Louisiana Voice

One of my main criticisms of local TV news is that it is almost always reactive, rarely proactive.

Before I do my own reactive story, I should explain that the preference in TV news seems to be to wait until something occurs elsewhere and then do a “what if” piece applied to the local viewing area.

An example I like to use is that of the deadly earthquake that struck San Francisco during the 1989 World Series pre-game. The very next day, a local TV station led its newscast with “what if” a quake hit Baton Rouge.

There has been some improvement over the ensuing years with sporadic stories about our disappearing coastline, infrastructure and our high incarceration rate (but oddly enough, nothing on the money poured into political campaigns because TV thrives off political advertising).

Having said all that, following is my (sort of) reactive story.

Just last Wednesday (July 26), a ride called the Fire Ball COLLAPSED at the Ohio State Fair, killing an 18-year-old Marine Corps enlistee.

In 2011, two teenagers were INJURED when a ride called the Zipper, malfunctioned in St. Helena Parish only hours after it had passed inspection. A year later, a four-year-old was critically INJURED in a kiddie ride at the Shreveport State Fair. Browning blamed that accident on another child and on the fact that the operator of the ride failed to “de-energize” the ride after the accident.

That raises the obvious question of who is responsible for the inspection of carnival rides in Louisiana.

The answer is the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal (LOSFM).

That’s the same office responsible for inspections of boilers, nursing homes, jails, schools, hospitals, and other public buildings.

And therein lie the problems of adequate inspections, problems of potential disasters and problems of major legal liability on the part of the State of Louisiana.

That’s because of a bad combination of political influence and improper training of inspectors and investigators by the LOSFM. It’s a combination that can spell trouble as was the case of that amusement ride accident in St. Helena Parish, although one former employee did damn with faint praise in explaining some of the mitigating factors leading up to current conditions at LOSFM.

The mother of those two teens injured in the amusement ride accident in St. Helena initially sued the ride operator but subsequently added the LOSFM as a DEFENDANT after the Metropolitan Crime Commission in New Orleans accused Fire Marshal Butch Browning of concealing details about missing safety equipment in his report on the accident.

Likewise, a report by the Louisiana INSPECTOR GENERAL was harsh in its criticism of oversights and inadequate inspection by LOSFM.

Browning resigned but returned after a State Police investigation no wrongdoing and that LOSFM was not responsible for full mechanical inspections but only for a cursory safety inspection to ensure the ride was not in proximity to electrical lines and trees. It didn’t hurt, of course, that Browning and then-State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson were close friends and both were recipients of unwavering support from the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association.

But even the cursory safety inspections are suspect because of the manner in which inspectors and investigators are certified, according to sources within LOSFM.

That’s because amusement ride inspectors are not exclusively amusement ride inspectors. Nor or boiler inspectors only boiler inspectors. Neither or jail inspectors, hospital inspectors, school inspectors, nursing home inspectors limited to just those structures.

Allow me to hasten to point out this is not to be considered an indictment of the men and women in the field who are trying to do their jobs under difficult circumstances. But if you are an inspector for LOSFM, you inspect everything, whether or not you are qualified to do so. You are certified by LOSFM through courses taught at LSU.

In fact, inspectors may even be required to conduct investigations even though they lack the perquisite training required for national certification as a Certified Fire & Explosion Investigator (CFEI) by the National Fire Academy (NFA).

Previously, to become a certified investigator, one was required to attend a national three-week course and to investigate a minimum of 300 fires under the direct supervision of a seasoned, certified investigator

Because of budgetary constraints which will be discussed in later posts, LOSFM stopped sending personnel to national classes several years ago. Instead, they attend in-house training and are given LSU certification after a two-week course.

Sources told LouisianaVoice that hospital inspections require federal certification. “Only about half our inspectors have that certification,” the source, who requested anonymity for obvious reasons, said. “Some of our inspectors who are not certified are inspecting hospitals.”

The same source said that boiler inspections likewise require special certification but LOSFM inspectors are conducting inspections without certification.

“We have inspectors inspecting carnival rides without the proper certification,” the LOSFM insider said.

The LOSFM employee the fire marshal’s office has purchased dogs trained in explosives but they are not certified because the office has no ordinance in place for explosive disposal. The cost for dogs trained to sniff explosives was estimated as high as $15,000.

The same source said the fire marshal’s office “is letting jails skate” on inspections. That sentiment was echoed by Rafael Goyeneche, III, President of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a New Orleans-area watchdog agency.

“Browning was Edmonson’s man and Edmonson was the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association man,” Goyeneche said. “Does that create the potential for problems? Absolutely. The Fire Marshal is supposed to be independent and if deficiencies are found, they should be properly addressed, no matter who the offender might be.

“You can’t tell me the former Orleans Parish Prison, just as an example, was actually in compliance with the fire codes all those years,” he added.

One example of the political influence was reported by LouisianaVoice nearly three years ago.

In that story, found HERE, we pointed out that the Ruston building inspector refused to approve the construction of the New Living Word School because of flagrant building code violations.

He refused, that is, until Richard Gallot, a member of the school’s governing board who just happened to be a state senator at the time and a colleague of State Rep. Francis Thompson, father of Brant Thompson, second in command at LOSFM, entered the picture.

Suddenly all those deficiencies and procedural violations disappeared when Browning became involved. Browning even went so far as to issue an amended approval letter giving the school the okay to proceed with the construction of classrooms in the upper floor—permission that had not even been requested.

A former employee of had this to say about conditions at LFSFM:

In my opinion, the training offered or provided SFM deputies is not inadequate as it relates to on-line courses or classroom instruction. As I recall they are required to obtain more today than when I received my training. My issue with the training has always been the lack of supervised field training by an experienced investigator and the fact their attention is divided between investigations, inspections and every dog and pony show that comes around the corner.

It also bothered me that there were investigations being conducted before the investigator achieved Certified Fire & Explosion Investigator (CFEI) status. With CFEI status, you are typically qualified in a courtroom as an “expert witness” meaning you were an expert in your field and you were allowed to give your opinion in addition to stating the facts. Not that they can’t be qualified as an expert with the training they now receive but a CFEI is generally more accepted.

In the days of old, investigators were classified as Arson I, Arson II or Arson III. As an Arson I investigator, you were required to have a least one year investigating fires full time. During that time, you were receiving training from the Supervisor of Arson or an Arson II or III. You were provided your own tools and assigned your own response area and were required to assist investigators in other areas just for the fire scene experience.

Also during that time, you would learn firsthand, a little of everything investigators do:

• Communicate with people;
• Examine and document fire scenes;
• Collect, package and submit evidence of all types;
• Conduct and document interviews and interrogations;
• Secure arrest warrants, search warrants, warrants for phone records;
• Report writing, etc.

During this time, you were also encouraged to observe proceedings in the courtroom to prepare you for your own upcoming cases. You would likely attend the National Fire Academy (NFA) for the two-week Fire Investigator class but due to limited space this would more likely be during your second year.

Once you had successfully completed that course, you could be promoted to Arson II. At this level, you would spend substantially more time on your own, honing your new skills but still under relatively close supervision. Most SFM investigators had prior law enforcement experience so less supervision was required for those aspects of the investigation. Also during this period, you would take a National Association of Fire Investigators (NAFI) test to get your CFEI status. This test was mailed to the SFMO and proxy-supervised. At one time, NFA allowed the Supervisor to proxy the test but that was later changed to someone qualified at another agency.

Once you achieved CFEI status you could be promoted to Arson III and for the most part you were on your own and confident to work alone. Continuing education was obtained in the form of educational seminars provided by the Louisiana Chapter of NAFI.

When Butch (Browning) and Brant (Thompson) arrived at the SFMO, it was determined that we would not be getting the additional investigators desperately needed and would likely lose positions instead because of budget cuts. In an effort to remedy this, “Cross-training” was implemented and it was the beginning of the end. With “the sign of the cross” by Butch and Brant, and not much more, deputies who had done nothing but inspections in the past were deemed “investigators.”

Most were forced by intimidation or made by promise of pie in the sky, to attend the POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training Council) academy. They were within days, dispatched to fire scenes with little or no training, no equipment to examine the scene with, and quite frankly not a clue. It was not pretty. Eventually they would get equipped somewhat and receive some training but it was a slow process.

Fast forward to present day:

It is my understanding and belief that new hires are required to take quite a few on-line basic courses in fire investigations almost immediately upon being hired. They also attend a two-week course at JESTC (Joint Emergency Services Training Center), sponsored by the SFMO and sanctioned by the NFA. Modules of the course were presented by an array of folks from various agencies as well as other SFM deputies. 

It is my understanding that now in most if not all areas of the state, supervised field training is provided but maybe not at the levels it should be. As I see it, the biggest problems remaining are splitting deputies’ time between investigations and inspections and forcing people to conduct investigations when they have no desire to do such.

There are no longer Arson I, II or III designations. Since Butch took over, job titles have changed at least twice. First it was to be more in alignment with the fire departments (Lieutenants, Captains, Dist. Chiefs, Assistant Chief’s, etc.), Most recently it appears it was changed to be more aligned with a police department. (Corporals, Lieutenants, Captains, Majors, etc.). To my knowledge, any SFM Deputy who is POST Certified is an investigator and nearly all uniformed personnel are POST Certified.

Like the fortunes of Willie Stark, the fictionalized Huey Long in Warren Penn’s All the King’s Men, a tragic explosion, fire, or carnival ride accident could change the political landscape. People will be hurt or killed and those who sat by and allowed standards to slip, looked the other way as deficiencies go unchecked, and generally took short cuts with the lives and safety of the citizenry, will one day find themselves the defendants in civil and criminal proceedings and the elected officials who allowed it to happen will have to answer to the voters.