As you can see from this month’s cover, a firefighter had a very close call in Fort Worth, TX. See pages 50-51. This is one of several recent fires around the nation that involved close calls. Unfortunately, many fires where firefighters ran into trouble didn’t have successful outcomes. A New Jersey firefighter who ran out of air and became lost in a dwelling radioed a Mayday. Other firefighters were able to locate him and remove him to safety, but he still had to spend time in a burn center due to minor respiratory damage. A firefighter from the FDNY apparently became separated from his unit and was trapped in mattress storage occupancy. He was unable to make it out alive. A lieutenant in Philadelphia partially fell through a floor, received critical burns and died a few days later.
Contributing Editor William Goldfeder reports that many incidents are reported to him every month for his Close Calls column, which is meant to review past incidents and provide valuable lessons so we all come home alive. My department recently participated in a mutual aid rapid intervention team drill taught by Jim Crawford of Pittsburgh. Tough scenarios, grueling realistic circumstances and the use of teamwork were required to successfully rescue trapped firefighters. A few weeks ago, one of the truck companies in my department responded as a rapid intervention team to an adjacent department. Anticipating that they would be standing fast in front of the building as they had done numerous times before, this time the firefighters were ordered to the building immediately, for a firefighter had given a Mayday. As they reached the rear of the building, firefighters were handing the firefighter out the window to them and other firefighters from that department. One of my firefighters, with only a few years of experience, said that seeing that firefighter being handed out the window really opened his eyes as to what could possibly happen at a fire scene. He just hasn’t the experience to have seen the many varied things that can happen on the fireground. My own department recently drilled with many of these newly learned techniques. Wouldn’t you want someone standing by your fire scene with the proper equipment in case you get trapped? Shouldn’t you call that rapid intervention team as fast as you can?
For so many years, firefighters have taken so many risks. Firefighting is inherently dangerous. Is any building worth the life of a firefighter? There are numerous examples where a fire building has been rebuilt, the company is back in business, but there is no way to bring the firefighter back to life. Intense scrutiny focused on buildings that had truss roofs after the Hackensack, NJ, fire that killed five firefighters. After the vacant storage building in Worcester, MA, burned, discussion centered on not sending firefighters into vacant buildings, especially heavy-timber refrigerated warehouses. I was at a meeting where a chief said that he would shout over a loud speaker, “Come out of the building if you are in there,” to any potential occupants, because you are going to get wet if you don’t. I remember when we responded to a warehouse fire. The heat had forced the 100-foot steel roof beams to expand and push out the rear wall. My firefighters were operating master streams from a safe distance outside the collapse zone in front of the building. Other firefighters from another department were operating within the collapse zone near this partially supported front wall. I told them to leave several times. They seemed oblivious to the potential danger. Fortunately, nothing happened.
With a continued focus on health and safety, we need to take a hard look at the buildings we are responding to, discuss these ideas in-house and be ready for the different situations we encounter and maybe just make a small adjustment, especially regarding size-up, accountability and aggressiveness. All it can do is save a life. On page 54 Chief Todd Harms describes a program in Phoenix designed to keep firefighters out of trouble. If they get into trouble this program addresses what they need to know. On page 56 Jim McCormack reports on rapid intervention training so necessary in today’s fire world.
Speaking of changes, Hal Bruno reports in his Fire Politics column on page 14 about how the fire service needs to support the Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act now before Congress. Hal has reported on numerous multiple-fatality fires in his career from the Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago in 1958, which killed 95, to the MGM Grand Hotel fire in Las Vegas that killed 84 in 1980. He knows first hand what sprinklers can do for life safety. In a related issue, Steve Blackistone reports in his Fire Law column on page 82 that Rhode Island has adopted a new fire safety law with five major recommendations following The Station nightclub fire that occurred on Feb. 20, 2003. An important step in saving civilians and firefighters in the future. Nothing could be more important.
