
The D.C. fire truck specifically designated to save the president and the first family from a White House blaze has been out of service for 500 out of the last 1,000 days, according to some of its operators, and is, in the words of one firefighter assigned to drive the truck, a “piece of crap.”
Tower 3, the District fire department’s one and only tower truck (a tower truck has a bucket at the end of its ladder), is stationed at the fire house downtown on 13th and L streets NW. One of its main responsibilities, according to several fire officials, is to make a quick dash to the White House in the event of a blaze.
“That’s why D.C. has a tower [truck],” says one longtime firefighter assigned to Tower 3, who asked not to be named because he feared getting in trouble with his superiors. If the president and his family are trapped above the first floor, Tower 3’s bucket, which can support the weight of several people, is supposed to be available for a mass rescue.
“We actually have a designated window we show up at,” says fire technician Mike Rogers, a 23-year department veteran whose job is to ride up in said bucket. Rogers says he’s been working on the truck ever since the department bought it in 2003.
Since April 2009, the truck has been out of service for a total of 519 days, according to records complied by some of the truck’s operators and provided to LL by the D.C. Firefighters Association, the union that represents the city’s firefighters. Fire crews have to keep records every time their trucks are out of service and the union tracks equipment issues independent of the department. The longest stretch, according to these records, was in the second half of 2010, when Tower 3 was out for 143 straight days.
The problems with the truck that’s supposed to save the president are small pieces of ammo in a growing war between Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe and the fire union, along with a vocal group of Ellerbe critics in the department. The battles run from the trivial, like what logo firefighters can wear on their clothing, to the more serious, like what’s the best schedule for working firefighters and who is responsible for equipment problems like those of Tower 3’s. Throw in accusations of racism, a touchy subject for a department with several past discrimination lawsuits, and you’ve got a recipe for a potentially explosive situation. (Yes, LL knows that pun burned.)
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