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"Don't Let this Happen
to You! Lessons Learned from Katrina" Chief Thomas Stone
The first
speaker of the conference was Fire Chief Thomas Stone, who
is currently serving his twenty-ninth year with St. Bernard
Parish Fire Department, located in Chalmette, Louisiana.
Chief Stone began his career as an apprentice firefighter in
1978. He was the first firefighter in St. Bernard Parish
history to work his way up the ranks to fire chief. Chief
Stone and his wife Lauren have been married for 28 years and
have three children; Tommy, Chad, and Nikki.
Chief Stone
has a well-rounded fire service background. He has served as
the Incident Commander/Unified Commander on more than fifty
major industrial incidents in the past eighteen years, not
including Hurricane Katrina. He has been teaching for the
past nineteen years at Delgado Community College Fire and
Industrial Training Center. He also teaches at the
University of New Orleans, instructing classes in Incident
Command and WMD. For the past seven years, Chief Stone has
been an instructor an instructor for Exxon/Mobil’s annual
corporate fire school, held at Texas A&M.
Chief
Stone became Fire Chief in February 1990, and has since
improved the department’s insurance rating of 4 and 8 down
to a rating of classes 2 and 4. The firefighters of St.
Bernard Parish participate in more live fire training in
their first year, than any department in the state. St.
Bernard Parish also received a perfect insurance score in
training in 2002.
Since
Hurricane Katrina, St. Bernard Parish Fire Department has
been operating from six of ten locations, and with only 90
of 116 firefighters. None of their stations have been
repaired. Chief Stone discussed the difficulties that the
St. Bernard Parish Fire Department has endured and dealt
with since Hurricane Katrina. He stated that as much as they
planned for a hurricane, no one expected an event of that
magnitude, and prepared for Katrina as they did for other
hurricanes. Chief Stone relied on text messages from his son
as the only available means of communications for days, and
the first outside help they received was 6 days after
Katrina.
Chief
Stone’s presentation was entertaining and informative. He
encouraged all departments to over plan for the worst, and
to not expect assistance as it is promised. He also warned
chiefs about accepting donated equipment, and to keep a
careful watch on firefighters after a disaster like Katrina,
for emotional and life changes that affect their well being
and performance on the job. Chief Stone pointed out several
matters that were handled well during the aftermath of
Katrina, as well as factors that chiefs would need to
remember should they ever be in the same situation.
2/15/08
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