Candidate Ran A Grisly Internet Site Pierce County Fire Commission Hopeful Admits The Shots Of Victims Were In Bad Taste

A fire commission candidate ran a World Wide Web site containing graphic pictures of trauma victims accompanied by crude captions.

Don Crisman’s home page, which said it was “dedicated to emergency medical services,” contained a section he called “the Trauma Gallery.”

The caption under a photograph of a suicide victim read: “Grandpa, tell us a story about when you were in the war.”

Under a photo of an accident victim lying across the white line of a road, Crisman wrote: “That’s a touchdown man. He definitely broke the plane … and I think his skull.”

Crisman, a candidate for the Graham fire commission, agreed the site was crude, and he removed his home page from the Internet after a reporter from the News Tribune of Tacoma asked him about it.

“I guess I just wasn’t in tune to the people that don’t see that every day,” he said.

“I am worried about hurting somebody,” he said. “It was never meant for that.”

Crisman is one of four candidates for Position 3 on the Board of Commissioners of Pierce County Fire Protection District 21, also known as Graham Fire & Rescue. He makes his living dispatching private ambulances in Seattle.

One person offended by Crisman’s “Trauma Gallery” was the main target of Crisman’s election campaign: commission Chairman Bob Skaggs, who is running for re-election.

“I think it’s sickening myself,” Skaggs said. “I was really appalled at what was being said. … There are some very graphic pictures and the question arises, where did they come from? Was there permission given?

“We have pictures of somebody’s relatives here and we are making jokes about the fact they are deceased. … That is not what a fire department should be.”