Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
In this episode, Curt talks with Oakland attorney Leslie Levy about the $2.3 million verdict she won on behalf of former Vallejo firefighter Todd Milan. Milan was terminated from the Vallejo Fire Department in November, 2012.
His problems began on September 29, 2011 at the scene of a mobile home fire that claimed the life of a disabled man. Milan claims he was ordered to force entry by a battalion chief, and upon entering found himself alone because his officer apparently forgot his gloves on the apparatus. Milan sustained second and third degree burns trying to effect the rescue but was “forced to leave the structure without removing the victim from the structure, because the fire intensified to extremely high temperatures presenting imminent threat of death.”
The battalion chief denied giving him the order, and his captain denied not having his gloves. Instead both blamed him for entering the structure alone. Cal OSHA believed Milan and from there on he began getting written up culminating in his termination in 2012.
