$41,000 Fine Recommended Against Fire Department State Agency Says Seattle Officials Kept Safety Officer From Doing Job

The Seattle Fire Department hamstrung its safety officer and should be fined $41,000 for violations related to the death of four firefighters in a burning warehouse, a state agency said Wednesday.

A report issued by the Department of Labor and Industries said superior officers kept former safety officer Rodney Jones from doing his job, stopped him from keeping records of safety concerns and ignored his recommendations.

“What we found was an unwillingness by the Seattle Fire Department to let him do the job that everyone had agreed was his responsibility,” department director Mark Brown said.

Four firefighters died Jan. 5 when a floor collapsed beneath them in the Mary Pang Food Products warehouse. Eight days later, Jones was barred from participating in his department’s investigation, the report said.

He filed a complaint with the state agency after being transferred to battalion chief on May 31, saying he was demoted for reporting workplace safety concerns and pressing for improvements. Superior officers denied his accusations at the time, and Brown said the complaint remains under investigation.

Georgia Taylor, a department spokeswoman, said the department is taking the state’s criticisms seriously. She said no decision has been made on a possible appeal.

Since the Pang fire, the department has changed procedures to allow firefighters to know of arson threats as they respond and to make computerized building plans available to supervisors at fire scenes.

“It’s a very dangerous job, but we want to make it as safe as we humanly can,” she said.

Martin Pang, son of the warehouse owners, is being held in Rio de Janeiro pending extradition proceedings on charges of first-degree murder and arson.

A four-member team with help from two others spent about 200 hours interviewing more than 76 firefighters, fire administrators and others, Brown said.

Because of past citations against the department over the scope and power of the safety officer, the violation was characterized as “willfull,” and the proposed fine was set at $25,000.

Fines totaling $16,000 were proposed for five other violations.

Could avoiding all of the violations have saved the lives of the four firefighters?

“‘That is a question that will never be answered,” Brown said. “This is not just an occupational fatality. This is a murder. This is a homicide.”

The citation involving the safety officer goes beyond the Pang fire and stems from a long-simmering disagreement over the role of that job, Brown said.

In his complaint, Jones said that “for this (department) administration, providing documentation that identifies problems and proposes solutions (is) perceived as an attempt to undermine or disrupt their control.”

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