A Florida man trying to stop his home from burning to the ground ran bare-footed down the road to the fire department that was located four houses away — only to be turned away by an emergency medical technician who told him to go call 911.
The Sun Sentinel reported that Neville Morrison, 67, from Plantation, said he told the EMT that he had no telephone. But it didn’t matter, he said.
“I said, ’I have no phone,’ ” Mr. Morrison said, Raw Story reported. “I said, ’You can see the blaze coming out of the roof of my house.’ He told me twice to call 911 and then he closed the door with me standing outside.”
Mr. Morrison said that he thought running the length of four houses to the fire station would save his house — that he had arrived at the station in plenty of time for firefighters to respond. But he had to wait until a passerby called 911. From there, it took seven minutes and 58 seconds for three volunteer crew members to arrive at the station and roll out the engines, Raw Story said.
The incident actually occurred on Nov. 15, but fire department spokesman Joel Gordon said an investigation has now been launched and the EMT has been counseled.
“That’s not the way we do business,” he said, in the media reported.
Mr. Gordon also noted that it takes the fire department, on average, six minutes to respond.
Mr. Morrison, his wife and three children — ages 24, 18 and 16 — have been moved to a hotel by the American Red Cross.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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