Their equipment bore the brunt of the intense burst of heat, or flashback, from a vehicle ignited in the Feb. 18 exercise. Firefighter Mitchell McCommon suffered minor burns to his right ear and hand that did not require medical attention. Firefighter Ney Norwood, who like McCommon was a trainee on the day of the accident, was not injured. Both men now work full-time for the county.
A preliminary report of an internal investigation released Tuesday found the county violated National Fire Protection Association standards by allowing students to light the vehicle used in the exercise at the Central Florida Fire Academy in south Orlando.
The department violated those standards and its own policies with students and trainers who were not in full protective gear when the fire was started from liquid propane in a hose, similar to a backyard grill. A final report on the incident is expected next week.
"With the history that this department has, they want to be looking at things a little more closely," said Robert Duval, senior fire investigator for NFPA. "They would want to be more careful."
The county has revamped the Fire Department since rookie firefighter Dallas Begg, 20, and fire Lt. John Mickel, 32, were victims of a superheated burst called a flashover in a vacant building being used for training July 30, 2002.
The State Fire Marshal's Office later ruled a series of blunders led to their deaths, including the use of a foam mattress that violated NFPA standards that county officials said they had been following.
The county later formally adopted those standards. Public Safety Director Tad Stone also reorganized the Fire Department so that instead of one training officer, the county now has one training chief and three training officers. Two more training officers are slated to be among the 82 new employees added to the 250-person department.
The department now holds six-week orientations at the fire academy, instead of the two-week, mostly on-the-job training it offered when Begg joined the department.
The department also has not held a training fire anywhere but at the fire academy, where conditions are more easily controlled than in "acquired structures," such as vacant buildings.
On Tuesday, county fire Chief Frank Montes de Oca, who took over the department as the restructuring was under way, said the county will need to do more.
"Firefighting is an inherently dangerous job," the chief said. "Whether it's controlled or not, it can burn you. We need to look at this from a systematic perspective and make whatever adjustments we need to make."
One immediate change will be the reporting of all incidents to the department heads. Montes de Oca did not learn the full extent of the incident until March 2, when he ordered Division Chief Diane Blemberg to investigate.
At the time, he found out by checking out the equipment, which included a mottled and discolored face shield and scorched front helmet, indicative of the intense heat.
The state Fire Marshal's Office also will conduct an administrative investigation. Spokeswoman Nina Banister said the review most likely will include reviewing the department's investigation and talking with officials since it is "not that often" that firefighters are injured during training.
"A fire is unpredictable. That's why there are standards, to control as many factors as possible," she said.
The fire-protection association said statistics for 2002, the most recent year available, show there were 7,600 injuries during training exercises, or about 9 percent of all injuries reported by firefighters that year.
The figures include injuries from fire and equipment as well as falls and other problems.
Duval, of the National Fire Protection Association, said the standards were developed to err on the side of caution to try to make training and firefighting safer.
When accidents happen in training, he said, it is often because those procedures weren't followed or other corners were cut.
"You can never play catch-up with a fire," he said.
