Lejeune burn may have caused fatal wreck

[thedrifter]

Lejeune burn may have caused fatal wreck
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jun 16, 2008 10:27:06 EDT

A tractor-trailer driving through blinding fog and smoke on a coastal highway in North Carolina struck a sheriff's deputy and a firefighter directing traffic early Saturday, killing them, authorities said.

The wreck happened around 5:15 a.m. Saturday near a controlled burn at Camp Lejeune, N.C., said Highway Patrol Lt. Everett Clendenin.

The truck had slowed because of the poor visibility when it struck deputy Steven Boehm, 36, and firefighter Gene Thomas, 52, Clendenin said.

"This loss is a great tragedy for everyone. These men served honorably," said Sheriff's Capt. Rick Sutherland.

A second deputy, Bill Hall, suffered minor injuries and was treated and released from the hospital, Sutherland said.

Troopers said they are planning to charge the 51-year-old truck driver in the accident. Their investigation is continuing.

Officials at Camp Lejeune, which surrounds the highway, called for help after smoke from a controlled burn on the base combined with fog to significantly reduce visibility, Sutherland said.

Several minor wrecks happened along the highway in the minutes before the deputy and firefighter were struck, Sutherland said.

Officials shut down the highway for several hours after the fatalities, but it has since reopened.

It was not immediately clear if the controlled burn had anything to do with a 62-square-mile wildfire burning about 100 miles away in northeastern North Carolina. Calls to officials at Lejeune were not immediately returned Saturday.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Truck kills deputy, fireman
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Men at U.S. 17 wreck scene filled by smoke from Lejeune fire
June 14, 2008 - 8:14AM
SUZANNE ULBRICH
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Members of the Onslow County Sheriff's Department and the Verona Volunteer Fire Department are mourning today's loss of two of their own.

"I received a call I hoped I'd never get," Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said.

Gene Thomas, 51, a volunteer fireman with the Verona Volunteer Fire Department and Steve Boehm, 36, a deputy with the Onslow County Sheriff's Department died Saturday after a northbound truck struck them as the two responded to an early morning traffic accident on U.S. 17. Deputy Bill Hall, who was also injured, was taken to New Hanover County for treatment and was later released.

Deputies and firefighters were directing traffic in the area due to limited visibility on the highway because of fog and smoke from what base officials said were the smoldering remains of gun range fire.

Capt. Rick Sutherland of the sheriff's department said military officials requested assistance with traffic along the stretch of U.S. 17 south of Jacksonville between Dixon and Verona just minutes before the report of an automobile wreck in the same area.

Boehm responded to that wreck, which was on the southbound side of the highway, while Hall and members of the Verona Volunteer Volunteer Fire Department responded to a separate wreck in the northbound lanes, according to information provided by the Sheriff's Department. After Boehm crossed U.S. 17 to assist them, a tractor trailer driven by 51-year-old Robert Lee Kornegay of Fayetteville plowed into the men.

Highway Patrol Lt. Everett Clendenin told the Associated Press that charges are pending against Kornegay.

Brown said the scene was total chaos.

He said military officials made their request for assistance at 4:50 a.m. Saturday. Four minutes later the southbound accident - involving a vehicle towing a boat - was reported. As emergency responders continued to arrive, they came upon the other accident in the northbound lanes.

A vehicle traveling northbound then came through the area and sideswiped an emergency vehicle. Brown said Hall told him he, Boehm and Thomas then heard a woman yelling for help. As Boehm and Thomas went to look for her, Hall decided to back up his patrol car to create a larger buffer around the area. He told Brown that when he got out of his vehicle and saw the headlights of a tractor trailer approaching, he immediately yelled out, "Run! Run!"

The tractor trailer hit Hall's vehicle, knocking it to the side of the road, and several others before coming to a rest against an emergency vehicle.

Brown said he thinks the tractor trailer hit Boehm and Thomas full force, killing them instantly, before ramming the other vehicles.

The series of collisions involved a total of eight vehicles, took two lives and impacted many more.

Brown said he personally delivered the news of Boehm's death to his wife, Kim Lawrence, as soon as possible, so she would not hear about it from anyone else. In addition to his wife, Boehm is survived by a son, Daniel Lawrence; daughters Crystal, Sam and Tiffany Lawrence; and a brother, Dennis Boehm, all of Jacksonville.

Boehm, who graduated from White Oak High School in 1990, has been with the sheriff's department for 10 years and was the school resource officer at White Oak, Brown said.

Brown described the deputy as quiet and reserved.

"SRO was more than a job to him, he was a mentor for the school - it was a project for him, not a duty, and he was committed to that job," Brown said. "We will miss him and his family is going to miss him."

Since school ended Wednesday, Boehm had just been reassigned to the patrol division.

"His wife told me he was really excited and looking forward to the assignment," Brown said.

A memorial service for Boehm will be held at White Oak on Wednesday at 3 p.m.

Thomas had served about 30 years with the Verona Volunteer Fire Department, according to VFD Capt. Kevin Davis. It was something he was born to do.

"He has grown up in the fire service," Davis said. "His father was a firefighter, his two brothers are firefighters ... they enjoyed careers as volunteer firefighters and it takes a special breed to do that."

Davis said Thomas was a familiar sight at the station who would gladly be there any time he was needed.

"He enjoyed volunteering and he enjoyed doing the work," Davis said. "He was a (Department of Transportation) worker, he enjoyed doing that work and he enjoyed volunteering. He lives right across the street from the department and he was always the first one in the building."

He said the department was shocked by the news they had lost one of "our family."

Thomas is survived by his wife Nancy Thomas; daughter, Nicole Thomas of Jacksonville; mother Geraldine Joy Thomas of Verona; and two brothers, Wayne Thomas and Toby Thomas of Verona.

Funeral services for Thomas will be held 11 a.m. Tuesday at Jones Funeral Home Chapel in Jacksonville.



Lindell Kay contributed to this report. Contact Topsail area reporter Suzanne Ulbrich at sulbrich@freedomenc.com or 910-219-8466.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Base to monitor fires closer
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Smoke led to weekend fatal wreck
June 17, 2008 - 12:12AM
LINDELL KAY AND SUZANNE ULBRICH
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Firefighters will now watch Camp Lejeune fires 24 hours a day after a civilian law enforcement officer and firefighter were killed Saturday responding to accidents caused by low-lying smoke that drifted onto U.S. 17 from the base.

An unpredicted weather shift forced smoke from a smoldering 1,000-acre contained fire burning in the 40,000-acre Sandy Run area onto U.S. 17 between Verona and Dixon early Saturday morning, said Dan Becker, a forest protection program manager at Camp Lejeune.

Motorists called 911 about low visibility on U.S. 17, and an Onslow County dispatcher called the base at 4:37 a.m., said Chief Rob Lewis of the Camp Lejeune Fire Department.

"Almost immediately wrecks began to happen," he said.

Gene Thomas, 51, a firefighter with the Verona Volunteer Fire Department, and Steve Boehm, 36, a deputy with the Onslow County Sheriff's Department, died after an 18-wheeler struck them. Deputies and firefighters were responding to at least two accidents on U.S. 17 due to limited visibility on the highway because of the smoke.

The fire that caused the smoke had been smoldering on base since it began March 17 after a .50-caliber training exercise.

A tractor plow was severely damaged fighting the fire and base officials said the decision was made to contain the blaze instead.

"An assessment was made, there was no danger to the community, so we kept it in-house," said Lt. Craig Thomas, a spokesman for Camp Lejeune.

Containment lines were drawn and firefighters checked the fire every day. Then May 20, the fire flared up again and the base notified Onslow County Emergency Management of the possibility of smoke drifting to U.S. 17, Lewis said.

At that point, the fire was being checked twice a day, Thomas said. Marines also continued to train at ranges in the area.

After a meeting Monday afternoon, base officials said the current fire and any other future still-smoldering fire would be monitored continuously.

Smoke in that area of the county is common, said Mark Goodman, the director of Onslow County Emergency Services and Homeland Security.

"There have been fires occurring in that firing range for years - it is an underground fire, and an underground fire won't be extinguished until we have a heavy rain," he said. "There is not enough water in Onslow County to put it out, and you can't pump water underground and can't smother it."

He said the Sandy Run area fire is similar to the fire still burning in Hyde County, just smaller. Both areas are full of peat, which is less wet than soil, and drought conditions make conditions worse.

He also said Camp Lejeune constantly monitors the smoke and was monitoring it Friday night, but that it was kind of like a perfect storm, the meteorological conditions, fog, smoke and dead calm all contributed to what happened.

Only a major tropical rain or hurricane could put the underground fire out, Goodman said.

Contact crime reporter Lindell Kay at lkay@freedomenc.com or 910-554-8534. Read Lindell's blog at http://onslowcrime.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Complaint filed about base fire safety measures
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Current, former Lejeune Fire Department employees take matter to inspector general
June 17, 2008 - 12:20AM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Smoke detectors, fire alarms and other fire equipment in buildings throughout Camp Lejeune have not been inspected or maintained properly, putting Marines, their children and civilian workers at risk, current and former employees of the Camp Lejeune Fire Department have alleged in a complaint to the base's inspector general.

"Sprinkler systems have no water, fire alarm pull boxes do not work and fire panels are disabled," attorney Joshua Bowers said in a press release Monday.

Bowers represents three people - including two current employees of the Camp Lejeune Fire Department - who reported widespread inspection, maintenance and reporting problems within the department.

Bowers, a Washington lawyer who represents federal employees, said he learned of the reported problems in the department when he began representing a female department employee in a sexual harassment case.

In the complaint to the Camp Lejeune inspector general, Bowers said he contacted the IG specifically about the problems that place people and buildings at risk because the Equal Employment Opportunity administrative procedure "may take years to complete, and our clients do not want personnel at Camp Lejeune to be in danger of injury by fire while my clients' charges are in administrative procedure."

One of the clients Bowers represents, a fire inspector and 22-year veteran of the fire service, spoke to The Daily News on the condition of anonymity. The man said he has received death threats because he has spoken out about the problems in the department.

He explained that fire prevention equipment must be properly installed, inspected and maintained to work correctly, but he saw problems with all three.

At one elementary school, the man said the alarm system is so old and poorly maintained that it will blow a fuse if it sounds for more than 15 or 20 seconds, and would not transmit a signal to the fire department. In a barracks building, he said, a technician cut a wire on a panel that wasn't working properly and disconnected all the smoke detectors in the system - but did not fix it.

The problems are not limited to older buildings, he said. Some recently built or renovated buildings have new systems that have not been inspected or maintained as required.

"The system is absolutely in failure," he said.

The issues also are not limited to a single inspector, but rather widespread throughout the department, he said.

In some cases, the problems were reported but never fixed, he said. For example, he inspected one new barracks building and saw that water had not been hooked up to the sprinkler system but saw no fix made even after he filed a report.

"This is a problem that exists. It's a very real," he said. "It's there, and it's going to be there until someone acknowledges that we have a problem."

Bowers said the inspector general's office began a preliminary investigation last week. Base officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Though Bowers has filed a complaint with the inspector general's office, the clients have to go through a seven-month administrative process before they can file a lawsuit, he said. They are going through that process now, he said.

"Right now, we are just trying to fix the threat to people on base," he said. "I hate the idea of the Marines not being taken care of."

Contact interactive content editor Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or 910-219-8467. Visit www.jdnews.com to comment on this report.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Workers: Marines' fire guards need work


THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: June 18, 2008

CAMP LEJEUNE

Three former and current employees of the Camp Lejeune Fire Department have alleged that smoke detectors and fire alarms are not being inspected and maintained at the base, putting Marines and others at risk.

The employees reported widespread maintenance problems within the department in a letter sent to the base's inspector general's office.

"Sprinkler systems have no water, fire alarm pull boxes do not work, and fire panels are disabled," said Joshua Bowers, the employees' lawyer, who is based in the District of Columbia.

A spokesman for Camp Lejeune, Major Nat Fahy, said that an internal investigation into the claims has been under way since June 4 at the base, which is home to roughly 50,000 Marines. Fahy did not say how long the investigation would take.

"The commanding officer takes any claims of mismanagement that threaten the safety of base residents with the utmost seriousness," Fahy said. "He and his staff are thoroughly engaged on this situation."

The three fire-department employees said in their letter that at one of the base's elementary schools, the fire alarm blows a fuse if it sounds for more than 20 seconds and then fails to signal the fire department. In one of the barracks, they said, none of the smoke alarms work.

Many of the problems were reported but never fixed, the employees said.

"Right now, we are just trying to fix the threat to people on base," Bowers said. "I hate the idea of the Marines not being taken care of."

Ellie