Editorial: Fire report should be bias-free

Friday, Jan. 25, 2002 | 9:16 a.m.

Just what happened the night of Oct. 15 at the AeroTech hobby rocket plant near Sahara Avenue and Boulder Highway is abundantly clear. It caught fire and the chemical-fueled flames persisted all night and half the next day. A worker inside the plant was killed and two others injured, neighboring residents were evacuated and the property loss, including that of neighboring businesses, amounted to $12 million. What isn't so clear are related events before and after the fatal blaze. A prominent firefighter alleges document shredding, and Wednesday the fire chief acknowledged that inspections months before the fire revealed problems that were never checked. One way to clear up mounting questions is for the fire department's actions to be reviewed independently. The fire department's own report is now being reviewed by the district attorney's office. Clark Coun ty Manager Thom Reilly is scheduled to be briefed on the report Feb. 4.

Reilly told the Sun on Thursday that he will not order an independent review before the formal presentation to him on that date. He said he wants to assess the fire department's report before committing county or state resources to an independent investigation. He said if anything in the report strikes him as out of the ordinary he would consider ordering an independent critique. Given the nature of high-profile cases in which there are serious allegations, however, Reilly should preempt public skepticism by ordering an independent review -- no matter what the fire department's report says. In order to put all questions to rest, the final report on this controversial fire should have an author other than the Clark County Fire Department. The state fire marshal's office, for example, is required by state law to investigate fatal fires -- even in a large cou nty like Clark -- if requested to do so by the fire chief.

What makes an independent review necessary is that one of the fire department's most well-known members, its former spokesman Steve La-Sky, has gone public with allegations of document shredding. Additionally, Fire Chief Earl Greene admitted Wednesday that fire inspectors erred in not following up on preliminary findings at the plant almost a year before the fire. The fire department also cannot find a log book that would show whether Station 16 firefighters had previously raised safety issues with the plant.

The ordering of an independent review should not reflect on anyone's credibility. La-Sky says documents possibly related to previous inspections of AeroTech were shredded. Greene says only AeroTech proprietary documents inadvertently gathered by the department were shredded, an explanation which Reilly says he finds plausible. La-Sky and Greene are sticking to their stories. Who's right? Let a third party not connected with the fire department investigate.

Also to be answered independently are questions surrounding all prior fire inspections of AeroTech and the inspection follow-ups. How did it happen that inspections noting problems with the amounts and kinds of chemicals stored were never compiled into a formal report for review and action? It's hard to imagine a more serious and important task than fire inspections. The public has every right to know whether it can feel secure that proper policies are not only in place but are being followed.