[TheeBadOne]

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthtribune/news/local/5874868.htm

Fireman helpless as house fire kills son

MADISON LAKE, Minn. - With a fire raging in his ex-wife's house, Assistant Fire Chief Kenny Reichel put on his fire coat, boots and gloves. He stood ready to go in, to retrieve his son from flames so intense that firefighters had seen the glow in the night sky a mile away.

But Fire Chief Debb Pongratz said the fire was so advanced that firefighters didn't even debate going into the house, even though they knew 10-year-old Kole Reichel was inside. Afterward they found Kole's body in the ashes of his basement bedroom, near the family's two dogs.

"We think he tried to get the dogs out," Kenny Reichel said. "He was a really good kid, always worried about everybody else."

Reichel said he knew as soon as he got the call that it was his ex-wife's house. He said he was probably the third person on the scene.

Kole's older brother Kyle, his mother Kathleen, and the boys' stepfather Shane Reasor all got out of the fire, which started around 1 a.m. Tuesday.

[CZ-75]

Too bad.

Are we supposed to blame someone here, or can this be just an unfortunate accident?

Kinda getting the feeling you think the father should've jeopardized himself in a futile effort. I do wonder where the equipment was and what good firemen are without it, though.

[c_yeager]

But Fire Chief Debb Pongratz said the fire was so advanced that firefighters didn't even debate going into the house, even though they knew 10-year-old Kole Reichel was inside.

Seems to me that by "advanced" they mean the place was engulfed i.e. no chance of the kid being alive by that point and as a decent human being the declined to send his firefighters into a fire they couldnt hope to fight. Ive seen firefighters jump head first into some really nasty situations. I have a hard time believing that if there was anything that could have been dont that they wouldnt have done it.

[Don Gwinn]

No comment on the above, but since it isn't related to firearms or civil liberties, it's off topic. Sorry.