Greensboro Firefighters Recall Being Trapped in Collapse

GREENSBORO — The outcome could have been much worse for Capt. Thomas Sterling Suddarth and three other firefighters who were injured during a Jan. 30, 2014, blaze.

All four could have died.

The men were battling a fire inside an auto repair shop at 811 S. Elm St. when part of the roof collapsed.

Suddarth, who previously had not spoken publicly about what happened that day, broke his silence for a short training documentary made for firefighters that details the moments leading up to the cave-in, which left him trapped.

Suddarth recalled being in the middle of the building underneath one of the steel beams, spraying water from hoses onto multiple fires surrounding the group of firefighters. The firefighters had started retreating toward the door where they had entered, but it was too late.

“It was at that point, just seconds later, that the roof came in on us,” Suddarth said in the 30-minute documentary. “I did not see the ceiling coming in, but I just felt it.

“As soon as the roof came down, everything just went black,” he said.

Some of the firefighters escaped moments after the roof collapsed and suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. Suddarth was trapped under fallen debris. He was pulled out by another group of firefighters who were answering a mayday call for the roof collapse.

Deputy Fire Chief Clarence Hunter said Suddarth, Capt. Shane Boswell and senior firefighters Matthew Clapp and Bryan Bachemin all have returned to work after being injured in the fire.

Suddarth remains on light duty. He was taken to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, where he remained for 18 days with burns and other injuries.

The documentary, produced internally by Capt. Harold Haynie, will serve as a training tool for firefighters in Greensboro and around the nation, said Battalion Chief Brent Gerald, who is the department’s assistant training supervisor.

Fire officials have used the footage to see what techniques worked and what needed improvement.

The firefighter’s use of survival-training kicked in, and they were able to get Suddarth out of the burning building and to Guilford County EMS paramedics who took over life-saving efforts.

Gerald said Greensboro firefighters train in a smoke room that simulates collapsing walls and floors. There, they hone their survival-training skills to make it out of a dangerous situation alive.

“We could have lost him,” said Gerald, who has worked in the department’s training division for the past five years. “When he came out of there, he wasn’t breathing.”

After an internal investigation was completed, a third-party investigation revealed the department’s communication while battling the fire could have been better.

Since the blaze, Greensboro fire officials have decided to add a fourth firefighter to ladder truck companies, revise dispatch protocol, and require company officers to complete a full evaluation of a commercial structure before entering.

Gerald said he’s sure some of the 36 candidates at the current fire academy class have seen the video. A more formal showing will come later in their training, he said.

“We will actually bring in Sterling to talk to them himself,” Gerald said. “He’ll come in and talk to them and drive the point home about training.”

Contact Andre Taylor at (336) 373-3465, and follow @andretaylorNR on Twitter.

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©2015 the News & Record (Greensboro, N.C.)

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