And Now, Some Remedies

Los Angeles now knows a lot more about how and why city Fire Department Capt. Joseph C. Dupee died while fighting a blaze in a South-Central industrial building last March. But it’s information that sticks in the throat. There was a variety of difficult and complicated contributing factors, and each must now be addressed to minimize the chance of such a tragedy recurring.

One problem in this gargantuan city is businesses that operate beyond the knowledge and oversight of government. The business where Dupee was mortally injured was in a 49-year-old structure that had a conditional use permit to be operated as a warehouse. Instead, a factory was operating there, cooking dog chew-toy products in an oven that should not have been in use and had been left on by mistake.

And there were other bureaucratic factors. The city Department of Building and Safety did not inspect the improperly maintained, incorrectly used oven because the business had not applied for a permit to use it. Because the building had fewer than four stories, it was inspected only by local firefighters, not by better trained inspectors from the Fire Prevention Bureau.

Some changes are in order.

Communication problems, budget cuts, exhaustion and new personnel also might have contributed. Dupee and others could not hear warnings from the roof about the extent of the inferno inside. Budget cuts, later restored in some measure by the City Council, meant that two firefighters on the scene were inspectors who were recent emergency transfers. The budget cuts overall had reduced the department’s command staff in addition. And Dupee was working the second of back-to-back 24-hour shifts. The public should be told just how often that occurs.

The point of a Fire Department investigation such as this is not just to find answers but to do something about what has been learned. That ought to happen here.