 fiscal years,” Horton said. “What we did here was to look and see if there was actual, clear evidence mathematically that it was overtime driving the overages in the budget. What we’re seeing is strongly indicative that the callback overtime — that is increasing the overruns with total personnel costs — is increasing the overruns with total department costs.”

There were several issues cited as contributing factors to the overtime overuse, but one of the main problems is insufficient staffing. According to the audit:

At the core of the budget management issues are staffing challenges ACFD experiences throughout the department, including significant attrition in ACFD Operations. ACFD has been operating with decreases in staffing that continue to result in an average loss of more than two employees per month. With the rigorous screening processes and training required for new recruits, it takes almost 12 months and costs almost $100,000 per recruit to recruit, hire and train firefighters… Therefore, ACFD continues to face struggles with deploying adequate staffing even with recent budget increases to fund additional recruit classes.

Horton and fire department officials explained that staffing is required to be maintained at certain levels, and if there aren’t enough staff on hand to meet those levels, off-duty firefighters are either called back or asked to stay past their shift to meet those staffing levels. This callback overtime — as opposed to discretionary overtime — has exceeded its budget every year the audit studied.

“It’s very difficult to be fully staffed in public safety,” said County Manager Mark Schwartz. “We have to call people back and they come back. It’s not a healthy cycle for anyone involved. Over the last three of four years, the things that haven’t been done are as much training — that’s the main thing — and logistics. The department tries to get in under budget overall but there are things that get lost in that process.”

The audit notes that cuts had to be made in expenditure categories such as training and equipment to cover overtime costs.

“To stay within our budget, sometimes we have to throttle back stuff that’s not mission-critical,” Capt. Ben O’Bryant, a spokesman for ACFD, told ARLnow. “Training we’d like to send four people to maybe we’d send three, or equipment that we’d like to put in service, maybe we hold back on that. Nothing that’s mission critical for delivery of services… but sometimes we have to adjust our activities. Anything required to provide services to the county, we get that, but sometimes we don’t send as many people to elective training as we’d like to or we hold off on getting equipment.”

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County Auditor: Fire Dept. Exceeded Overtime for Years, Potentially Risking Firefighter Safety

By Airey

A new report found the Arlington County Fire Department has been regularly exceeding its overtime budget while putting firefighters at risk of fatigue and injury.

County Auditor Chris Horton blamed staffing shortages and a lack of payroll controls for the department exceeding both its overtime budget and personnel budget over the last three years. He noted that the overtime costs ranged from $5.2 million to $6.2 million per year, despite being budgeted at $3.2-3.4 million.

Officials are expected to discuss the 40-page report during the County’s Audit Committee public meeting tonight (Thursday) at 5 p.m. in Room 311 in county government headquarters (2100 Clarendon Blvd.)

The department requires that firefighters work no longer than 60 hours in a single shift, and must take at least a six-hour break before starting new shift. However, the audit found that supervisors could override that requirement.

“The purpose of hours worked restrictions is to reduce responder fatigue, and improve safety, performance, and quality of life,” read the report. Horton recommended the department stick to its hours — as well as study whether firefighters may require more rest time between shifts.

“The commute for some personnel could be one or two hours each way,” wrote the report, noting that many firefighters live well outside the area. The report also noted a high level of sick leave could be caused by firefighters using their paid time off to catch up on sleep.

The audit issued 23 recommendations to address the time off and overtime problems, including that the create an “overarching departmental policy” on how to better monitor time off.

ACFD responded that they agreed with 20 of the recommendations. When it came to commission a staffing study, establishing better interagency communication, and budgeting for more overtime, Fire Chief David Povlitz disagreed with the need for additional resources, writing that ACFD could address those needs internally.

One reason the audit found for the unexpected overtimes expense was a lack of controls and efficient systems for payroll, which Horton noted, “creates cumbersome and inefficient processes and impairs overtime management.”

The department was within its overall $59.8 million budget during the last fiscal year, but the audit found that the unexpected overtime expenses caused the department to exceed its overall budget in fiscal year 2016 and 2017.

Horton said ACFD’s high attrition rate and recruiting struggles have contributed to the high overtime costs.

“At the core of the budget management issues are staffing challenges ACFD experiences through the department, including significant attrition in ACFD Operations,” he said. “ACFD continues to face struggles with deploying adequate staffing even with recent budget increases to fund additional recruit classes.”

Last year, firefighters joined police officers in protesting low wages, some saying the low starting pays made it impossible to live in Arlington with its rising cost of living. The county has responded to the demands by awarding 6 percent budget increases to ACFD for the last two years to raise wages and fund recruiting, but retention remains a problem: Horton noted the department loses an average of two employees every month.

Now, the county is aiming to hire 36 more firefighter and EMTs by 2022 to alleviate the workload of the department’s remaining employees.

Three months ago, Horton also found that the Arlington County Police Department had exceeded its overtime budget for the last three years. The auditor found that ACPD reported $5.46 million in overtime last year — twice the amount allocated in the department’s budget.

Povlitz noted that because “there are some similar findings between the Police and Fire Department Overtime Audits, all public safety agencies are planning process changes by utilizing a newly staff public safety time and attendance administrator position.”

County Manager Mark Schwartz said in a statement today (Thursday) that “the real message here is that we need a better and updated financial system.”

Table via Arlington County

ACFD Assists with Search for Human Remains at Roaches Run

By ARLnow.com

The Arlington County Fire Department was among the numerous agencies assisting with a search for human remains at the Roaches Run Waterfowl Sanctuary near Reagan National Airport today.

The search is linked to the discovery of a human skull and other bones along Four Mile Run in Arlington, near the GW Parkway.

“After multiple searches over several days, three (3) human bones to include a skull, were recovered from the creek bed,” U.S. Park Police said on July 19. “The scene spanned approximately 200 yards, suggesting that the bones may have washed into the area during heavy storms.”

During that search, a D.C. fire department cadaver dog was injured and airlifted to an emergency vet. That dog, K-9 Kylie, was recently released for full duty and was back searching around Roaches Run today, according to a video posted by D.C. Fire and EMS (below).

Today’s search also involved divers, but did not turn up anything and has since been called off, according to reporters on scene. More via social media:

Arlington Fire Department to Kick Off Annual Animal Shelter Donation Drive

By Airey
1/3

The Arlington County Fire Department will be kicking off a donation drive for the Animal Welfare League of Arlington this week.

Called “Operation FirePaws,” the annual event aims to gather donated pet supplies at fire stations for use by AWLA. This year, both the fire department and the shelter will be sharing safety tips with donors who drop off goodies, per a county press release.

Those interested in participating will be able to drop off supplies in donation bins in the lobby or outside of the county’s 10 fire stations. The fire houses will accept donations every day from this Thursday, August 1 to August 31, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Since the first drive in 2015, the county says people have donated more than 1,600 pounds of pet supplies.

AWLA shared a wish list of everything from food dispenser toys for dogs, to microwave heating pads for kittens, to plastic tarps and zip ties. However, the group is reminding residents that it cannot accept used beds, homemade treats, or milk bones.

Donation bins can be found at any of the following fire stations:

  • Fire Station 1 (500 S. Glebe Road)
  • Fire Station 2 (4805 Wilson Blvd.)
  • Fire Station 3 (4100 Old Dominion Dr.)
  • Fire Station 4 (3121 10th St. N.)
  • Fire Station 5 (1750 S. Hayes St.)
  • Fire Station 6 (6950 Little Falls Road)
  • Fire Station 8 (4845 Lee Hwy.)
  • Fire Station 9 (1900 S. Walter Reed Dr.)
  • Fire Station 10 (1791 N. Quinn St.)

Images via Arlington County

Bicyclist Injured in Crash Along Arlington Blvd Ramp

By ARLnow.com
1/2

A cyclist was struck and injured along an on-ramp in the Lyon Park neighborhood this afternoon.

First responders were dispatched to a scene just after 3 p.m. today (Wednesday) for a report of a cyclist struck by a vehicle on the ramp to and from from eastbound Washington Blvd and westbound Arlington Blvd. The cyclist was in a crosswalk when he was struck by the driver, said Arlington County Fire Department spokesman Lt. Michael Sheeran.

The victim was transported via ambulance to George Washington University Hospital with traumatic but non-life-threatening injuries, Sheeran said.

The ramp was closed for about 45 minutes, leading to backups on both Arlington and Washington boulevards, but has since reopened.

No word yet on whether the driver will face any charges.

Map via Google Maps. Ashley Hopko, Vernon Miles and Airey contributed to this report.

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