Baltimore officials only fund 1 of 4 FF safety budget requests post-LODD

Emily Opillo
Baltimore Sun

BALTIMORE — Baltimore funded only one of four budget requests submitted to address recommendations made in the wake of: fatal fire on Stricker Street that killed three city firefighters in 2022, however, it has made significant progress in labeling unsafe vacant buildings.

The update came Thursday during a hearing on the city’s fire department budget before the Baltimore City Council. In response to council questions, fire and city budget officials said Mayor Brandon Scott’s proposed spending plan for fiscal year 2025 includes funding for four fire safety officers introduced as part of the 2024 spending plan. But next year’s budget still doesn’t include money for another recommendation from the Stricker Street report, namely battalion command technicians to assist each of the city’s battalion chiefs.

Report, developed by a panel of local fire officials response to the fire found that the battalion chief on scene on Stricker Street was overwhelmed with too many responsibilities, compromising the safety of city firefighters. Technicians were directed to assist in coordinating personnel activities at the fire scene.

Click on the image to read the report.

Council members asked fire officials Thursday to provide a written update on the city’s progress in implementing the report’s recommendations.

The Stricker Street fire took the lives of Lt. Paul Butrim, Lt. Kelsey Sadler, and paramedic/firefighter Kenny Lacayo in January 2022 after the empty house they entered to fight the fire partially collapsed on them. Paramedic John McMaster was also seriously injured. The fire was one of the deadliest in the history of the city and the country this year calls for reform (many of which are detailed in the report), resulted the ouster of then-Fire Chief Niles Fordand recently prompted a lawsuit from families several victims.

(RELATED: Baltimore Fire Chief Niles Ford resigns following release of internal report on LODD fire)

Fire Chief James Wallace, who replaced Ford, told the council Thursday that his department has inspected more than 5,900 buildings and flagged 648 as structurally unsafe since restart Code X-ray in October 2022, a separate advisory issued following the Stricker Street fire. Signs indicate to firefighters that they cannot safely enter the property to fight a fire within it.

The fire department began a Code X x-ray program in 2010, marking buildings with red signs with white Xs to indicate when a firefighter should not enter. Program informally ended around 2012 due to complaints that the signs devalue city neighborhoods.

The new signs placed on city buildings are red rhombuses. Once a week, city firefighters inspect city districts looking for additional buildings that can be marked with signs. Inspection data is transmitted to the Fire Department’s computer system, which is then shared with Baltimore housing officials.

“It was an extremely successful program,” Wallace told the council.

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Council Vice President Sharon Green Middleton asked officials about the status of communication between the Fire Department and the Department of Community and Economic Development. Deputy Chief Dante Stewart said crews from both departments are coordinating joint inspections of potentially hazardous buildings.

Wallace said the department is also working to create a database of incidents in which homeless people were in buildings marked with Code screening signs.

“We found people in the Code X buildings enough to be concerning,” Wallace said. “When we as a department take the attitude that we’re not going to send our people into Code X-ray buildings and then find people in the buildings, that’s the delicacy of this job. It is extremely difficult for our people to get into a situation where they cannot move on.”

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Recommendations resulting from the fire, which required significant staff investment, were slower to emerge. The Stricker Street fire-related budget requests submitted in 2024 included eight additional positions to assist the city fire marshal, additional staff for the fire academy and 28 battalion command technicians – enough to support all city battalion chiefs on all shifts.

City officials couldn’t agree Thursday on whether the fire department’s 2025 budget request also includes funding for technicians.

(RELATED: ‘Deathtrap’: Families of fallen Baltimore firefighters sue city over abandoned buildings)

Engine 14 members were the first to arrive at the Stricker Street fire in response to a 5:50 a.m. call. Sadler, who had been posthumously promoted from acting lieutenant to first lieutenant, commanded the stage until the battalion chief arrived. She and her crew ran into the house along with Butrim and two other members of Engine 36. They extinguished the flames on the first floor before it collapsed.

The report indicated that when firefighters arrived on scene there were signs of previous fire and structural instability, but despite these conditions they carried out an “inside attack.”

The report concluded that the battalion chief on site was overwhelmed by too many responsibilities. The unnamed chief told investigators he knew he was missing radio transmissions and was having difficulty organizing a response. The report found that firefighters who responded to the scene did not use “breakout groups” to alleviate congestion on the main radio channel, which caused the incident commander to “completely miss critical information or give it inappropriate priority.”

National fire safety standards recommend the use of battalion command technicians.

Councilwoman Phylicia Porter said Thursday she would like to see better coordination between fire officials flagging unsafe vacant buildings and the city’s demolition schedule.

“I think about it from a community perspective,” she said. “These buildings have been in the community for a long period of time. They are not demolished. … They present public threats to community members as well. This might be something we can push a little more.