Firemen Lose Out in Alleged Katrina Fraud
Feb. 24, 2006 — -- The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina motivated Lt. Neale Brown and nine other firemen and paramedics from Oregon to travel to the Gulf Coast to help. They were hired by C. Henderson Consulting Inc., a Texas company contracted by Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide ambulances and personnel.
Once there, Brown and his team said they were shocked to discover the ambulances lacked basic equipment -- oxygen, heart monitors, even radios -- as first reported in The Oregonian.
"We found there was a lot of missing equipment, a lot of expired medications," said Brown, who works for Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue, the largest fire district in Oregon.
The Oregon team said other Henderson employees told them that Henderson Consulting, which did not have any apparent emergency experience, had taken control of a bankrupt ambulance company.
Three days later, as Hurricane Rita was about to hit, the Oregon team was ordered by local emergency authorities to use the ambulances to evacuate people from Port Arthur, Texas.
But the paramedics said Henderson CEO Charles Henderson inexplicably ordered them to locations that had already been evacuated.
When they refused to go, they said Henderson threatened to report the ambulances stolen.
"We were exhausted, working nonstop for 18 hours. We had been up, in some cases, 36, 48 hours. So it was exasperating," Brown said.
After two weeks, the team returned home to Oregon. Henderson Consulting never paid the thousands of dollars owed to them.
But just a few days ago, the team was sent 1099 tax forms from Henderson that claimed they'd been paid.
"It kind of seems like bullying. It just seems mean," said Lt. Rich Stamps of Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue.
According to Henderson Consulting's attorney, Jim Brannon, the company is completing an internal inquiry and will say only that their "investigation up to now seems to reveal that the fellows from Oregon got what they deserved."
As in nothing.
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