According to SLO City FD policy, BC-1 Berryman is responsible for documenting the incident (SLO City FD E.O. 501.00 — "Command Responsibility").

BC-1 Berryman's narrative is among the shortest when his responsibility to document the incident requires it to be among the longest. He does not document the Square Deal fire from 1:00pm until 11:00pm at all — The main fire is left out.

When he arrives, BC-1 Berryman does not EVER consider fighting the fire or assigning a Rapid Intervention Team to cover firefighters who would go inside if conditions allowed for it.

BC-1 Berryman allows almost no salvage of Square Deal during the over two hours he had to do the salvage. He also had at least 20+ firefighters who had nothing to do!

BC-1 Berryman does not state when or why he declared the fire "defensive only" (i.e. no one goes into the buildings), but Captain Vasquez (in his narrative, 20+ minutes into the fire) states he is continuing the defensive strategy. Berryman is required to declare openly to all if and when it's a defensive strategy. We assume he did, yet all SLO City FD narratives leave out this crucial detail and the criterion used to decide not to fight the fire from the moment he arrived or at any time after he arrived. It was soon obvious it was only a window box fire and was only burning in the front part of the front room above the window box.

BC-1 Berryman states that upon his arrival at The Sub, he drove around the affected structure and noted smoke coming from multiple areas of the roof [see video: Berryman's arrival/parking]. The Sub has a one-piece welded, sealed thermoplastic roof with NO openings anywhere. In the video, he is shown arriving during a time that a lot of grey and thick black smoke is coming from the front windows, totally obscuring The Sub roof from his view. He drives directly and parks in front of the former gas station where the active fire is out of sight. He cannot see the roof at all in his drive around. His statements are suspect at the very least!

BC-1 Berryman orders massive additional support before he even looks at the fire. He never actually looks into the structure or re-evaluates the initial small fire. He summons additional support as if he is planning for a large fire, not because he needs it at the time of his summons.

BC-1 Berryman never refers to any ventilation plan or other plan of attack in his narrative. BC-1 Berryman has firemen break all windows, open all doors, and leave them open before even looking at the fire. He has a ladder on the roof of Square Deal Recordings & Supplies and has dispatched chainsaws to the roof before the first hose is charged with water. If it's to be defensive only, he has no reason to cut holes in the roof — If he is cutting holes in the roof, it is supposed to be preparation for an inside attack (which is not being planned, allowed, or considered).

BC-1 Berryman never explains why he did not aggressively fight the fire initially and simply put it out!

BC-1 Berryman's narrative totally leaves out the fact that Richard Ferris (owner) reported to him within minutes of his arrival. Ferris offered information that we had just finished an earthquake retrofit upgrade and knew all details on firewalls and where to defend so as to keep the fire in The Sub. Berryman told Ferris in extremely dismissive terms, "We are going to take no risk to save your property", then told the SLOPD officer standing nearby that Ferris was interfering with public safety and ordered Ferris (under threat of arrest) to stop talking about the details of the structure, the firewalls, and how to defend Square Deal. He ordered Ferris away because he seemed to have no need for details on how to fight a fire on the interior and, according to BC-1 Berryman, he knew what he was doing …Trust him…

BC-1 Berryman notes the multiple requests ordered during the incident for various agency personnel and representatives yet there was no water drain security to prevent debris-filled water from flowing into the creek, nor was there any concern for people downwind regarding respiratory issues.

Continued below...

BC-1 Berryman states T1 reported that every hole they had cut on the roof produced pressurized smoke and fire — NOT TRUE [see video: firemen cutting hole in roof]. Initially, there was black smoke coming from the front windows caused by the incendiary fuel source in the front window boxes. This black smoke stopped when they put out the window box fire and no black smoke [see video: light grey smoke after fire in window boxes are put out] was seen again until they put the water through the front door and roof, and blew in enough air to supercharge the fire. Pretending the initial black smoke from the unknown incendiary device-fueled window box fire represents a fully involved structure fire, and using that as an excuse to not do their job, is why there is so much talk of black smoke in the narratives even though there was no black smoke once water was put on the window box [see photo: smoke]. Once the fire established itself above the window box, (and was venting well first 30 minutes), there could not have been pressurized smoke and fire without smoke spilling from the openings somewhere! [see videos: no smoke from front of The Sub/fire venting over roof vent opening/white smoke venting from louver].

At 11:05am, a second unknown incendiary device is set off on our roof and burns fiercely for five minutes until it is washed down the scupper. This unknown incendiary device is not mentioned in any narratives except to pretend it is the building on fire.

BC-1 Berryman does not mention that he ordered T-1 crew and ladder to go onto the roof before the first water was on the fire [see video: crew & ladder at beginning].

BC-1 Berryman states defensive hose operations were deployed including ground monitors and aerial waterways. This means spraying water on the roof and outside walls but not actually putting water on the fire that started small on and in the front wall above the Higuera Street window box. No hose was used to keep fire in the original building. Defensive to SLO City FD apparently means we are helping to burn rather than fighting fire from the outside only! — It is not supposed to mean they are actively participating in burning the structure down.

BC-1 Berryman never attempted to look at the fire burning in The Sub! He never evaluated or re-evaluated the fire during the first crucial 30 minutes or anytime afterwards. No one looks into the interior of The Sub through the front door. When they finally (after 20 minutes) opened the front door, even then they did not seriously look inside [see video: Vasquez opening the door].

BC-1 Berryman states E2 was assigned Division Bravo which was the interior wall of 303 Higuera Street, Square Deal. Division Bravo's goal was to keep the fire out of 303 Higuera Street and begin removal of property from that address. Berryman states he delivered the servers to the owners one hour into the fire — not true, it was two hours into the fire [see video: server being removed]. Nothing was done to stop the fire — No Square Deal property was allowed to be removed until the very last second, hours later [see video: no hoses in building]. A large amount of valuables could and should have been removed from Square Deal during the two hours they had to work with.

BC-1 Berryman states within an hour of the fire start, the fire had forced Division Bravo out of the occupancy. During the first hour, the fire was still completely in The Sub! Bravo was not in, and never was in, The Sub!

BC-1 Berryman states Division Bravo's new goal was to keep the fire south of 307 Higuera Street, Quality Fabrics. No actual effort to stop the fire was made by this division at any time during the fire. Letting everything burn until it reached 307 Higuera Street seems to have been the basic strategy! No effort to slow down or stop fire was taken. Berryman's command post location shows that he probably never considered fighting the fire, even in its earlier stages when it could have been easily fought. When you put an order out that forbids any firefighters from entering the building to fight the fire from the first moment you arrive, the outcome is certain — This is what was done! He immediately started cutting holes in the roof far from the seat of the fire (to help the burn the structure down), which he was more concerned with than getting water on the fire.

BC-1 Berryman states E3 was assigned Division Charlie which included all of Pismo Street. Their goal was to keep the fire to the building of origin (The Sub). Berryman states Division Delta was initially in Square Deal and the apartment at 150 Pismo Street. Their goal was to keep the fire out of these two occupancies. Then why was no water put on the back interior through doorways or windows to impede the fire? Why was there no interior effort to stop the fire? [see video: no actions at rear of Square Deal & The Sub]. Why no fire monitor team at Square Deal?

BC-1 Berryman states within an hour of the dispatch, the fire forced crews to abandon their hose lines and retreat out of the occupancies. Not true - No active charged hoses ever fought the fire from inside! No charged hoses ever were in the building (defensive strategy). It was over 20 minutes before they opened The Sub's front door and drove the air in to fan the fire — All fire was still in The Sub. The fire did not go into the apartment at 150 Pismo Street until after 1:15pm — Two hours and 25 minutes into the fire.

BC-1 Berryman states Division Charlie and Delta shared resources in order to keep the fire south of the firewall between Quality Fabrics and Square Deal. It took zero effort to defend Quality Fabrics. A 4' masonry parapet wall, a building with a 12" masonry wall, an air gap, a 9" block concrete wall, and a metal roof did not even require an effort. There was not an easier stop point in all of San Luis Obispo to have a major fire that would burn to a pre-existing stop point and stop on its own. However, the "effort" did do major damage to the roof over Quality Fabrics which had to be completely redone and water needlessly ruined merchandise along the wall [see photo: firewall/gap/Square Deal wall].

In his closing paragraph, BC-1 Berryman states a traffic plan was established for public transit (actually public works) and fencing was placed around the structures by Smith And Sons. Not true — The property owner had the fencing placed around the structure using MarBorg Industries whom he was already dealing with.

BC-1 Berryman's narrative seems more fiction than fact and leaves out so many key details — Never does he give a reason for refusing to fight the fire; where he set up his command post; or many, many other details he should be recalling. He was the Incident Commander (IC) and man in charge - Why is his narrative so short? Where is the narrative for the fire from 1:00pm to 11:00pm when Square Deal was burned? Why is it as though Square Deal never burned as far as the narratives are concerned? Square Deal is the MAJOR fire — not The Sub!

BC-1 Berryman takes no responsibility for any decisions. He never mentions that he would not fight the fire. He does not mention hoses in ventilation openings. He does not mention any times or timeframes during the fire. He does not mention his initial contact with the property owner.

As BC-1 Berryman was the original man in command of the fire, his narrative is glaringly short and inadequate considering what he caused to happen.

BC-1 Berryman never explains nor justifies his decision to not let any firefighter go into the building and fight the fire. It's as if he can burn down any building he feels like without explanation or justification. Any thin excuse will do and no need to re-evaluate his burn down decision at any point in the fire.

BC-1 Berryman, as best we can find, has never put out a fire in a structure that had any significant fire inside! He does not consider saving property to be worthy of any risk at all!

BC-1 Berryman has close to zero experience actually saving structures. He is well versed in quickly burning down structures. BC-1 Berryman has holes cut in the roof to focus and intensify the fire. He then stands back and lets the fire do its job while spraying copious amounts of water anywhere but on the seat of the fire. When he explains, he states he is letting the hot smoke and gases out. He does not mention that cutting holes in the roof is a legitimate tactic but only when you do a coordinated interior attack, which BC-1 Berryman does not seem to do!

Firefighter Rules And Guidelines

The basis for the comments in this writing is taken from Firefighter's Rules of Engagement, the San Francisco Fire Department Ventilation Manual, and San Luis Obispo City Fire Emergency Operations Manual. These are standards that SLO City FD supposedly uses.