A source close to the investigation said that two of the three Miami-Dade Fire instructors involved in the incident did not follow proper procedures and bailed out of the exercise early.
Channel 10 News put in a written request to review Miami-Dade fire's 500-page training manual. In it, there are specifications for the so-called hot box environment -- a training area where temperatures can reach a scorching 2,000 degrees -- where trainee Wayne Mitchell, 37, died.
According to the department, recruits are not supposed to be in the hot box for an extended amount of time. Those inside the hot box are also supposed to maintain contact with the hose at all times and must know where the other people around them are at all times.
At the Resolve Training Center, leased by the Miami-Dade Fire Department for training, Channel 10 News has learned that four of the five recruits made it out by climbing stairs to an upper-level exit. However, two MDFD instructors, one of whom should have been at the end of the hose and according to procedure should have been the last one out behind the recruits, bailed out a side door, failing to follow the students.
At Wayne Mitchell's funeral service Monday, his friends and family took time to mourn the loss, but now the grieving will be coupled with questions upon questions for those instructors once responsible for his safety.
Mitchell's family has said it wants to know why it took so long for three supervisors to figure out he was missing during the live fire exercise. When supervisors did rush in to get him, it took them two passes to find him.
His loved ones say Mitchell approached his certification with discipline and vigor. They say he would wake up early to study and work out, and was doing so well he had recently been named group leader. Friends wanted to throw a party for him in June when the county hired him, but he insisted on completing the full training first.
They say he was always helping people. He spent 11 years as a lifeguard and saved a little girl last year.
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