HFD takes more heat after ambulance delay at wreck

By MATT SCHWARTZ and JERRY URBAN

July 14, 2000 Web posted at: 11:12 AM EDT (1512 GMT)

In this story: Accident timeline Department under fire RELATED STORIES

HOUSTON, Texas (The Houston Chronicle) -- A man who apparently was injured in an automobile accident near the City Hall Annex on Thursday had to wait nearly 18 minutes for an ambulance, a city councilman whose office had called 911 complained.

Eighteen minutes is three times the Houston Fire Department's average response time for ambulance calls.

"It's upsetting," said Councilman John Castillo, who was able to see the accident scene on the McKinney Street exit ramp off Interstate 45 from his office window in the rear of the annex building. "I don't know that guy, but he's laying out there on that hot concrete. He's twisted up. It was awful."

No one was believed to have been seriously injured in the accident, but Castillo's complaint is sure to add to the scrutiny of the beleaguered Fire Department.

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The HFD is in the midst of an investigation over allegations that firefighters refused to assist a

12-year-old boy who came to a southeast Houston station complaining of serious pain a few weeks ago. The boy died later that day at a local hospital of an aortic aneurysm.

HFD officials refused to comment on what Castillo saw Thursday, saying an investigation into the incident was under way.

Castillo said he told Mayor Lee Brown about the scene during a meeting shortly afterward. He said Brown shook his head and wrote something down.

Mayoral press secretary Laurie Fickman said Brown declined comment on Castillo's concerns.

"The mayor's not inclined to remark on any private discussion he's had with anyone," Fickman said.

According to the city's most recent monthly financial and operating report, the Fire Department claimed an average response time of 5.4 minutes for emergency medical services calls through the first 11 months of the just-concluded fiscal year. The average response time for ambulance calls listed for fiscal 1999 was 5.6 minutes.

Castillo and some of his staff members said ambulance and police took so long to arrive Thursday that wrecker drivers had already pulled up, determined which would tow two damaged vehicles and left the scene by the time emergency crews arrived.

"The wrecker drivers just kind of drove by, looking at the guy in the street," said Elizabeth Zermeno, the councilman's secretary.

Castillo said he and his staff did not witness the accident, but called 911 about 12:20 p.m. after seeing a man stumble from a dented minivan on the exit ramp. The man fell in front of the vehicle and was almost hit by a passing car, the councilman said.

A taxi driver pulled over and moved the man to the side of the road, Castillo said.

He said he kept checking his watch and made a second call to the 911 dispatcher after about 13 minutes.

"He said, `We have a unit on the way,' " Castillo recalled. "I said, `Where's he coming from?' "

He said the dispatcher told him his computer screen indicated the ambulance was coming from Station 7, in the 1400 block of Elgin, about two miles away.

Fire Station 1 is located in the 400 block of Bagby, just five or six blocks from where the accident occurred. Although the station houses a medic unit, it was unknown Thursday whether that ambulance was out responding to another call at the time of the accident on the ramp.

Castillo said the ambulance from Station 7 arrived about 18 minutes after the original call, but stopped at the top of the exit ramp where another vehicle apparently involved in the accident had stopped.

Zermeno called 911 officials again to tell them to move the ambulance to the lower end of the ramp where the injured man lay.

She said the ambulance from Station 7 transported the injured man, whose identity remained unknown, from the scene. She said a second ambulance from Station 17, located at the 2800 block of Navigation, also arrived and picked up a person from the vehicle farther up the ramp.

Jay Evans, a Fire Department spokesman, said no information about the way in which the HFD responded to the accident would be released Thursday pending an internal investigation.

Robert Hurst, a spokesman for the Houston Police Department, said a formal accident report was not available by Thursday evening.

Hurst said that a preliminary review indicated that an officer working at the City Hall Annex was approached by a citizen and told that a wreck had occurred on the exit ramp. The officer confirmed the accident and reported the collision to a police dispatcher at 12:24 p.m.

The spokesman said that at 12:26 p.m., the officer was told by police dispatchers that an ambulance was en route. At 12:30 p.m., dispatchers advised the officer that the Fire Department had received an additional report that a crash occurred at the location.

Hurst said another officer, who responded to a general broadcast about the wreck, reported to police dispatchers at 12:34 p.m. that an ambulance had arrived.

Castillo, who went out to the scene where the injured man was being treated by paramedics, said the man complained of pain and appeared to be drifting in and out consciousness.

Hours later, Castillo was still disturbed by the incident and how long he said it took for the ambulance to arrive.

"If that was a little kid that got run over, he could have bled to death," he said. "That guy could have been having diabetic seizure, he could have been having a heart attack."

Castillo said he did not intend to get anyone in trouble, but his complaint is likely to again shift the public's attention to the Fire Department's response times.

Last year, two dispatchers were suspended over an incident in which a mortally wounded Houston police officer had to wait nearly 20 minutes for paramedics because an ambulance was sent to the wrong location. Medical officials later said the slow response time was not a factor in the death of Officer Troy Blando.

Fire Chief Lester Tyra also was suspended for a week after it came to light that he failed to reassign one of the dispatchers involved after the man complained of having a hearing problem.

In recent months, Tyra has been taking heat -- much of it from the firefighters' union -- for staffing levels at the department.

Nearly half of the department's engine and ladder trucks have been operating with just three firefighters aboard instead of a minimum of four as recommended by numerous studies and firefighter organizations.

Tyra and Brown have said the department's staffing levels are being addressed through a two-year hiring program and insist the safety of the public and firefighters is not at risk.

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