Firefighter Detained in Botched Rescue

It’s been nine months since we first investigated a botched rescue attempt of a Seattle man from a San Francisco rooftop. A police negotiator had just begun talking to 27-year-old Nick Torrico and several firefighters reported Torrico did not appear to want to jump. Without the knowledge of the police negotiator, a lieutenant from the Fire Department’s Station One, Vic Wyrsch, lunged at Torrico, lost his grip, and Torrico fell to his death. A tourist staying at the Fairmont Hotel captured the incident on video.

Today, we’re airing a report after obtaining copies of the emergency communications: 911 calls, dispatch tapes, and radio traffic from the police and fire departments. The recordings show, after Torrico fell to his death, the police negotiator ordered Wyrsch to be arrested, and officers detained him before they figured out he was a firefighter. It’s clear the negotiator had no idea Wyrsch was going to make his move.

Also, the tapes show the entire event was over quickly. It took less than eleven minutes from the first 911 call, to the police and fire crews arriving, and to Torrico falling off the roof. Several experts in the field of crisis negotiation tell us these types of events usually take four to six hours for a successful outcome. They say the police negotiator should have been given the chance to continue talking to Torrico, before Wyrsch tried such tactics.

Comments

[JM]

watched with interest your newscast on this yesterday evening. What really struck me was the double standard that exists in SF for the SFPD and SFFD. Had Wyrsch been a cop the entire story would have been reported differently. The press would have had another field day with this - another rogue cop! - another cover up!, the police chief would have lamblasted him and not stuck by his side, and the police commission would never have let him off the hook "because his heart was in the right place".

[tom]

It is so easy for you guys sitting behind a desk, even perhaps a newsroom assignment desk, and second guess what happened at this scene. You want to catagorize the firefighter as everything from reckless to derelict of duty. You have no adequate perception of the intracacies of making that decision to attempt to save a life, in this situation. Certainly, in a freeze-frame, slowmotion environment, many things could have been done differently. I believe this firefighter should be commended for risking his own life to save Mr. Torrico's. Although tragic any death, even a suicidal one is, Mr. Torrico made that choice for himself to go out on that roof, where no reasonable person would have. Bravo to both Chief Haye-White and the entire Fire Commission for standing by their employee, a mere mortal, with all his faults and shortcommings, who happens to be in the business of saving lives.