WASHINGTON — Last March, a little boy died after choking on a grape at his upper Northwest D.C. home.
The incident raised questions about whether the response from the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department was delayed.
The boy’s family is still searching for answers.
A D.C. fire lieutenant faced a disciplinary hearing for not sending a crew from his Tenleytown station to the boy’s home a few blocks away.
Attorney Salvatore Zambri, who represents the boy’s family, said the family and public have a right to know the outcome of the disciplinary hearing.
“If we’re really going to have a government for the people, then we ought to be fully transparent to the people, especially when we’re dealing with emergency services when life and death is at stake,” Zambri said.
While the boy’s family was allowed to observe the disciplinary hearing, it was not fully informed of the outcome because, the fire department said, it’s a personnel matter.
Zambri said the family’s been told Lt. Guy Valentine was fined $5,000, but they want to know what wrongdoing was found and whether the course of appeal is available to him.
“It needs to be made public so that our community can feel that our government is moving in the direction of making emergency services safer for all of us,” Zambri said.
In a statement, fire/EMS spokesman Doug Buchanan said the trial board is the “fact finding portion” of the disciplinary process.
“It would be against District law for the D.C. fire and EMS department to release the outcome of the trial board proceedings because it is a personnel action that is protected by privacy law,” he said.
