Fire in Mt Pleasant Pleasant Raw Footage 3

DC Fire Department delayed fighting the Mount Pleasant Fire.

I recorded this shortly after the arrival of the first fire engines. The time code represents where my tape is at.

The fire eventually declared a 5 alarms fire with more then 300 firefighters from DC, Maryland and Virginia... The fire destroyed 85 apartment units at the Deauville at 3145 Mount Pleasant Street in Washington, DC, also damaged much of Meridian Hill Baptist Church and part of 3149 Mount Pleasant Street, leaving almost 200 people homeless, and millions of dollars in damages. District of Columbia Fire Chief Dennis Rubin told WTOP news radio that the fire crews first focused on evacuating the buildings. While Anna Kelso reported in her blog that a "friendly police officer" told her the DC Fire department was "rather slow in responding to the fire." http://annakelso.blogspot.com/2008/03/mount-pleasant-fire.html

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Mount
• Pleasant
• Fire
• District
• of
• Columbia
• Department
• DCFD
• DC
• 3145
• Street
• Chief
• Dennis
• Rubin
• Alarm

[xSLVxJokerDc503]

i live in mt.pleasant

[Tracymmo]

Saw it too. Awful! What a shame that the footage is accompanied by unsubstantiated accusations. A slow response time, if there was one, is one thing. (And hearsay from a cop isn't evidence.) Accusing the DCFD of not fighting the fire properly is another. Thank God they did focus on evacuation. It was a miracle that everyone got out ok. Standing outside with a video camera doesn't tell you what firefighters did inside to save people, find the fire's location/nature and try to extinguish it.

[lfernang]

It was sad, I live on 16th and saw the incident, I feel bad for all those families.