Relatives File $35M Lawsuit in Baltimore Fire Recruit’s Death

April 23, 2010

  • April 23, 2010 at 11:01 am
    wudchuck says:
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    i think they will win, but not the $35 million. it’s definately a tragedy. there should be been plans in place not for evacuating but also retrieval. you need to account all personel on this kind of fire.

  • April 23, 2010 at 1:53 am
    Anon says:
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    Note the deceased’s name: “Rachael”….
    who was no doubt hired, in part, because she helped Baltimore fill a quota for women. And if she was black or Hispanic, well hell, that’s a twofer! Could she carry a 200+ pound victim out of a burning building if necessary? Probably not….and now she’s dead. Killed by political correctness because she probably never should have been hired as a firefighter in the first place.

  • April 23, 2010 at 2:12 am
    concerned says:
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    I am so sorry that a life was taken for something that seems so preventable!!! I have one question! If I called 911 right now and told them my house was on fire, do they have the evacuation plans already in their pocket???? Truly saddens me that once again, someone wants to put such a price on a person. How do you put a figure on a life??? My family means SO much more than that, but money will NEVER bring them back so why??? This is more government money that the rest of us have to pay.

  • April 23, 2010 at 2:17 am
    ES says:
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    That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. While I do not doubt that there are institutions out there that hire on the sheer fact of filling a quota, there are some pretty diesel women out there who could bench 200lbs. Not to mention, she probably had to endure some sort of physical qualification to even get to the point of the training exercise. There is undoubtedly negligence on part of the department for creating such an environment during a training exercise but you have to account for the assumed risk one takes on when becoming a firefighter. I think they are entitled to compensation but certainly not $35M.

  • April 23, 2010 at 2:32 am
    Franklin says:
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    This was a live fire TRAINING session. Absolutely no reason why this poor girl should have died. Family is completely justified in their suit.

    Can a diesel woman, carrying 100 lbs of equipment drag my 220 lb backside out of a burning house, through debris, fire, obstacles? Most likely no. Most women are not physically capable of doing this job properly and should not be on the force, quota or not. Political correctness has its place, but not when my safety is in question.

  • April 23, 2010 at 2:48 am
    Silence Do Good says:
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    While I can agree that much of what passes as ‘political correctness’ is ridiculous, to make such wild assumptions about this woman, based solely on the spelling of her name, shows that the author may not be ‘playing with a full deck’, in my humble opinion. It really smacks of bigotry!

    Does human life mean so little to you?

    It really sounds like a tragedy; I hope that the family does win some compensation; but, if you’ve ever lost someone dear to you, you know that all you really want is to have them back.

  • April 23, 2010 at 3:01 am
    Doug F. Pierson says:
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    All racial and gender issues aside, you have to do “live fire” drills in this line of work. It is against human nature to go into burning buildings. What was planned or not will come out in the investigation.

    Having worked in law enforcement special ops I have seen firsthand how fallible humans react to stress, even drill-induced stress. You want to find out how people adapt to these situations before they have to rescue in “real time”. Way too much jumping the gun on this story.

  • April 23, 2010 at 3:14 am
    DD72 says:
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    While it’s a tragedy, I don’t agree with some hiring practices. My husband is a police officer. He had to go through an agility test which included pulling a weighted dummy. He passed. Those that didn’t, didn’t get hired. BUT, to be equal in hiring, they had a separate test for women who pulled a lighter dummy. I think that’s ridiculous as they all need to be able to do the maximum to save lives. I hope that wasn’t the case in this group.

  • April 26, 2010 at 8:34 am
    Lee says:
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    Firefighting is an inherently dangerous activity and one who participates assumes many risks. Unfortunately, death is one of them. There used to be a word in our language that has all but been eradicated by the personal injury bar. “ACCIDENT”. Sometimes things happen and nobody is negligent or liable. BUT…..there is no profit in that. Someone MUST be negligent or there is no contingent fee. The plaintiffs don’t set the amount of the suit, their attorneys to because it directly impacts their chances of scoring the big bucks.

    It’s too bad the only “compensation” our society knows is MONEY. Regardless of the amount of any settlement/verdict, it won’t bring the deceased back. So why award it? Society pays for these generous gestures in the form of increased premiums while a few otherwise lower to middle class families get unjustly enriched.

    Female, minority, whatever. She was a recruit, in-training, and there was an unfortunate accident. Suddenly, the family of someone who was probably previously without a job wants megabucks because of an accident. What is this world coming to?



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