LORA HINES
The State - SC
Courtesy Lexington County Fire Service
Inside/Related
|
The Lexington County Fire Service has been fined $3,240 for violating state safety regulations after an investigation into last month's death of firefighter Jeff Chavis.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials documented seven serious violations against the fire service and six less serious violations, said Jim Knight, spokesman of the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. OSHA is part of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
The two most serious violations in the report included:
- The lack of supervision by an incident commander while firefighters battled blazes on June 16 on Murray Vista Circle in the Windward Pointe subdivision.
- Firefighters inside the homes didn't maintain contact with firefighters outside.
The fire service has until Aug. 16 to pay the fine or ask for a hearing, Knight said. The maximum fine for each serious violation could have been $1,000. Fines are determined according to the number of employees at the business, the business's safety history and the cooperation provided during the investigation, he said.
Fire service chief Russell Rawl said he is assessing staffing and training needs to avoid another death or serious injury.
"The fire service has accepted full responsibility for the fire ground safety out there," he said. "OSHA does require certain standards for interior firefighting. We are looking at what we can do to improve fire ground safety to prevent this from happening again."
Rawl said the fire service would like to have a hearing with OSHA to show that it has corrected other problems cited in its report, including the repair of some equipment and electrical problems found at some stations.
The last time a blaze killed a South Carolina firefighter was in 1990, when Charleston County firefighter Anthony Boyert died after a wall collapsed on him, Knight said.
Chavis was burned on 53 percent of his body after he entered the garage at 116 Murray Vista Circle, the report said.
Chavis was about 8 feet inside the garage when the door collapsed on him, the report said. He was flown to Augusta Burn Center, where he died July 12 of complications from his burns.
The OSHA report acknowledges that firefighters faced several problems fighting the fire:
- The nearest fire hydrant was more than 1,500 feet away from the area.
- Five firefighters were battling the blazes more than 30 minutes before others arrived to help.
- The incident commander, whose duty was to watch the fire scene, had to help pull hoses and run pumper trucks because of a lack of manpower.
Despite the obstacles, Knight said, OSHA requirements should be followed to prevent injury.
"Everyone acknowledges that firefighting is a dangerous job," he said. "Compliance with rules and regulations make safer workplaces.
"OSHA is not saying that if these violations had not existed a firefighter would not have been killed," Knight said, but the chances would have been reduced.
Knight did not know how often fire stations are fined for OSHA violations.
Chavis' mother, Linda Chavis, declined to comment. His fiancee, Christy Turner, who also is a volunteer firefighter and a Lexington County dispatcher, couldn't be reached.
Rawl said the fire service plans to focus more on assessing fire scenes and training. He wants to implement a system where a safety officer would get to fires as soon as possible to help incident commanders watch fire scenes and stop unsafe acts, he said.
Sometimes firefighters won't be able to take extreme measures to save property, Rawl said.
"There's a lot of pressure at a scene," he said. "We are not going to risk a life for property. That's not acceptable. We take calculated risks."
Bruce Rucker, Lexington County Council chairman, said OSHA's report will probably be discussed at today's meeting. Rucker, a volunteer for 20 years at the Sandy Run station, said he has confidence in the fire service.
