Denver Fire Department disavows draft report that details problems with Nuggets Championship Parade

An after-action report on the Denver Nuggets June 15, 2023 Championship Parade details the series of events that led to a Denver Fire Department truck hitting a Denver police sergeant, who later had to have his leg amputated. The four-page report, obtained by CBS News Colorado, suggests Nuggets superstars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray should not have been placed on the last vehicle in the procession, larger barricades were needed for crowd control, and barricades were taken down too quickly.

The draft review of the victory parade appears to be constructive, aimed at ensuring future Denver parades are safer and avoiding the problems that led to Denver Police Sgt. Justin Dodge losing his left leg. 

Dodge was helping with parade security when the last fire apparatus in the parade, Tower 15, ran over his leg near the end of the route. According to the draft report, "...The crowd along the parade route began pushing close to the apparatus which was being guarded by several Denver police officers, this in turn caused the officers to walk closer to the rig. During this time one Denver police officer was struck by the right front tire of Tower 15 ultimately trapping his leg underneath the front tire."

The street was so clogged with people when Dodge went down, the report states, "members that were inside Tower 15 were unable to open their doors to provide aid."

The review was not signed by any members of the fire department. The report goes on to lay out the factors that led to the serious accident and recommendations on how to avoid a repeat in the future.

"Consider placing the most popular players in the front or middle of the procession instead of the end," reads one of the recommendations. The Nuggets marquee players, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray were on the very last fire engine in the parade along with the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. The report suggests placing the superstars and the trophy on the last vehicle in the procession, built anticipation and excitement in the crowd of 700,000 fans, many of whom surged onto the parade route after Jokic and Murray's fire apparatus passed by.

"Barricades were released early after the final rig passed the route causing the crowds to come up and around rigs at the end of procession," notes another report recommendation.

"Consider larger barriers, companies had issues with fans and players stopping the parade by crowding and running in front of rigs. Not allowing players to disembark rigs until end of parade," suggest the report writers.

An additional consideration according to the report, is when fire engines dropped players off behind Denver's City-County building at the end of the parade and before a rally began. It took a long time to remove players and staff from fire engines as the fire department members mingled with players and were cleaning debris off their engines, which caused a "traffic bottleneck along Cherokee. Consider closing off Cherokee or expanding barrier to all crowds during parade events, the 13th and Cherokee turn creates a choke point, placing responders and members of the parade in harm's way."

Although the draft report offers concrete recommendations for avoiding another, similar incident, the Denver Fire Department is now distancing itself from its own draft report. Denver Fire Captain J.D. Chism said Wednesday, "...there is no official after-action report from the Denver Fire Department. A draft after-action report was started by members of the DFD just after the incident, however, the decision was made to not move forward with that draft since there were multiple public safety agencies involved... the draft that was started was not approved to move forward and anything contained in that draft report has not gone through the AAR (after action review) process nor should it be used to represent findings from the incident."

Chism referred further questions to the Department of Public Safety.

That agency said there was a meeting June 27, 2023, two weeks after the parade, with representatives from the Department of Safety, Denver Police, Denver Fire Department and Denver Health Paramedics to discuss and identify safety improvements for large-scale celebrations. When CBS News Colorado requested documentation from that meeting, the request was denied.

"The identified improvements are not publicly available at this time as they contain law enforcement sensitive details that could compromise the Department's ability to address public safety situations," wrote Department of Public Safety Records Administrator Andrea Webber. "We believe that those interests outweigh any public purpose to be served by the release of the records at this time." 

The Denver Fire Department draft review also recommended: "Better coordination with other stakeholder agencies... rehearse the Incident Action Plan amongst agencies prior to larger scale events... contingency plan with escape routing along parade route... consider placing safety officer/assistant safety officers in the parade route."

The report noted that the location of medics on the parade route was "unknown" when the officer was struck.