Phoenix Fire captain says violence against firefighters is on the rise
Jun 27, 2018, 4:51 AM | Updated: 9:39 am
(Facebook/Phoenix Fire Department)
(Facebook/Phoenix Fire Department)
PHOENIX — Is Monday’s shooting death of a Long Beach, California, firefighter a growing trend? One Phoenix Fire Department captain says yes.
“In addition to the traditional burning building…now we have the violence aspect within our society that just seems to be, really, more and more dangerous,” P.J. Dean said.
Capt. David Rosa of Long Beach was killed Monday while responding to a call of an explosion at a housing development.
Investigators believe based on a preliminary investigation that the suspect, Thomas Kim, had set a fire to draw first responders to his second-floor apartment at the retirement home in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, and then opened fire, Police Chief Robert Luna said.
Kim, 77, was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and arson. Investigators were still working to determine Kim’s motive, Luna said. It was not immediately known if he has an attorney.
Dean said Valley firefighters are going on the offensive to protect themselves: They’re forging partnerships with local police departments, sharing information and reporting violent incidents to the International Association of Firefighters.
“They can process [event details and] extract best practices, lessons learned, best approaches, things like that,” he said.
Local sharing also helps. Dean said Phoenix’s Homeland Defense Bureau has been very helpful.
Being prepared, he said, is “a simple matter of feeding intelligence back to first responders – both on the police and the fire side – so that we have a better awareness of things that are going on in our society or what types of potential incidents we may have.”
It’s not clear how many Phoenix firefighters have been involved in shooting or other violent incidents. KTAR News 92.3 FM has reached out to the department to find out.
The National Fire Protection Association said between 1996 and 2015, 22 firefighters were fatally assaulted on duty.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
