Some public safety personnel are furious a D.C. Fire and EMS fire boat capable of breaking ice was out of service when a plane and helicopter crashed in midair and plunged into the freezing Potomac River, they told News4’s Paul Wagner.
Some public safety personnel are furious a D.C. Fire and EMS fire boat capable of breaking ice was out of service when a plane and helicopter crashed in midair late Wednesday and plunged into the freezing Potomac River, they tell News4. All 64 people on board the plane and three on the Army helicopter are believed to have died.
The John Glenn fire boat has been docked in a Baltimore maintenance yard since 2022 for repairs, as News4 reported after a pickup truck with two people inside plunged into the Potomac off the Arlington Memorial Bridge just weeks ago.
As crews searched the river for victims of the plane and helicopter crash, the fire boat could have helped break ice, officials said. It also could have served as a platform for divers plunging into the river, they said.
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Earlier this month, David Hoagland with the firefighters’ union raised concerns about the Glenn being out of service.
“Obviously this was a difficult rescue under difficult circumstances, and not having the right resources there to do the job made the job more difficult,” he said, referring to the pickup plunging into the river on Jan. 16.
News4 had been asking D.C. officials about the status of the fire boat for weeks before the pickup accident. Before that accident, News4 spoke with two D.C. Council members about the Glenn being out of service for so long.
“I have been banging that drum for years and years and years,” Councilmember Charles Allen said. “To find out that it's been sitting in a dock now for two-and-a-half years is wholly unacceptable.”
D.C.’s fire chief told News4 earlier this month that repairs on the fire boat had grown more complicated.
Records show repairs on the Glenn have cost more than $2.5 million so far.
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