Personal Injury Law

Death of a Firefighter -- Part 3 in an editorial series

By Steve Lombardi

Death of a Firefighter -- Part 3 in an editorial series by The Oregonian Editorial Board Monday

This is the third installment in an editorial series about the accidental death of an underage volunteer firefighter at the hands of fellow firefighters. They got 20-year-old Shannon Halvorson dangerously intoxicated at a motel party in Albany, she ended up dead and her grieving father has been fighting for five years for some accountability in the case.

Dick Zimmerlee fervently believes that volunteer firefighters, aided by a soft and sympathetic investigation by law enforcement, tried to whitewash details of the 2003 death of his daughter, Shannon Halvorson.

"It never smelled right," he says.

It does appear that Halvorson's fellow firefighters tried, at least initially, to soft-pedal what happened to her on June 12, 2003, during a wild night of hard partying at a Linn County motel. The day after that party, 14 hours after she was fatally injured there, Crook County Fire & Rescue put out a news release containing a highly misleading account of the incident:

"Shannon Halvorson, 20, a new volunteer with the department, was attending the Oregon Volunteer Firefighters Association conference in Albany, Oregon, when she became the victim of a fall. Shannon was returning to her motel with fellow firefighters late last night when she apparently fell, struck her head and was seriously injured."

She "apparently fell"? That was not true, and it's completely implausible that fire officials didn't know it at that hour after a long night of interviewing those involved.

Hours earlier they had talked to witnesses and the drunken firefighter who did fall, a 42-year-old Prineville man who tried to carry the unconscious, dangerously intoxicated young woman across a parking lot. He stumbled, whipping her limp body violently onto the pavement.

She suffered a skull fracture and died 12 hours later. Two hours after that, the misleading release was issued, which led to misleading initial news reports.

The truth eventually came out, but Zimmerlee is justifiably bitter. Police reports suggest efforts were made to obfuscate the the full extent of the drinking that went on in Room 209, a hospitality suite used by the firefighters at Albany's Holiday Inn.

Detectives who went to the room a few hours after the party said it smelled like stale beer. "Trash and food particles" covered the floor and the bathroom "was a mess," they wrote in a report, but they saw no sign of alcoholic beverages. Outside in trash bins, however, they seized 188 liquor, wine and beer containers. Many were unopened or only partially consumed, a sign of hasty disposal, the report said.

The suite's occupant, Dave Lapof, 48, then-president of the state firefighters organization, told investigators he had no idea who cleaned up the room. He also told them it had been a no-host party in which firefighters brought their own booze.

Witnesses unaffiliated with the firefighters told police they saw a large cart loaded with liquor and mixers being delivered to Room 209 earlier in the day. Police reports do not say who delivered the stock of liquor or whether any attempt was made to find out.

To Dick Zimmerlee, that was damning.

"If you served alcohol like that at a bar or a party in your home, and somebody got killed as a result, you would likely be accused of criminal negligence," he says, and a lot of prosecutors would agree.

But no one faced charges in the Albany party, not even for furnishing alcohol to a minor. Zimmerlee makes a compelling argument that the Oregon Volunteer Firefighters Association succeeded in ducking responsibility for his daughter's death.

Tomorrow: The inquiry

If you drink as an underage teenager read this story and watch the YouTube video. I've previously written (here and here) about how much a young adult can drink before dying, this story should demonstrate to you how situations can escalate that result in a person dying.

For five days this week and two of the next week we will reprint, with permission, a story published by The Oregonian about Shannon Halvorson, an underage firefighter who died not through the line-of-duty, but under less than clear circumstances while at a training conference of the Oregon Volunteer Firefighters Association. The words and reporting is credited to The Oregonian. We wish to thank the Associate Editor, Doug Bates for granting us permission to do so and for Shannon's father, Dick Zimmerlee, whose tireless efforts will not let this matter rest until justice is done.

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).