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Popcorn, there is a reason. The city tried to get Gannon to change the report. They refused. That angered the mayor. The changes that AFD has made so far, dating back to our fight for a training and safety life chief and 18 firefighters was our push. NOT the mayor nor the chief, even though they BOTH take credit for it. Other changes made by the department are ALL changes based on what Gannon found of fault. All of them. Furthermore, the chief is still failing to answer the more critical areas that 100% lead to my son’s preventable incident and that is operational, foundational and cultural failures. I literally asked for a one on one meeting with the mayor almost 2 weeks ago. Asking, begging for him to work with me and gave him some ideas for the fire chief to work on. The mayor agreed and said he would meet back with me in a week. That was last week. He did not keep his word. You may want to give the mayor and/or the fire chief the ‘benefit of doubt’.. I already did. Austin already did, believing that senior staff would not send him to do something that could kill him. And you are 100% correct. The fire chief SHOULD know. He does not. He heads a department of 133 souls, yet needs a coach to learn how to communicate. I can not and will not sit on my hands and wait for another LODD due to no training, no safety and no supervision. Your mayor minimized my sons death by saying out of 8 possibilities, the department ONLY failed one. Training. That IS THE ONE that my son and the other firefighter DID NOT GET. And I am told that it’s ‘just something that fell between the cracks’

That culture and foundational failure killed my son. Your mayor never once came to me to speak about Austin. The lie that Wylam visited Austin in the hospital blows me away. Only 6 members of my family was allowed in Austins room. We stayed with him 24/7. Honestly, we asked for NO ONE to go up to his room. We did not want other firefighters to witness the condition of his body.

I don’t know who you are. But I know most all of the firefighters. 85% of them don’t trust the chief. The city attorney did the right thing. Charter or no Charter. He lost trust. The fire chief should know to do the right thing also.