Trial By Fire

Trial By Fire is a story about the career and life of Lt. Jim Sharpe, a Miami Dade firefighter/paramedic, who was involved in the first civil lawsuit ever brought against a firefighter. The lawsuit revolved around an accident in deep south Dade County (Miami), when a Chevy Suburban, with the driver 3.5 times legally drunk, crashed into an irrigation ditch with thirteen of his family and friends in the vehicle. Four of the occupants were killed and nine critically injured. The people and events in this story are real but some names were changed to protect the innocent.

In 1980 after a long and very successful career riding rescue, Lieutenant Sharpe was called to respond to the accident. A history-making lawsuit resulted when the migrant laborers were convinced by a couple of Coral Gables attorneys, and a migrant organization called SALAD, to sue Lieutenant Sharpe, who was in charge of the rescue scene, along with the fire department, police department, landowners and the state road department. The accident happened just two weeks before the "Good Samaritan Act" was passed into law. This law would force anyone wishing to file a lawsuit to first prove negligence.