LON SLEPICKA
Firehouse.Com News
The NIOSH investigation into the deaths of six firefighters at a warehouse fire in Worcester, Mass. Dec. 3, 1999, has been released along with a listing of 12 recommendations that the report states would have minimized the risk to the firefighters had they been in place.
The majority of the recommendations deal with the lack of pre-planning on the Worcester Fire Department's part, for fire incidents such as this one.
NIOSH team leader for the investigation, Bichard W. Braddee, said the report was not intended to find anyone at fault or place any blame for the results of the fire. He said they wrote the recommendations based on the facts they found and hope they are used to improve firefighting programs.
Braddee said the lack of pre-planning was a major factor leading to the fire tragedy. In some cases, he said, procedures may have been in place but were not followed.
In addition, the report states two of the firefighter victims, "did not make initial contact with command nor anyone at the scene, and were not seen entering the building." Activated with the third alarm and knowing they would be used in search and rescue, these firefighters seemed to have entered the building on their own initiative, according to the report.
A head count an hour and ten minutes after the first alarm determined there were six firefighters missing. The two who entered on their own, Braddee said, "went totally outside of procedure. It seemed to be a personal choice," he said.
Worcester Deputy Fire Chief Gerard Dio denied that the two firefighters had failed to inform their commanders that they were entering the building. Dio, who headed the department's own inquiry, told the Associated Press that its complete radio transmissions show the two firefighters were told go into the warehouse.
"The report doesn't take into account the emotions of the firefighters at the scene,'" said James F. Lyons, whose son, Jay, was killed. "There are two firefighters missing. When panic sets in, men become desperat."
The report describes in detail the environment and circumstances leading up to the fire and chronologically lays out the events through the building evacuation and switch to a defensive exterior fire attack.
The 12 items described as recommendations for use in all future similar fires are:
- Inspect and conduct pre-fire planning on vacant buildings.
- Fully implement an incident command system at the fire scene.
- Use a separate Incident Safety Officer at fire scenes.
- Use adequate equipment and adhere to SOP with communication equipment.
- Ensure that Incident Command accounts for personnel at the scene.
- Use ropes, lines, and lights to assist lost firefighters.
- Ensure a Rapid Intervention Team is in position.
- Implement a health and safety program.
- Consider using a marking system when conducting searches.
- Mark dangerous, vacant buildings.
- Enforce mask rules.
- Explore the use of thermal imaging cameras.
Frank L. Brannigan, Society of Fire Protection Engineers fellow and building construction hazards specialist, provided Firehouse.com expert review for NIOSH on this report.
"(Worcester Fire Department) should have produced a scenario which showed this (a fire in this building) was a disaster in the making," Brannigan said. "It's all about preplanning. I have preached that all my life."
The Worcester Firefighters Memorial Safety and Training Seminar was held recently in the same building where thousands gathered nearly 10 months earlier to remember the fallen men. More than 1,000 firefighters from 35 states and two Canadian provinces attended the training seminar.
Almost a dozen of the fire industry's top national experts presented training, demonstrations, videos and lectures centered on the main themes of firefighter safety and survival, and rescuing trapped firefighters.
The Worcester Fire Department received the NIOSH report Tuesday, a day ahead of its general release, officials said. The department had no further comment as of Wednesday and the families, according to a union spokesman, were also not commenting.
A contingent of Worcester police officers and firefighters recently motorcycled to the International Association of Fire Fighters' Fallen Firefighter Memorial Service in Colorado Springs. The service honored, among others, the six firefighters who died in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. fire.
The 19th Annual National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service in Emmitsburg, Md. will be held Sunday, October 8. The service will honor the 103 fallen firefighters from 30 states and the District of Columbia who died in the line of duty during 1999. Among these are Worcester firefighters Paul A. Brotherton, Jeremiah M. Lucey, Timothy P. Jackson, Joseph T. McGuirk and fire lieutenants Thomas E. Spencer and James F. Lyons III.
A homeless couple who allegedly knocked over a candle during an argument and started the warehouse fire were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of the six firefighters. Those charges were recently dropped. The judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to support charges filed against the pair.
