Hero and Heel emerge in Colonial Heights Fire

The Progress-Index ran a story today about a fatal house fire. The headline, Neighbors unable to rescue construction worker, is a little misleading. As in most stories, there are some heroes and a heel.

Justin Krumpe ran in to a burning house and tried to save his neighbor. First responders were on the scene pretty quickly. Justin is a true hero. He ran in with no protection to try to save someone's life. He was the only neighbor to do so.

Another "neighbor," Chiquita Edmonds was called by someone else in the neighborhood about the fire. What did she do? Run to help? Call 911? Nope. She went outside to film the fire. Pretty nice, huh?

Here's the kicker... Edmonds filmed the whole ordeal, including EMS personnel trying to revive the 44 year old Fred Waitt, but she said she turned the camera off the camera "out of respect before he was loaded in an ambulance."

In Chiquita's defense, she was heard on her tape shouting to fire fighters what Waitt looked like. Talk about going the extra mile!

Who knows the whole story? Maybe Ms. Edmonds couldn't physically help. If that was the case, why film the fire? You gonna sit around the VCR and rewatch it later in the week? Was there the intent to make sure the police and EMS did their job? Maybe, as Chiquita said, "I want to say that all the Colonial Heights departments responded fast, and in a professional manner." Thanks Chiquita, but who made you the first responder monitor for the neighborhood?

This fire happened in the area of Colonial Heights that I live in. This story frustrates me because my area of town is filled with folks that no longer act neighborly. There are a select few that will go out of their way to be nice, but not many. In order for our side of the city to re-emerge into the great neighborhood that it used to be, I believe we all need to lend a hand when needed, not just stand back and view things as distant events through a viewfinder.