With the passage of several days and the surfacing of more information, the human error that led to the fatal explosion at JJ’s restaurant last week has become clear:
For more than an hour, as gas poured out of a broken line before the explosion, NO ONE WAS IN CHARGE.
I hate to say emergency responders were standing around with their hands in their pockets, but it’s pretty clear that nobody was doing much, for a long time, to protect citizens in the bar and in the immediate area. Evacuation didn’t start until a few minutes before the explosion, and apparently no one shut off the nearest gas valve.
(I would love to find out that was not the case, but in the absence of an assertion that gas was cut off, we’re left to assume it wasn’t.)
We all know by now that the Fire Department unwisely deferred to workers with Missouri Gas Energy.
Whoever the ranking fire fighter at the scene was…he failed to take charge.
Same for any of at least three MGE workers who arrived at the scene, separately, before the explosion. The fact that they arrived separately may well have contributed to a “who’s-in-charge-here” attitude.
The MGE workers told fire fighters that they had the situation under control. That’s a lot different, of course, than someone actually being in control.
The other main people on the scene — besides customers who smelled gas but didn’t go anywhere, partly because they weren’t told to — were the workers who pierced the gas line while digging in preparation to lay fiber optic cable.
None of them was in charge, of course. They work for a company that does work for Time Warner. They were trained in digging and running lines, probably not in organizing an evacuation and maybe not even in shutting off gas valves.
It was a most regrettable case, then, of a public agency and a private company being on the scene but neither knowing for sure which was in charge or what steps should be taken to protect the public.
In the absence of a clear process on what to do, the only hope that JJ’s patrons and workers had was that someone would step forward to fill the void. Unfortunately, no one picked up the hero’s mantle, and one person died and 15 were injured.
The Star’s Dave Helling reported yesterday that Kansas City’s generic emergency response plan calls for public safety officials — that is, police or fire fighters — to decide “if threats such as gas leaks warrant evacuations.”
That means the fire department should have taken the reins…Ah, but it’s not that simple.
The document goes on to say that “incident commanders” are in charge of “routine evacuations” — which, clearly, this should have been.
Strictly speaking, however, there was no “incident commander,” partly because, for some crazy reason, the fire department routinely takes a back seat to the gas company in the case of leaks.
Helling also wrote about another document that should help the city deal with similar situations in the future. It’s called the National Incident Management System. It’s produced by the federal government, and the fire department follows its guidelines.
The telling line in the document, as far as the JJ’s explosion is concerned, says that at the scene of a dangerous situation or a disaster, the command function “must be clearly established from the beginning of incident operations.”
Makes all the sense in the world…So, let’s make sure that happens in the future.
Our very self-assured mayor — who sank from from mayor mode to lawyer mode that fateful day (and the next) — should step forward, soon, and hand down common-sense guidelines to govern dangerous situations where multiple agencies are involved.
I’ll even give him the first two paragraphs of the new policy:
“When an incident arises where public health and safety is at risk — and where more than one agency or entity is involved — the Kansas City Fire Department or the Kansas City Police Department — whichever is appropriate — will be in charge of the incident and will take immediate steps to protect the public.
“The highest-ranking officer at the scene will assume command, and he or she will organize and direct the response of whatever agencies are involved in the incident.”
Never again should we Kansas Citians see our well-paid, well-trained fire fighters (or police officers) standing down to some gas energy guys running around in jeans, T-shirts and hard hats.
And those guys…let’s make sure they know where the shutoff valves are and how to switch them to the off position.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Well, if the mayor really wants to lead he should DEMAND resignations or terminations of the individuals from KCFD and MGE that botched something we all learn in Boy Scouts 101. Regardless of the intent the obvious neglect by “professionals” was criminal. One life has been lost and dozens more impacted permanently.
Actions have consequences. Lack of action should have even more consequences.
Fitz,
You are 100-percent correct! The TWC contractors are tained to dig. WHEN IN SHUT OFF THE GAS EVACUATE FOR THE ENTIRE BLOCK! The senseless tragedy will go down as the failure and absence of procedure and common sense.
The cost would have been higher for actual MGE personnel to be at the site, but if you dig on your property without notification and cut/break anything – you pay!
There should be terminations – for incompetence – legal scapegoats. This is on the city and MGE.
Ask any decent civil attorney, there will be wrongful-death consequences and other damages!
Take Care,
Larry Luper
Clearly written policy means little if the people in charge are more CYA than grabbin’ the bull by the horns.
During my years in Philadelphia, I was witness to two different city administrations handling a violent confrontation with MOVE.
Mayor Frank Rizzo, a no-nonsense, ex-police commissioner handled a standoff with the armed group with one fatality. An officer was killed after the siege was ended when a weapon accidentally fired.
A few years later, Mayor Wilson Goode was confronted with a similar situation. He let the AFT & police drop an explosive device on a rooftop bunker which contained a 100# propane cylinder.
The house caught fire, the neighborhood burned, police fired at women & children trying to escape the inferno. Millions were spent on rebuilding homes which were never habitable due to inferior work.
Same policy was in force both times. The way it was carried out was not.
And Goode was overwhelmingly reelected.
The two events you talk about there, Orphan, are very different in nature than what we had at 48th and Belleview last week. There was nothing routine about either of the Philly incidents, which basically involved law enforcement going into battle against crazy people.
The 48th and Belleview incident should have been a “ROUTINE EVACUATION.” Because no one took charge, however, it ended in a complete and totally avoidable tragedy.
It’s galling and infuriating how the incident spiraled out of control and left one dead and 15 injured, some very seriously. A lot of people sat on their hands in the face of imminent and obvious danger.
A crucial factor in emergency preparedness is having a clear plan and having the people who are tasked with carrying out the plan regularly trained to make sure they know their responsibilities. The plan must be continually monitored and revised to keep up with changing conditions (for instance, in the JJ’s scenario, the complications that arise when an active construction site is so nearby and already narrow streets are even more constricted). To avoid jurisdictional and bureaucratic disputes, the plan must establish who will be the lead agency and how information will be communicated. To me, it sounds like there was an unspoken reluctance to make an evacuation call because that would be disruptive, especially at rush hour, and embarrassing to whoever was responsible. No one wanted to take the criticism if an evacuation was labeled overreacting.
I agree with most of what you say, Harwood. But it seems to me that rush hour would be a perfect time to evacuate. The streets in that area are designed to handle a lot of traffic, and delays are commonplace, as well, mainly because of the interminable construction project. I don’t see how an evacuation would have caused a major disruption. And regardless of time and place, an evacuation should have taken place in the interests of public safety. No excuses.
Granted but it illustrates how different people will interpret the same policy and carry it out.
We take shortcuts everyday which endanger us. Every time we do so without consequence only emboldens us to keep cutting corners.
I actually think this post from smarty and response from Fitz is more relevant today.
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Smartman
Let’s move the conversation out of the legal and civil element. This is an issue about the moral and ethical. To paraphrase Plato, “good men do not need laws, (rules), to tell them how to act responsibly, evil men will always find a way to circumvent them.”
In true “do unto others” fashion I ask this question of the on site KCFD and MGE employees. If your family members or loved ones were inside JJ’s would you have ordered them to evacuate immediately?
First and foremost we are all instructed to be our brothers and sisters keeper. Forget what the earthly judge and jury might say. What would Jesus do? Keep in mind that I am partial to Old Testament Jesus and his cruel and unusual brand of smiting, a position I will most likely be negotiating on my Judgement Day.
on February 24, 2013 at 9:32 pm | Reply jimmycsays
Excellent point, Smartman…The answer to your question, of course, is that fire fighters or gas energy workers would have had any relatives out of JJ’s seconds after smelling gas.
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I gotta tell ya, I don’t think in ANY way, that what you guys implicate is true.
I luv ya, but the idea, that the KCFD and MGE guys were aware of an imminent danger and blew it off is preposterous to me.
Today, those guys who fu*ked up, and boy did they f*&ck up, they are killin themselves. You know they are, I know they are, we all know they are.
Their families, their friends, their fellow employees, they are fu*kin dying over this.
The pound of flesh due, will be paid in full. In no way will that ever let these fuc*kin guys off the hook.
And they know it.
There is NO WAY those guys knew for a second, that there was a disaster in the making.
This sh*t is bad enough as it is.
Just my opinion, respectfully submitted.
Oh, by the way, another great post Fitz.
:)
Just to clarify, I don’t think reluctance to evacuate in rush hour was the right or wise decision. But I think that whoever could have called for an evacuation was too timid to do so. In a bureaucracy it becomes easier to not make a decision and hope everything turns out for the best (and in many cases, it does).
Once again, great post. I agree 100%. And I agree with your observations on the mayor’s response.
Chuck, if there is any justice the guys from MGE and KCFD who blew it would kill themselves. In true Spartan fashion they would also dig their own graves. Eye for and eye. Kinda like Will Smith in the move Seven…..I think. Own it!
If those cats walked in JJ’s and their families or loved were in there they absolutely would have made them leave……immediately!
This “mistake” is unforgivable on so many levels. I can’t wait to start buying my natural gas from Dave and Jimmy Frantze.
The FD in KCFD stands for FAILED DEMONSTRABLY.
Too bad our local media lacks an Inquisition type instinct to try the killers in the press, force them to resign and move away. No need for investigators, barristers and litigators. The guilty know who they are.