What happened at Canonchet Cliffs 2

Due to several posts on other web sites the Hope Valley Wyoming FD wanted to get the facts out ;

I thought maybe you would be interested in the true story and events that occurred that day. The initial dispatch was reporting a box alarm at that location. The first personnel on the scene found the building to be evacuated and nothing showing from the exterior. The first 2 officers there proceeded to the alarm panel and knox box in the front entryway to investigate further. During that time none of the approximately 30 occupants outside the building mentioned or reported any problems in the building. The two officers had no visual smoke or fire from their location. They then proceeded to the fire door leading to the corridor where the alarm had come in from and were met by an occupant exiting the doorway and a moderate smoke condition in that corridor. The occupant was reporting a fire in a room and people trapped. The 2 officers could hear someone yelling from the end of the hallway which was approximately 150 ft long.One of the officers immediately reported there finding to an arriving deputy chief. At this time they had to make a decision: either exit the building and the occupant calling for help to don scbas, or attempt to locate the person yelling at the end of the hall. This is where they decided to attempt a rescue due to their proximity to the victim. These were the ONLY two personnel to enter the building without SCBA's. As additional personnel arrived on the scene a search of all apartments was completed in order to account for all occupants of the building. The personnel only encountered a smoke condition in the first floor of the south wing and a light smoke condition on the second floor of the south wing.All personel that entered were wearing the appropriate ppe and scba.
Once the fire was deemed to be out and contained to the oven, and ventilation operations had begun. The process of air monitoring had begun. Some of the personnel on other floors and wings of the building had removed there regulators from the mask to conserve air supplies due to no smoke conditions in other areas of the building. (something that i would like any one of you to tell me you have not done yourself). This is where things got a little out of hand. The personnel monitoring air conditions encountered HCN readings of 1.6 to 1.9 ppm on there meters in the fire room and the corridor directly outside the room ONLY. All other areas of the builing were clear of any readings of HCN or CO. These findings were reported back to command and passed along to the ems officer in charge. The ems officer in charge not being familiar with HCN called there medical control at the hospital for advice. It was determined by the ems personnel that all personel in any part of the building without scbas would be transported as a precaution. Not one of the firefighters that were transported had any complaints or even wanted to go but because a Doctor had gotten involved there was some concern as far as liability so it was agreed that they would go.
Some additional facts:
1) Before you attack the Chief for anything, you should know that he is known and respected around the country for being a leader in the fire service and most importantly he was out of the state for a funeral at the time of the incident and did not arrive on scene until at least an hour into it.

2) The first arriving officers are well aware to the fact that they should have had scbas on as they are very well trained and have dozens of years of experience. Unfortunately complacency had set in due to the amount of alarms received at this facility in the past.

3) The department has just in the past 3 months or so adopted an HCN guideline and all personnel are not totally up to date on the entire protocol. As the department is all volunteer.There have already been changes and ammendments made to address some of the issues that were encountered that day.

I do not have a problem with anyone having an opinion but for people to make accusations or attacks on people without any knowledge of the truth or real facts is disappointing to see. For a group of people who consider themseves a brotherhood i am not too impressed with my "brothers". I wish i had nothing better to do than comment on everyone else mistakes and hide behind a keyboard and a fake screen name. If I could ask one thing from anyone in this case it would be please dont rush to judgement on the basis of somebody's hearsay or misinformed opinion.