A D.C. fire lieutenant and a firefighter were put on administrative leave Thursday as city authorities investigate why a man who suffered a fatal heart attack outside a Northeast Washington firehouse didn’t get care, according to officials familiar with the case. 
 
 The move comes one day after the lieutenant — identified by District officials as Kellene Davis — met with the fire department’s internal affairs division. Officials declined to say what Davis, 51, said at the meeting, and she could not be reached for comment. 
 
 But in a letter to city Fire Chief Kenneth B. Ellerbe, Davis, a 28-year veteran, said a firefighter told her that someone had slipped and fallen across the street. She said she told the firefighter to get an address and that she would go help. But she said he never returned with the address and instead told her that an ambulance had already been dispatched. It was unclear whether that firefighter is the one who was placed on administrative leave. 
 
 A fire department spokesman confirmed that the letter was sent to the chief by Davis. It was first reported by WTTG (Channel 5) on Thursday. 
 
 No action has been taken against a probationary firefighter who told people who sought help for the dying man that they had to call 911 before anyone could respond, although Davis said in her letter to the chief that she reprimanded that firefighter for not ringing the station alarm. Officials said that the firefighter properly told the lieutenant that people were seeking help and that the investigation now centers on why nothing was apparently done. Three fire department officials said that the probationary firefighter was moved to Truck 11, near Brightwood Park, and responded to a fire Wednesday night. 
 
 The fatal incident occurred Saturday when 77-year-old Medric Cecil Mills Jr., who had worked for the District more than four decades, collapsed outside a computer store at a strip mall across the street from the fire station on Rhode Island Avenue in the Brookland neighborhood. 
 
 His daughter, Marie Mills, said bystanders called 911 but also rushed to the station and banged on the door seeking help. But Mills said a firefighter told them that no one could respond until someone called 911 and they were dispatched. “There’s nothing I can do if my lieutenant doesn’t tell me to go,” he reportedly said, according to Marie Mills. 
 
 She said that a D.C. police officer flagged down a passing ambulance and that her father was treated about 15 minutes after he collapsed. He died later that afternoon at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. 
 
 The incident and subsequent inquiry come as the city investigates another case in which a man died after receiving questionable care, city officials said. That incident occurred Jan. 10 on 16th Street NW when 39-year-old Jose Santos Ruiz Perez collapsed in front of his apartment. 
 
 D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) said Perez’s relatives and authorities told him that a District police officer waved off an ambulance heading toward Perez, who had been drinking. Graham said the officer woke Perez, escorted him into his apartment and put him on a couch and left. A relative found Ruiz dead five hours later, according to a D.C. police report. A cause of death has not been determined. 
 
 But fire officials offered a different version. Those officials said two firefighters evaluated Ruiz, who declined treatment, but failed to obtain the required forms relinquishing them of responsibility before leaving. There is no fire or police report on the first encounter. A District official said the matter remains under investigation. 
 
 In the Mills case, District officials, including the mayor, reached out to the family and called the case an unacceptable breach of the public trust. “There are no regulations or protocols that would have prevented [fire department] personnel on the scene from taking action to help Mr. Mills,” Paul A. Quander Jr., deputy mayor for public safety, said in a statement Thursday. “It’s hard to get your arms around how and why this happened.” ||||| Join the conversation on our Facebook page! Like us and tell us what stories matter to you. 
 
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 I like to describe myself as an equal-opportunity story teller. By that I mean I don't take sides. If a tip checks out and the story is worth telling, I'm going to work it. 
 
 I like to describe myself as an equal-opportunity story teller. By that I mean I don't take sides. If a tip checks out and the story is worth telling, I'm going to work it. 
 
 I like to describe myself as an equal-opportunity story teller. By that I mean I don't take sides. If a tip checks out and the story is worth telling, I'm going to work it. 
 
 I like to describe myself as an equal-opportunity story teller. By that I mean I don't take sides. If a tip checks out and the story is worth telling, I'm going to work it. 
 
 Lt. Kellene Davis covered her face and refused to speak to FOX 5 as she left headquarters on Wednesday, January 29, 2014. 
 
 There is new information about the investigation of a man who had a heart attack right across from a D.C. firehouse. Cecil Mills collapsed in Northeast D.C. on Saturday and later died. People were screaming for help, but no one from the firehouse responded. 
 
 Now FOX 5 has learned the lieutenant in charge of that firehouse appears to be throwing one of her own under the bus. 
 
 The lieutenant’s name is Kellene Davis. She has been removed from command. 
 
 She wrote a letter to Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe. In it, she is blaming the whole thing on a firefighter who she says disobeyed her command. 
 
 Davis had nothing to say to FOX 5 as she left fire department headquarters Wednesday. We gave her the opportunity to tell her side of the story, but she said nothing. 
 
 On Thursday, we got our hands on a letter Lt. Davis sent to Chief Ellerbe which she titled an "Unusual Occurrence." 
 
 In her statement, Davis says: "Firefighter G. Murphy informed me that someone had slipped and fallen across the street. I then asked (him) to get me an address and I will be right there. (He) did not return with an address. This was an (Unusual Occurrence) in that my order was not followed.” 
 
 That address is right across from the firehouse. 
 
 Davis says she went looking for Murphy, found him in the bunkroom, and he told her another ambulance already had been dispatched. 
 
 In her statement, Davis went on to say another firefighter, a rookie who heard the pleas for help, was counseled for not ringing the firehouse bells, which is proper procedure. 
 
 Five days into the investigation, we now know Davis is on desk duty along with Firefighter Murphy, who she is blaming for disobeying an order. 
 
 The rookie has been transferred to a fire station on Georgia Avenue. 
 
 Ellerbe has remained silent despite our repeated requests for an interview. 
 
 FOX 5 has also learned the firehouse is getting threatening phone calls. The fire department confirms this. Sources are elaborating by saying they are death threats. 
 
 Mayor Vincent Gray has promised a quick conclusion to the investigation. He says he was outraged by the firefighters’ behavior. 
 
 Related Story: 
 
 Continuing Coverage - #dcfirefail: Man dies of heart attack near DC fire station 
 
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 I like to describe myself as an equal-opportunity story teller. By that I mean I don't take sides. If a tip checks out and the story is worth telling, I'm going to work it. 
 
 I like to describe myself as an equal-opportunity story teller. By that I mean I don't take sides. If a tip checks out and the story is worth telling, I'm going to work it. 
 
 I like to describe myself as an equal-opportunity story teller. By that I mean I don't take sides. If a tip checks out and the story is worth telling, I'm going to work it. 
 
 I like to describe myself as an equal-opportunity story teller. By that I mean I don't take sides. If a tip checks out and the story is worth telling, I'm going to work it. 
 
 The lieutenant at the center of the controversy surrounding the death of Cecil Mills was interviewed by internal affairs Wednesday. 
 
 Kellene Davis commands Truck 15 and was the officer in charge when the 77-year-old collapsed in a strip mall across the street from the fire station. 
 
 Mills’ daughter, Marie, says no one from the station, located in the 1300 block of Rhode Island Avenue in Northeast D.C., would cross the street to help her father despite numerous pleas for assistance. 
 
 Davis was questioned for more than an hour and a half, and when she left headquarters, FOX 5 attempted to speak with her. 
 
 Instead of responding, Davis covered her face with a manila folder and climbed into the truck she commands. 
 
 Although the fire department has said nothing about the incident, Paul Quander, the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, said Tuesday the focus of the investigation is now on the lieutenant. 
 
 “We know we had a very new probationary employee at the facility and the first response is to ask a senior person, and we believe that was done,” said Quander. “The question now is what did that senior person say? What did that person do? Did they follow protocols and procedures?” 
 
 Last Saturday afternoon, Marie Mills was with her father when he suffered a massive heart attack in front of a computer store across the street from the fire station. 
 
 Despite numerous pleas for help, no one left the station to render first aid. 
 
 Mills was surprised to learn Lieutenant Davis has not been suspended. 
 
 "She is still riding a fire vehicle? And she wouldn't authorize somebody? She could have came to help," said Mills. 
 
 She also questioned the actions of the rookie firefighter who heard the cries for help. 
 
 "The rookie should have made a conscious decision as a human being,” she said. “He should have come to offer assistance. If he would have offered assistance, no matter the outcome, no matter what his job was, my family is the kind of family that would have stuck behind him.” 
 
 Cecil Mills was 77 years old and a lifelong resident of the District. He was still employed by the Department of Parks and Recreation at the time of his death. 
 
 "[Tuesday] evening I spoke with Mayor Gray,” said Mills. “He was sincere. Others who have called have not been as sincere and I appreciate how seriously he is taking this because it never should have happened.” 
 
 Ed Smith, president of the firefighters union issued a statement which reads: “This just shouldn't have happened. We need to find out why it did occur and make sure it never happens again. On behalf of the DC Firefighters Association, I offer Mr. Mills' family a sincere apology.” 
 
 In addition to the investigation into the actions of the members of Truck 15, the Office of Unified Communications is trying to learn why the initial dispatch sent an ambulance to the wrong quadrant of the city -- Northwest D.C. instead of Northeast D.C. 
 
 So far, no one has been suspended.
– A fire lieutenant and a firefighter are on administrative leave after a man suffered a heart attack across the street from their Washington, DC, firehouse on Saturday and no one at the station helped him; Medric Mills, 77, later died. Authorities are still investigating the situation, but the lieutenant wrote in a letter to DC's fire chief that a firefighter told her someone slipped and fell across the street, WTTG reports. She told him to get an address and she'd go to assist, but, she says, he never brought her an address; instead, she later found him and says he told her an ambulance had been dispatched. Both are currently on desk duty. As for the probationary firefighter who told bystanders asking for help that they had to call 911 before rescuers could respond, he was reprimanded for not ringing the station alarm, but officials say he followed procedure by telling the lieutenant about the situation, the Washington Post reports. It's not yet clear why no assistance was then given, but the probationary firefighter was not placed on leave; he was transferred to another station. "We know we had a very new probationary employee at the facility and the first response is to ask a senior person, and we believe that was done," the deputy mayor for public safety tells WTTG. "The question now is what did that senior person say? What did that person do? Did they follow protocols and procedures?"