JFD Conducts Internal Investigation Into Chickering Fire
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Wednesday night, 7 Eyewitness News brought you information on how deep the Jackson Fire Department investigates fires, as concerns were raised after a man’s body was not discovered until five days after his house caught on fire. Thursday, the fire department responded. The Jackson Fire Department corrected their numbers. They said the actual numbers in the month of November were 11 total fires, seven working fires, and five investigated. The other two were suspicious and undetermined. “A situation like the other night, neighbors were telling the firefighters that no one was there. The mailbox was full, made it to appear no one was there,” said Fire Chief Maxi Stewart. He said all their firefighters are trained to make the call if the investigation at a fire scene is not necessary. This means no foul play, or nothing suspicious was found to believe arson was involved. Chief Stewart said last Wednesday night they found no one inside the house, and nothing seemed suspicious. Many questions have been asked about the fire department’s usual protocol. “One crew starts to attack the fire, the other crew starts to do the primary search,” said Chief Stewart. “As the scene progresses and you start getting control of the fire, then you begin the secondary search.” The secondary search is more thorough and Chief Stewart said the secondary search was completed at the Chickering Road fire last Wednesday, although the victim was not found. “So when they got through they thought they’d done a great job, and they did a great job stopping the fire, but it was only later when the missing report came in we re-examined the scene,” continued Chief Stewart. Fire Marshal Arnold said they are still looking into if there was something that night that the fire fighters failed to do. “We will continue to train as we do and use the experience of all the officers, they’re very professional. They want to serve and that’s why they do the job they do, because it’s a hard job and sometimes a dangerous job. I can assure all the citizens that we will always do our best to serve them,” said Chief Stewart.
