Thanks to an alert neighbor, on June 8, a burning garage in Brentwood was out before the fire department got there. The firefighters were delayed because the neighbor’s instructions to 911 may have been confusing.
The neighbor, Jason Asher, who lives at 8742 White Avenue, called 911 to report the burning garage at 8743 Rosalie but didn’t know the street name, so he gave his address and said the fire was on the street south of his. They went to the White address, not the Rosalie one.
The owner of the Rosalie house had put some hot coals, which he said were five or six hours old, into his compost. It started burning and caught his old one-car garage with siding.
By the time the fire department arrived, Asher and the neighbor, Calvin Cox, had doused the fire with a garden hose.
Asher said he was inside and saw a little bit of black smoke from over the fence. It was around 7:30 p.m.
“I went to the fence and could see the smoke getting bigger, then I could see little flames above the bushes. Then it dawned on me, ‘This guy’s garage is on fire.’”
Asher jumped the fence, and simultaneously started looking for a hose and calling 911.
“I ran to the front of the house, and I don’t know the name of that street,” he said. “I’ve lived here 11 years; I only know the name of my street and Brentwood Boulevard.
“I tried to tell them it was the street south of White Avenue. I said it’s the street the post office is on. I think by that time they had already dispatched.”
He said he knocked hard on the neighbor’s back door.
“The home owner darted out of the house,” Asher said. “Now the flames were higher than the garage.”
Cox turned a garden hose on the fire but Asher said he told Cox he better move his car out of the garage.
“I got the hose and he moved his car and in that time I put the fire out, but I didn’t think I was going to. It was absolutely roaring,” Asher said.
He said that’s about when they heard the sirens.
“I ran to the front of the house and saw the fire department drive by, and knew they were coming to my house, so I ran to the back fence,” he said. “They were already at my back yard. They said, ‘What’s the address over there?’ We told them it’s out.”
Cox called the confusion over the address an honest mistake.
“I guess when he called they got the address off the phone call, so they showed up over there,” he said. “By that time we already had the fire out.”
Asher said the Brentwood firefighters said they were about to send someone to investigate because they could see smoke from the station. He said the alarm went off just as they were getting to the radio to have someone go look.
Thank goodness no one was hurt and it didn’t spread to the house. I’m sure the Fire Chief must be mortified to
hear that the call center he championed so long and hard for, couldn’t get his firefighters to the correct address
only a block away from the fire station.
The Mayor and Fire Chief touted this as a great thing for our safety. Unfortunately you can’t replace a 100 years
of Brentwood Dispatcher experience overnight. I can only hope things improve before someone gets hurt.
As much as I would love to see Brandon bring dispatch back to our City, I’m afraid it would be too expensive to
undo what has already been done. We can never get back our dispatchers and all of their experience.
I definately would not make any promises as far as bringing it back in house. I too fear that it would be cost prohibitive at this point. My promise is that I will (if elected) investigate the possibility and look for any way possible.
Why was it cost effective for years and years, but now all of a sudden it is not?
Thank you Rene for putting yourself forward as candidate for election. If I may ask, which Ward do you live in? More and more citizens are becoming advocates for Brentwood. The ECDC move failed on previous occasions. It was not until the closed door meetings, and keeping this a public issue well under the radar and seriously mitigated attempts to inform the public that it passed. Look forward to seeing you on a ballot. sincerely, maureen
Its cost prohibitive because the prop e 911 bill that passed across st.louis co. In 2009 was a tax increase for updating all st. Louis county cities municipalities to upgrade their dispatch and communication since everyone uses cell phones. Now that Brentwood has joined east central the tax money that would of been used to upgrade brentwoods system is no longer available. If brentwood wants to bring their own in-house dispatch back, the city would have to foot the bill. I believe it was said, the city better be sure this is something they really want and its really going to be better and safer because if it turns out not to be, there is no going back. I understand the police dept is having some serious communication issues too.
Good response, Jack. I recall when the information you provided was put out. It is very clear this move was done ‘behind closed doors’; an highly, irresponsible on-going process of City Administration. They have ceased listening.
Brentwood has so many talented, energetic professional citizens. Brentwood is not the administration’s “home”. I see a pattern of obfuscating all relevant information from the Citizens, and a paternalistic “I know what is best ” attitude of the Mayor. For this reason I lay all the in-fighting directly at his feet. There is no need for this City to be as poorly administrated as it is. Residents DO MATTER.
Dawn, of all the comments entered on this thread, I like yours the best. You have real heart. Thank you
Brandon I’m not letting you off the hook on this. You didn’t like the way the
Board voted on an issue and you decided based upon how you were treated by the board to announce your intention to run for office. Then in the same thread you call me out as someone you intend to ignore and you ask others to ignore me as well.
So I can assume if you’re elected you will attend board meetings and ignore people who do not agree with you and then you’ll suggest that others on the board or at the meeting should ignore them too? Man up dude. You are not any different than the people on the board now who you wish to replace.
You blew it. Here’s some free advice regarding your political campaign. When you make a mistake or misspeak apologize early and move on.
My work here is done. I need to go down a few blocks and try to find my pizza.
It’s a shame that you seem to have some personal vendetta against Brandon and also seem to be using this serious topic to play childish games to distract from the topic at hand. I would love to meet face to face with you over coffee and discuss some of our concerns about our city. But I wonder if you will disclose your true identity. It’s easy to bully, intimidate and insult others under an anonymous persona. If you can’t have a grown up discussion without hiding behind a fake name, your words hold little value in my eyes. I won’t speak for others….but I’m not buying your tactics to intimidate, and distract everyone from the facts of this story. We have a right as citizens to discuss and voice our concerns. I’ll remind you, I was there when this occurred, were you?
“Personal vendetta, bully, intimidate, insult, play childish games”…,,come down off the cross lady we need the lumber. I’m entitled to my opinion on this issue and any issue. Have a great day!
Cupcake, you said “my work here is done”. That means go away and don’t come back!
Let’s see. I count 8 people at least arguing on my side, a few have outright said they will vote for me, against 1 guy, who may it may not live in Brentwood, saying I’ve lost the election. Forgive me if I don’t hire you as my campaign manager.
I think everyone here can realize that I will listen to someone about the topic on hand who has something to say, but while the adults are talking about emergency response, you keep talking about pizza.
Mr. Completely, your wisdom speaks for itself. When one fumbles early in the game, admit that and move on. I am an EXPERT at fumbling–and still live to talk about it. Thank you for your involvement, which furthers the knowledge that City Hall really does not listen to the people. I am grateful that Cindy Manestar represents my district. I could not imagine having one whose mind was already set, and quit listening. I believe Brandon would be good, provided he continues to listen. btw, after all your pizza talk I bought a little Dollar Tree Supreme pizza–and it was fabulous! 🙂 Blessings, m.
Brandon, you have a vote on Powell Ave!
Thank you. As it gets closer to election time, and after I can actually file to run, I will make an announcement and get more information out. I do appreciate the support from everybody.
Hey Brandon I just checked myself. I calked Papa Johns and ordered a large pepperoni pizza and told them to deliver it two blocks down from Joe & Charlie’s. I’ll keep you posted.
And Mr Completely is officially no longer worth my time. Please everybody, don’t give him anymore of your time either. He obviously can’t use or follow logic whatsoever.
Hey Brandon. You’ve just totally lost the election before you’ve even filed by suggesting that I be silenced based upon our difference of opinion. Exactly what you’ve found so disturbing in others eh? Pot meet kettle.
Mr Completely I do not have an interest in this either way, but it might help if you actually read the comments before you reply. No where did Brandon suggest you should be silenced, he suggested you should be ignored. Very different things. You should take a little more time to read the comments instead of making things up. It would help your cause.
As Keith pointed out, I never said I want you to be silenced, I was advocating that people ignor you. In fact, I want the opposite. I want you to keep spewing your nonsensical arguments, as they only help my side. I’m simply not going to argue with people who can’t use logic.
You’d fit right in at city hall with that doublespeak argument PC crap silenced v ignored. No matter you’ll never get elected anyhow but it’ll be a riot watching you try.
Brandon, people can make up their own minds on who or who not to listen to. Getting into snark posting does not do justice to your abilities to be a good listener to the people in the 3rd Ward. If Mr. Completely actually IS in the 3rd Ward, you would be obligated to listen. Shutting people out right off the mark is neither in your best interests potentials, nor does it allow people to speak freely to you as a potential representative for your neighborhood. I think you would be a good alderman and will support you.
When Mr. Completely posts, he often likes to stir the pot, and if memory serves me correctly, does not even live in Brentwood. If you ever want to talk strategy to get resident’s opinions–let me know. I would like to see you do well. BUT DO NOT ARGUE using emotion; just use facts. People need to trust you at your word. m.
Maureen, I did listen to Mr Completely and will listen to everybody. But I believe there comes a point where you have to stop listening. A) he was arguing the same point over and over again. It does no good to keep listening. B) his argument was not logical in the least, and literally made no sense. If you want people to listen to your point you have to present something with some shred of substance.
Hey, Brandon I’m on your side. You can be the most skilled physician in your field. But without a decent bedside manner, you won’t get good, candid information. Then how effective are you able to perform?
Having seen you in operational mode, I have no doubt that you have the vigor and will to do a good job. Part of that good job is gleaning information from people you perceive as attacking you, and incorporate it effectively into proposed resolutions. But never stop listening. That is what being an alderman ALWAYS boils down to–and we see the results of that non-transparent link between City Hall and the Residents. This thread has been a great tool to address the need for keen listening, as we are completely off course that the out-sourcing to ECDC was not good for Brentwood.
I like your position because you saw the negative, backroom, closed door meetings—and made a valiant attempt to go to the People. Did City Hall LISTEN??? no. And what are we talking about now? The realization of the very fear that ECDC would not know the Brentwood populous and locations as well as our own dispatchers. And that is exactly what happened. Learn from the people who quit listening, Brandon. I am on the side of the angels, as are you. 🙂
Sorry, line three should have been “effectively” –not “effective.” my bad.
What in the world does your mail or real estate bill have to do with this. We’re not talking about the accuracy of mail delivery we’re talking about the accuracy in fire and medical emergencies and when 911 is called the dispatchers should have a complete understanding of the location of the city like our Brentwood dispatchers did. There are going to be calls like this where first responders are needed and the caller does their best to give location when street names are not know. I think east central is doing the best they can but Brentwood never should of given up their in house dispatch dept. I think Mr. Completely would have a different opinion if it was his home or his car was in that burning garage.
And why dispute someone who had first hand knowledge of what happened. She lives 2 doors down from the fire as she stated and was outside in her garden when the fire took place and actually jumped a fence to help with the scene. Kudos to her and to the caller who acted quickly to do the right thing!
Angie, thank you for your first hand knowledge of this incident! Mr.Completely I usually agree with your sentiments but I must say I completely disagree with this one. There’s no spin here.
It sounds like the fire was located at the home that backs up to the White avenue address where the caller lives. If this is the case then it wasn’t just a matter of taking 30 seconds to walk down the block to get an accurate address. In many cases, such as mine, you’re talking about going over a 6 ft fence and other obstacles to get to the house that backs up to mine. The caller told them the fire was located one block south of his white avenue addess. He explained he didn’t know the name of the street and also said it was located on the same street as the brentwood post office. Those are pretty clear instructions.And what good would it have done for him to do this when he didn’t know the name of the street. He would of only been able to provide a house number with no street name. The Brentwood dispatchers would of known the street one block south of white and the name of the street the post office is on. I do not blame the ecdc dispatchers because they were thrown into this mess as well and I hear ecdc is now trying to get additional cities to join them making the center even bigger…this is ridiculous to me! And if the Brentwood fire dept actually saw the smoke from their station as they claim they did, if they were told the fire was on Rosalie wouldn’t the smoke also be visible from Rosalie as well, even without having a street number?
To address another comment that the fire chief and police chief weren’t to blame for our town dumping our dispatchers and going with east central I disagree with as well. Chief Jury and Disbennett were instrumental in this decision. I’d like to know why Disbennett rejected going with east central the three previous times ecdc approached them. Why this time and does it have anything to do with his sudden retirement?
M.Anderson, you are probably correct about my assertion that the heads of the FR’s being behind the change. I do recall that the administration made it sound like the dissenters were unprofessionally ‘cozy’ with the in-house dispatchers. The administration then refocused the conversation to “loss of jobs for your family and friends.” There was absolutely no wisdom in that shuffling, as most residents did not even know that this was under consideration. You also get the prize for the VERY BEST QUESTION: why was ECDC was turned down three previous occasions. Brentwood FR’s are the best in the St. Louis Metro area. This was an unfortunate, becoming more predictable error of the administration. Thank you for giving me the chance to correct myself. maureen
After thought: I would love to hear what BRANDON JONES has to say on this. He was the force behind the successful canvassing petition drive for signatures to block the ECDC move, that the Mayor ignored. Brandon, I hope you run for Alderman. Brentwood needs your foresight about now.
Maureen, I did leave a comment below. To summarize, I just don’t know what to say about this. I know what I want to say, but I’ve been told I can’t use those words while I’m running for office.
BRANDON JONES, it is wonderful to hear that you are running. I will be happy as a facilitator on your behalf, whether it is passing out informational flyers, or just whatever. You have a good sense of what Brentwood is supposed to be like–and I personally would like to re-claim the City for the residents. You would go a long way in doing that. Thanks. m.
Betty Dousent, i agree with your position. Outsourcing was based on an out of control Mayoral attitude to do as he pleases, not what the people want. I personally believe Chiefs Jury and Disbennett are not ultimately responsible for this bad, top-down pressured move.
(Brentwood is now thrown in the mix with how many other Cities in changing in-house dispatcher knowledge for a glut call center.)
I hold the Mayor responsible for prioritized his agenda over SAFETY. These incidences related to ECDC were occurring elsewhere (per the evening news) at the same time he was pushing to out-source our Brentwood dispatchers to ECDC.
Our next incident may be a medical emergency involving an elderly person or a child. This translates into NO time for FR’s to get an ECDC call to ‘guess where the problem is.”
Kudo’s to the FD for noticing the smoke before the wrong address came in. This incident is EXACTLY WHAT PEOPLE WERE AFRAID OF when we canvassed for names to stop the out-sourcing of our dispatchers.
Mayor Kelly, you need to back off the “my way or the hi-way” attitude you take with the Brentwood residents and BOA. You are making way to many errors in your judgments. You are a good person, but performing well below the wills and needs of residents whose life investments are in Brentwood. I am told I lack diplomacy–but ‘woops! I did it again’ is not working for you. God bless us all.
I just don’t know what to say. I tried. I warned everybody that would listen that this kind of stuff was going to happen. I’m still going to try to right this wrong. Let’s get this good ol boys club out with the next election cycle. I will be running for ward 3 Alderman, and I would appreciate your vote. Maybe, if we can get a few new alderman and a new mayor, we can bring in-house dispatching back.
Good to see you emerging, Brandon. There was an article about Charlie Doolittle allocating a huge sum of money to Brentwood — and I understand politics: pandering for votes using other people’s money. We need to fight the City – County merge–and I see this money as currying favour. Thanks Brandon, and yes: you were correct about the current issue. m.
What is confusing about “the street south” of Rosalie? They aren’t supposed to get the address off the call when the caller gives the street number and gives directions as specific as “the street south” odd Rosalie. So much for this move being better for everyone. If the ECDC was supposed to be so much better they shouldn’t have screwed up so early on. Doesn’t matter if callers know street names or not, they were given specific instructions and couldn’t even get that right. Mayor Kelly…
If you’re havjng a pizza delivered or requesting help from the fire department they show up at the address you give them, duh???
I agree with you Mr. Completely, but the caller did not know the name of the street “just south of…” his address. Our in-house dispatchers WOULD have understood the caller.
The well intended neighbor panicked and gave incomplete information to the FD. He would have been more helpful to take 30 extra seconds and walk down the block to get an accurate location. You can spin this all day long and they show up where you tell them everytime.
If they show up where you tell them every time, then they should have showed up at the right place. He said 1 block south of white. He told them where to go. They got it wrong. I am a former dispatcher. You have to listen to the caller and relay that information to the FD, the dispatcher should not be relying on where the call is coming from.
If I call from my house and tell them I witnessed a brake in at my neighbor’s house 1 block east (behind my house) the police need to show up there, not at my house.
I actually live 2 houses down from where this incident occurred. I was in my backyard gardening. I heard the banging on the neighbors backdoor. In the time it took me to turn around to look at what was going on, jump the backyard fence heading over to try to help, that fire was out of control! If that neighbor would have walked down the street to look at the street sign instead of finding the hose and putting out the fire, that garage would have burnt down. It happened SO fast. I don’t think the fire department was at fault, they went where they were dispatched to. But I stood there in the circle of everyone talking after the fire department arrived and the fire was already out, and heard the neighbor explain very clearly that he said “1 block south of White Ave, the street that the post office is on”. And the fireman said “we were dispatched to white ave”. If a mistake wasn’t made we wouldn’t be discussing this. Thank the good lord this wasn’t a heart attack, drowning, or something life threatening that a few minutes would have been life or death. As a lifelong Brentwood resident with an elderly parent and children with health issues this scares me. I certainly don’t want to ever see these kind of mistakes happen…but it already has. I’m worried for my family, friends and neighbors safety.
Also…that neighbor didn’t panic. He acted quickly and calmly. He got that fire put out, directed the homeownertoget his car out off the garage and kept his cool. Opposite of panicking in my opinion.
Angie, your thinking and sentiments are shared by the majority of Brentwood citizens. It’s just nice to see people voicing their concerns again. Thanking the good Lord for a “can have been a LOT worse” out come is icing on the cake of your accurate sensibilities.
God take some responsibility for yourselves. Does your mail go one block down. Is your real estate bill labelled Joe Blow one block down. When you are having one of these medical emergencies I’d thing it would guarantee the fastes possible response time if you provided an actual correct address. Grow up!
You need to check yourself sir. If you’ve never been an emergency dispatcher or worked in emergency services the. You may not know, so take it from someone with some expertise. Sometimes in an emergency people freeze and can not provide the exact correct details. The dispatcher should have been able to, and had a responsibility to discern where to send the FD from the information provided. Not everybody knows street names. When told that the fire is 1 block south of White, on the street that the post office is one, that information should have been related to the FD, they would have known. There are no two ways about it, this is not opinion, it’s protocol, that dispatcher did not relay relivent information that would have helped the FD get to where they needed to be.
No spin, Mr. Completely. Brentwood is just now part of the 911 emergency crap shoot.
Brentwood dispatchers WOULD have known what street is South of Rosalie.
Equally, I dismiss your calling the 911 first reporter “well intentioned”–and follow up with “should have, could have,” 20/20 hindsight. The FACT remains that in-house dispatchers had priory knowledge lost on the ECDC dispatchers.
We should just agree to disagree that all the “if only” scenarios you pose seem like spin. In that same extra time the neighbor you believe “should have” taken could easily have meant the car right in the scene, with gas and oil can have been involved.
History does not support your position. btw, I am allergic to ‘spin,’ ; probably why I am sometimes called out on “lack of diplomacy.” But I accept that without dispute. Thanks for your follow up.
I believe the Brentwood dispatchers would of known the street one block south of that White ave address was Rosalie and certainly would of known the street the Brentwood Post Office is on. I thought this new dispatch move was supposed to be safer and better for Brentwood residents. Good Lord, there are so few fires in Brentwood and they’re sent to the wrong street?! I thought this kind of thing wasn’t going to happen! Shame on you Chief Jury, Chief Disbennett and you elected officials that allowed this ridiculous dispatch move to take place! Shame on you all!
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