Funches Fire

As noted, Blogmaster occasionally responds to reader comments left in the post sections. The Funches fire, which occurred in the 11 pm hour of 24 September 2004, left the reverand funches 3 children, plus a fourth child, dead. The reverand and his wife were not home at the time and the fire appears to have been ruled accidental. A tragic, unfortunate occurance for which Blogmaster and many others were very sorry about. Many of us attended the funerals and donated to the funches memorial fund set up at US bank, even though the finger pointing had already begun and settled on oemc. And unlike many in the community, and outside of it, few of us questioned the circumstances in which those children were alone in the house without their parents at that time of the night.

That is because almost immediately after the fire, the blame game started. According to published reports, several witnesses claim to have called 911 about the fire, only to be laughed at, hung up upon, or left hanging because no operator ever answered. The city, investigating such claims, has publicly identified 19 incoming 911 calls regarding the fire beginning at 11:25pm and ending at 11:27 pm. City records allegedly indicate that cfd was on the scene of the fire within 3 minutes of receiving the first call. An official city inquiry into the funches claims of non response indicate that one call, handled by an oemc fire calltaker, was not properly processed and that said calltaker did indeed hang up on caller, classifying that call as a child prank. The calltaker was put on paid administrative leave and the city has contended that because the improperly processed call was the THIRD call about the fire, cfd had already been dispatched and that this particular call had no bearing on response time. As a result of these allegations, and other purported evidence, the funches retained counsel and sued the city. Blogmasters sources reveal that several former and present oemc/city suits were deposed, interviewed, and/or subpoenaed regarding this incident, including ibew local 21 business agent jerry rankins

The recap of these events now bring Blogmaster back to our dear reader and Blogmasters direct response to comments left in the post. Blogmaster is sure that the reader did not attempt a blanket indictment of the calltakers and dispatchers at oemc and honestly, Blogmaster believes it is a stretch for ANYONE to claim that the children died "as a result of poor staffing within the oemc and overworked, overstressed calltakers and dispatchers". The children died as a result of an accidental fire in their house, period, the cause of which cannot by any stetch of the imagination be linked back to oemc. However, dear reader, the point about understaffing is a valid one and it deserves to be addressed, especially because this site and other sources directly associated with oemc have been crying mismanagement and understaffing for a long, long time.