3,000 Houston Firefighters Told To Stay Home During Hurricane Harvey: Reports

HOUSTON, TX — A recent email sent during the height of flooding suggests that the Houston Fire Deparmtent wasn’t prepared for Hurricane Harvey and ordered off-duty firefighters to stay home.

In the hours after Hurricane Harvey made landfall less than 200 miles from Houston, it became clearer that America’s fourth largest city wasn’t ready for the onslaught of rain and flooding that left many in the area homeless and has yet to fully subside in some areas.

However, an email that was sent on Aug. 27 ordering firefighters to stay home if they were off-duty has Houston City Councilman Michael Kubosh calling for an investigation into the Houston Fire Department policies, KHOU reported. (Want to get daily news updates and news of other events going on in your area? Sign up for the free Houston Patch morning newsletter.)

“We have to do better,” Kubosh told KHOU.

The email was dated Aug. 27, the same day Harris County Judge Ed Emmett sounded the call for civilian volunteers who had boats or high-profile vehicles to help with rescue operations and on the day when the worst of the Category 4 storm was battering the Houston area.

The email read:

"In response today's recent email 'Mayor’s Directive to All Employees Regarding Inclement Weather 8/27/2017' we have had firefighters reporting to stations who are not scheduled to work," according to the email. "Firefighters who are not scheduled to work are asked to refrain from coming into the station unless otherwise notified by HFD Command. Be safe! Thank you!"

On that day, 3,000 Houston firefighters were off-duty and advised to stay home, even though Mayor Sylvester Turner called for all essential city employees to report for work, the Houston Press reported.

That left just 900 firefighters to staff just six rescue boats and other firefighting and rescue equipment in a city of 2.3 million people.

Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña defended the decision, saying all of the equipment was fully staffed and the extra manpower would have been wasted with firefighters sitting at the station.

However, Kubosh said he found it a bit strange that these firefighters weren’t needed when Emmett was asking for more help from citizens, KHOU reported.

“I find it somewhat egregious that we wouldn’t have all our first responders here at the time of such a national disaster,” he said.

Peña said the fire department doesn’t have the equipment to handle events like Hurricane Harvey and was only able to deploy only six rescue boats, along with other vehicles that were unable to navigate the flooded Houston streets.

In all, the Houston Fire Department lost 28 vehicles during Harvey, including six engines engines at a cost of $500,000 each, and four boosters with rescue supplies were also lost, as well as one of the six rescue boats, KPRC reported.

The fire department also has a high-water vehicle that could have been used for rescue operations if it hadn’t been inoperable when it was delivered to the department.

“We don’t even have enough specialized equipment for the expected floods,” Peña told KPRC.

Peña said he plans to ask the city for funding for more specialized equipment so the city isn’t left unprepared for another flood disaster.

Image: Houston Fire Department Dive Team members motor through high water on North Braeswood Blvd., looking for victims of the flooding from Hurricane Harvey Aug. 28, 2017 in Houston. (Photo by Erich Schlegel/Getty Images)

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