Fire Department's Safety Fines Slashed

Record fines the state levied against the Seattle Fire Department for safety violations at the 1989 Blackstock Lumber Co. fire that killed a firefighter have been slashed from $102,400 to $15,000 in an out-of-court settlement.

Under the settlement between the Fire Department and the state Department of Labor and Industry, the department is required to establish a full-time safety-officer position within the department next year.

The agreement also locks the department into using a ``passport'' system, which is already in place, for locating and tracking firefighters at fires, said Jon Gillis, vice president of Seattle Fire Fighters Union Local 27.

Battalion Chief Scott McEwen endorsed the settlement as president of Seattle Fire Chiefs Association Local 2898. McEwen and Gillis described the settlement as ``a positive step forward.''

Patricia Johnson, mother of Matthew Johnson, the firefighter who died at the Blackstock fire on Sept. 9, 1989, and Matthew's widow, Esther, attended the hearing before Judge Nancy Currington of the state Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals.

Johnson's widow and infant son have filed a multimillion-dollar wrongful-death damage suit in King County Superior Court against the Fire Department and the city.

That suit is alluded to in the settlement, which says, ``This settlement agreement and payment of the proposed penalties shall not be construed as an admission of fault or liability as to any claim or proceeding which exists or may arise and may be pursued by any person.''

In March last year, the state accused the Fire Department of willful violations of state safety laws because it failed to ``use appropriate safeguards necessary to protect the lives and safety'' of its firefighters at the Blackstock fire, an unsolved arson.

Firefighters inside the burning building were not accounted for and department commanders on the scene ``failed to initiate a prompt search and rescue'' for Johnson and his partner, William Meredith, according to the state. Meredith survived.

After the hearing, assistant city attorney Marilyn Sherron released a prepared statement that concluded that, ``We are pleased that we could persuade Labor and Industries that its initial citations were not well-founded and to resolve this dispute on reasonable terms.''

McEwen and Gillis emphasized that the money the city would have paid the state can now be used to pay for the full-time safety officer with the rank of battalion chief.

Both unions have battled for years for a full-time safety officer. Such duties traditionally have been assigned to a lower-ranking officer who had other duties.

Gillis said his union will closely monitor the budget process for funding of the new safety-officer position.

At the first sign of anything less than full compliance with the state agreement or of department pressure on the safety officer to cut corners, the union will call in the state for new charges, he said.

The settlement must now go to the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals for consideration. Currington said she believes the board will approve the settlement in about two weeks.