Court testimony reveals Firefighters not responding to a Heart call

Figure Out Fire: The headline from today's Evidentiary hearing…

ORONO FIREFIGHTERS MADE A DELIBERATE CHOICE NOT TO RESPOND TO A HEART CALL DURING AN ORONO FIRE BUSINESS MEETING ONE BLOCK AWAY FROM THE INCIDENT.

Today in court it was revealed that on January 2, 2024, Orono Firefighters were attending a business meeting at Orono City Hall. 1.5 miles away a handful of Long Lake Firefighters and Chief Heiland were attending the Long Lake City Council meeting.

At 7:02 pm the Long Lake Fire Department received a heart call on Kelley Parkway - one block away from Orono City Hall where the Orono Fire Department was conducting a business meeting.

EVERY Long Lake Firefighter at the Long Lake City Council meeting responded to the call. ONLY ONE Orono Firefighter attending that meeting responded to the call.

Firefighters Jeff Krahl and Mike Johnsrud were the only two firefighters that are currently serving on BOTH LLFD and OFD that responded to this life-threatening call. Krahl left the OFD meeting and Johnsrud left the Long Lake City Council meeting to respond. Per his testimony Ben Veach did not respond to the call because he was coaching hockey at the time of the incident. Others may have been unable to respond to the call for good reasons that were not discussed during today's hearing.

Orono Fire Chief James Van Eyll testified that when the firefighter’s pagers went off he looked at them and said “If you need to leave, leave.” What he should have said is “GO!” That is what a leader with a public safety-first mindset should have told this new crew – especially on a heart call when seconds matter.

Expert witness, Ken Prillaman testified that that in his opinion “They [Orono Firefighters] did not respond because they were either instructed not to go or felt like they couldn’t go. They did not fulfill their DUTY.” He continued saying “Firefighters place the interest of the city above their own and that there is very little justification for not responding. If I was their Chief, I wouldn’t be having a conversation about their ability to serve on two departments. We would be having a disciplinary conversation.”

When seconds matter, what is a reasonable amount of time for Orono firefighters to sit around looking at their Active 911 app to determine if there enough firefighters responding?

When seconds matter, what is a reasonable amount of time for Orono firefighters to have discussion about whether as a group should respond?

The answer…ZERO SECONDS.

Every single Orono citizen should be very concerned.