Firefighter who broke protocol to save 95-year-old woman from burning house is suspended without pay

Suspension justified by his shunning team safety regulations, boss says

When Daniel Dwyer saw flames taking over the wooden-frame house, he made a split-second decision to act.

Other firefighters on his search team were still rushing to the late-night blaze in Atlanta last June, but the flames were only getting stronger. So Mr Dwyer broke down the front door, pulling out a 95-year-old woman who had been trapped inside. She died soon after from her injuries.

Eight months later, however, Mr Dwyer’s actions that night have gotten him suspended from his job without pay, according to local TV stations, because the fire captain failed to follow protocol when he ventured inside by himself.

“Firefighting is an extremely dangerous job,” Atlanta fire chief Randall B Slaughter told a group of city lawmakers on Tuesday. Although rushing into a blaze alone may seem “courageous and commendable”, that person can also jeopardize other firefighters if they get trapped, he said.

The disciplinary rebuke against Mr Dwyer has nonetheless provoked anger among firefighters in Atlanta and beyond, as many of them questioned why Mr Dwyer is being punished – rather than praised – for what they see as an act of heroism.

The woman caught in the fire, 95-year-old Sallie Skrine, lived in the northwest Atlanta neighbourhood of Collier Heights, one of the first in the country created by black urban planners for black middle-class residents.

Ms Skrine was a big-hearted matriarch and a “pillar of her community,” family members told WBNS, a television news channel, last June, and in the basement of her one-story home, the woman known to most as Ms Skrine operated a food pantry for residents in need.

In the early-morning hours of 27 June 2019, a fire started in her house on Collier Drive, likely in the kitchen. One of the burners on the stove had been left on, officials told WAGA, a television news channel, and had probably started the blaze.

When Mr Dwyer arrived on the scene around 1am, a team of firefighters was trying to fight the blaze with water while Ms Skrine was in the dining room. The house had burglar bars installed on the windows, and officials say the woman may have been trying to escape when Mr Dwyer broke down the front door.

He pulled her out of the blaze and onto her porch, as other firefighters joined him to carry her down away from the house. Despite their efforts, Ms Skrine died from her injuries.

Video of the blaze provided obtained by local news outlets shows Mr Dwyer pulling Ms Skrine through the front door and onto her porch, where his fellow firefighters help carry her down the steps onto the curb.

That seemed to be the end of the story – at least, in public – until this week, when WXIA, a local tv station, reported on Mr Dwyer’s upcoming suspension.

A notice of final action obtained by the TV station said that Mr Dwyer will be suspended without pay for a period of four days, until 19 February, because the fire captain broke protocol when he entered the house and attempted to rescue Ms Skrine.

“You entered the structure without your crew members,” the document said, “which is in immediate conflict with no freelancing, accountability and maintaining crew integrity.”

In a statement on Thursday to local media outlets, fire chief Slaughter declined to comment on the specifics of Mr Dwyer’s individual disciplinary case, noting that it “would be inappropriate to publicly discuss” a situation that has “not been totally resolved.”

Mr Dwyer can appeal his decision, local media reported, although that process can take up to several years. A spokesperson for the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post.

“The disciplinary process for the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department is designed to encourage safety and order,” Mr Slaughter said. “It also seeks to establish clear expectations in both emergency and non-emergency situations.”

But the local firefighters’ union, the Atlanta Professional Firefighters Local 134, slammed the decision, arguing that Mr Dwyer’s actions that June night should receive only praise.

“When the men and women in the station hear that fire captains are going to be punished for acts of valour, it just goes against in which anything a firefighter swears an oath to uphold,” Paul Gerdis, the head of the union, told WAGA.

And in some sense, Mr Gerdis added, the suspension is almost akin to rubbing salt in the wounds left from the June blaze. Besides the “guilt of not being able to save this homeowner,” he said, the unpaid suspension will also create a financial burden for Mr Dwyer and his family.

On social media, the union seemed to take on a darkly ironic tone.

“Tragic event when a firefighter upholds his oath to risk his life for a citizen he has never met,” the union wrote on Facebook. “The passing of Ms Sallie is heartbreaking. Our hearts go out to her family and community. We can promise the Citizens of Atlanta that we will always come for you.”

The Washington Post