Last week one of our firefighters was in the attic with another mutual aid member after the fire had been mostly knocked down. The firegighter who was injured at the time was getting low on air and told his partner that they needed to leave. At that time the partner firefighter commented to the injured firefighter about the poor condition of the roof above them and how it looked close to failure, so they should not come back up. Just then, a large piece of 10" x 10" roof system seperated and fell, landing on the injured firefighters back, hitting his air pack. A mayday was subsequently called by his partner and rescue was initated quickly and very successfully. The injured firefighter walked himself out to the ambulance and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. He had recieved some injury to the muscles and tendons in his back and will have to miss work for a few days. However, if his air pack had not broken the fall of the piece of large timber beam and prevented direct contact with the firefighter the results could have been much worse.

LESSONS LEARNED: Using the proper PPE can often times can prevent an injury from being much worse. Another lesson would be that staying in close contact with your partner firefighter and having radio contact with command can hasten the response to a firefighter emergency and having a well prepared FAST or RIT team ready to respond can prevent more tragic consequences. The other lesson could be that constantly mointoring and evaluating the changing conditions of a fire building and it\'s structural components, even after the majority of the fire is knocked down is essential for firefighter safety.

On Friday, January 15, my units arrived on a fully involved structure fire (doublewide with add-ons) and crews began defensive operations. They were met with the unmistakable sounds of amunition being cooked off in the structure about 100' from the engine. After a few minutes on scene, as crews directed the truck mounted deck gun toward the area of the explosions, one of my pump operations came to me turned his back to me and asked if he was bleeding, that he had been hit (by bullets). While he was not bleeding, and was able to continue operations, investigation revealed that two pieces of shrpnel penatrated his coats outer shell and vapor barrier, and were stopped in the liner. Also, a bullit hit the engine about two feet from where he was standing at the pump, cauding damage (obviously a round that was in a weapon). No injuries were sustained by any of the personnel.

LESSONS LEARNED:

Wearing your gear makes a difference in more ways than it was designed. Spend a little extra, and buy gear that will protect you from more than just the "minimum requirements". We are sure glad that we did. Engineers, and others not involved in (active) firefighting need to be in gear.

These photos are an interesting view of our furniture warehouse fire last
month. Despite the small portion that collapsed, most of the roof structure
'drooped' rather than failing all at once. Granted, there was no other load
than the roof itself (no fireman were on the roof), but it was interesting
to see that it didn't completely fall in except for the one spot.
 

These are pictures from the 2nd alarm fire in Bellows Falls the other night. The owner had built in a crude dumb waiter type device to bring books up and down the cellar stairs. After you opened the cellar door, there was just this shaft. Luckily no firefighters fell through into the basement. The cellar was packed with books making overhaul a pleasant job. They had a cellar fire due to books being stacked too close to the woodstove. Be careful out there. You never know what you will find.

On 12/18 while operating at a dwelling fire, my foot fell through the roof. Units were operating in and on the exposure dwelling of a fire in a two story duplex type house. I was on the 1.5 story roof of the exposure dwellings sunroom. I walked in toward the dwelling to get a hoseline from the interior crew and extinguish some fire on the outside. While walking, I stepped on a soft spot on the roof with one foot falling through into the sunroom below. I was saved from completely falling by where i was walking, as there was a minimally burned joist between my feet. Fortunately I was just momentarily shook up fromt he near miss and no injuries were sustained.

LESSONS LEARNED:

Bring a tool and sound the roof always be weary of roofs even on a exposure away from the fire origin area. walk on joists if absolutely necesary to walk on roof.

We were dispatched for a structure fire at a 2 story apartment building. We were 3rd in, and saw thick black smoke rolling from the roof. Turns out there was a tar pot on fire. The roof gets laddered, and we go up to find the other crews working on the fire. Fire is out soon after. Crews then applied water to the outside of the tar pot to cool it down. The close call comes in when our engine was asked to open the tar pot. So, I start walking toward the pot when the driver who was with me says "put your mask on". I said \"why, the fire is out\". He reiterated again to "put my mask on". I thought it was unnecessary, but, I have about 2 years on at the time, and the driver had about 15 years, so I listened. We mask up, go behind the pot, and open it. At that moment, for some reason, the stream was directed straight into the tar pot. Before I knew it, we were both covered in hot tar. Bunker gear, pack, helmet, and MASK were hit. Had I not been wearing the mask, that I was told to put on, half of my face would have been severely burned.

LESSONS LEARNED:

1. Don't be complacent. Just because the "fire's out", doesn"t mean nothing could happen.

2. Listen to the "vets". You may think you know it all, but these guys (generally) have great knowledge and insight on things that, you, just have not experienced.

December 18 the City was busy with nearly 10 inches of snow at 2320 hours Q-1, Q-11, Q-8, Q-5, Q-6, R-1, Safety 2 and BC-1 were dispatched to the 500 block of N. 33rd Street for a reported house fire. BC-1 arrived on scene with heavy fire showing from Division 2 on the C side of a two story wood frame structure with fire spreading to the B and D exposure he immediately requested the 2nd alarm. Units did have some difficulty with responding to this incident due to weather conditions. Fire did spread to the B and D exposure. Units placed several 2 ½ in service to protect the exposures and the original fire structure. Units entered the house and begin fire attack. Chief 2 arrived on location and immediately did a 360 of the incident and discovered conditions on the C side had deteriorating conditions and immediately ordered the evacuation of the structure. Emergency communication activated the evacuation tones and units quickly departed the structure, within 60 seconds there was partial collapse of the roof. This truly was a near miss for our personnel. The fire was marked under control shortly after midnight. Units remained on scene assisting the fire investigators well into the morning. The fire is under investigation.

I was dispatched to a residential structure fire in my town. I was part of a medic crew consisting of three firefighter/paramedics. Our medic unit arrived to find a residential single family home with the second floor involved. My crew was assigned to vent one of the second floor windows. After we set a ladder in place underneath one of two windows I proceeded to climb to the top of the ladder to vent. My fellow firefighter healed the ladder as I settled in position. The ladder we used was a 14 foot roof ladder, because of the size of the ladder I was unable to hook my leg into the ladder for support. My tool off the medic was a 4 foot attic hook which I was using to vent. I managed to vent one of the two windows when I proceeded to vent the second window. As I struck the window my tool bounced off and forced by momentum back off the ladder. As I tried to catch myself I lost balance and fell to the ground. Somehow I managed to fall at least 10 to 12 feet to the ground and land on my feet. I bounced between the ladder and the front step to the house only managing to cut my finger and bruise my knee. After gathering myself and being checked on by fellow firefighters I insisted that I finish my job. I proceeded back up the ladder and finished venting the window.

LESSONS LEARNED

Besides walking away from this without any serious injury I learned some BIG lessons. One slow down and think twice before acting. Two make sure I use a ladder big enough for my situation. If I had a bigger ladder I would have been able to hook my leg in like I would have liked. Next is my tool. The tool I used was to small for the job. I feel if I was using a larger or heavier tool I would have not had the recoil that I had with the pike pole. I realize at a fire scene its tough to sit back and wait you have to act on your training. A fire is a hazardous scene and you try to stay as safe as possible, but bad things happen sometimes. I\'m just taking what happened as a learning fire and do my best to not let it happen again.

December 13, 2009
This is a report of an incident that I was involved in that could easily have resulted in multiple fire fighter deaths. As far as near misses go, this was very close. I had worked as a nozzleman out of one of our downtown fire stations for about a year. Sadly, my department had given me no training as a nozzleman and had no documented procedures on high-rise strategy and tactics. Each platoon performed their high-rise operations using their own unique methods. Since the incident there has been lots of talk, but little has been done to rectify the causes that created this situation. We did get an in-station computer course on elevators.
Immediately on arrival, FF F and I entered the lobby of __________________. The pump crew had already been to the alarm panel and was headed for the elevator when we joined them. The information that came over the radio was that the panel was showing an alarm on the 32nd floor. I entered the small North West elevator with Captain G, Nozzleman D, Fire Fighter F, Fire Fighter G, Probationary Fire Fighter J. As we ascended in the elevator word came over the radio from Lt. V, that a light on the panel was showing an alarm on the 19th floor as well. Captain G made the decision to check the 19th on the way up. When we exited the elevator on the 19th floor, we checked for any indication of trouble. The floor was free of smoke: This stop gave us an idea of the buildings floor plan. The six of us reentered the elevator and headed to the 32nd floor. When the elevator door opened on the 32nd floor, there was a blast of heat and dense black smoke instantly filled the elevator. A soon as the smoke filled the elevator, I could not see the other fire fighters standing next to me. Opening the elevator appeared to create a chimney effect. Fire Fighter F made several unsuccessful attempts to close the elevator door. It appeared that the elevator was in normal operation mode, which means that the door must fully open before it will close. All six fire fighters in the elevator dropped their hose packs, high-rise packs and helmets in an attempt to mask up. I managed to don the face piece but had considerable difficulty getting the regulator to dock with it. After taking several breaths of the seriously contaminated atmosphere, I called out that I was going to attempt to find the fire door to the hallway. My hope was to find clear enough air to finish docking my regulator. I made the assumption that each floor plan was similar and that the fire door to the hallway was on my left. Upon leaving the elevator, I immediately moved in that direction. I found the door and after a few seconds found the door handle and opened the door. Just inside the fire door a woman was standing in her doorway asking what was happening. I escorted her back in her apartment and asked her to remain inside until I returned. I docked my regulator and reentered the elevator lobby trying to find the rest of the fire crew. The elevator doors were closed. I attempted to open the doors but could not. I moved back into the hallway and found Capt. G, NM D, FF G. I still did not know where FF F and PFF J had gotten to. My concern was that they were still in the elevator and in trouble. It was at this time that I was told that they had gotten the elevator to the 31st floor and that they were running hose from the standpipe there to the 32nd floor. NM D was breaking glass in the house fire hose cabinet and he handed me the nozzle. The fire was knocked down quickly. Immediately after the fire was knocked down the door to the West stairwell was opened and the crew was re-united on the hallway side of the fire door. Pf J. and I did a quick overhaul. I meet with NM D in the hallway and we moved our crew to the roof for fresh air via the West stairwell. NM D showed me the ITX that he had turned on in the pump on the way to the call. The peak readings that I saw where: 1950 PPM CO and 13.5% O2. I discussed the readings with NM D and we reentered the stairwell to let Capt. G know that we where heading to the ground level to see EMS. We were transported to the hospital, spent some time on oxygen, got some blood work done and we were cleared for light duty by the doctor. West District Chief A gave us the rest of the shift and the last night shift off. Primary personal learning was that my training was completely inadequate and that our nonexistent SOP’s were also completely inadequate.
Additional Learning:
1: Improve fire code enforcement (elevator controls)
2: develop consistent protocols (any protocols)
3: stop a floor below (or 2)
4: ensure fire control of the elevator (if not, hump the stairs)
5: pre-connect regulator to the face piece 6: review radio communications volume controls and feedback benchmarks emergency situations (may days, accountability.) What surprised me most! The response of my administration. Sad really. I set up this chronology for use during the so called critique, and to help me understand how the time line played out. According to the communications logs, from the time we opened the elevator door to the time that overhaul was complete was 6 minutes.
 

We were dispatched to a chimney fire at a storage / office building. Upon arrival we found a 60 X 20 wood frame building with fire showing from all sides. We went defensive immediately, employing an 1 3/4 and 2 1/2 inch lines within 5 min of arrival. The building was a detached office for a rendering plant. Workers on scene reported they had turned on a furnace in the building which they believe started a chimney fire. The c side of the building was littered with old electric grinder motors, bobcat parts and a half dozen 55 gallon barrels. When asked, the workers told us there was nothing in them. About an hour and a half into the fire, one of the 55 gallon barrels began to rupture its contents. According to workers they aren't sure what was in the barrels, but they appeared to contain a waste oil mixture used for heating purposes. It began to vent while a two man hose line, the IC and the safety officer were within 15ft of the barrel. We were able to back up to around 25 ft before it failed. No firefighters were injured, but it was an eye opener. Out here, people have all sorts of items on their property. You never know. If that barrel and the crew had been in the same room, or if the barrel was against a masonry wall, we could have taken the brunt of the heat directly. Instead, it went vertical and did not meet any obstructions.

Lessons Learned:

Suspicious containers / hazards should be identified and firefighters should be made aware of the location of such containers / hazards. Even if the property owner or workers tell you there is nothing hazardous about them.

On Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 04:41 hours, the Independence Fire District, Independence Kentucky, Received call for structure fire at 10406 Sharpsburg Drive. Enroute, dispatch advised woman was burned and had oxygen tanks inside residence. On arrival, patient found in front yard, Squad 464 took patient care and transported to hospital. Heavy fire involved in bedroom and living room area. Fire attack through front entrance and side D (delta). Defensive attack on initial entry until fire was knocked down, two firefighters made entry with very little fire remaining when an oxygen tank exploded causing percussion injuries to the firefighters. Both firefighters were transported to the hospital and were treated and released. Son found mother in her bedroom and states that mattress, headboard, and curtains were on fire. Mother was sitting on side of bed with burns to arms and legs. Mother was a fatality at hospital. Independence Police assisted with investigation. Fire was determined to have started in the mothers bedroom with cause undetermined / Accidental.

 

Lessons Learned:

We need to educate the public on the storage of home portable oxygen tanks, and the need to notify the responding units of their presence and location.

 

A structure fire was reported at approximately 0900. Initial interior attack was attempted but halted due to extensive fire in the basement and a balloon construction dwelling. Two ladder master streams and various deck and deluge guns were put into service. After approximately three hours of defensive master stream operations, a crew of three firefighters (including me) was told to re-enter the building in an attempt to locate fire and check for extension. We entered the structure from a side door and I was on the handline with two other firefighters behind me. We crawled into the structure and after crawling about 6 feet into the kitchen, we noticed that a wall had collapsed in the kitchen. We kept moving forward and after crawling approximately 2 more feet, the kitchen floor collapsed sending me into the basement. I fell approximately 6 feet before hitting the water. The other two firefighters managed to avoid falling into the basement. The basement was filled with approximately 8 feet of water. I was submerged completely under the water but was able to breathe the air in my SCBA. My SCBA mask quickly filled with water! I was unable to touch the bottom so I held onto the handline and pulled my head above the water. I used the radio to call for a FAST team.The other fire fighter in the building with me noticed I had fallen so he grabbed the handline and was able to pull me up. He then grabbed my turnout coat and managed to pull me out of the hole. At this point, I most likely lost consciousness as I do not recall anything else until I woke up in the back of an ambulance. The paramedics and EMTs were attending to me. I was transported to the trauma center and admitted. They treated me for hypothermia. The other two firefighters were transported to the local hospital, evaluated, and released.

LESSONS LEARNED:

The lesson learned in this event is that after pouring water through various master streams on a structure that is actively burning for well over 3 hours, do not send any personnel into the structure. The structure will be deemed a total loss at this point and it is not worth risking the lives of other firefighters to attempt to more rapidly extinguishment of the fire. Also learned from this incident, evaluate all orders given to you by incident command. If you do not feel safe, advise incident command and the safety officer of the situation.

Dillon County, S.C. Recently Dillon County Station Nine and Dillon County Station Two responded to a barn fire. Fire was easily extinguished, during overhaul the firefighters found a LP Gas Cylinder under the tin roof that had started to deform. Now mind you that the incident commander had completed a 360 degree walk around and did not see the LP Cylinder because it was hidden under the metal roofing that had fallen. The incident commander had done his job as far looking for potential hazards that could pose additional dangers to his crew, a water supply had been established, firefighters in full gear. Everything needed to be safe at this fire. Had the cylinder exploded it could have possibly killed a number of firefighters. This just goes to show that Firefighters can do everything right and still end up DEAD.

LESSONS LEARNED:

Do not take things for granted. Our Safety is something we have to put ahead of everything else. "Make Safety First and Make it Last"
 

On Wed. Oct. 14 at 1818 hours, our department received a residential fire alarm in our city. Response is an Automatic mutual Aid area with three cities. This area is very large residences and this one is approximately 10000 sq. ft. three story brick veneer wood frame structure. The first unit arrived in approximately 3 minutes and made a size up. No smoke was visible; the occupants were waiting in the front yard saying they could smell smoke. Upon entering the structure no smoke was visible but the odor of smoke was present. Upon reaching the second level the Captain observed smoke coming from the AC vents. The captain ordered two attack lines and two crews to begin pulling the ceiling in the second level. A RIT team was set up and a third line pulled. Before the first ceiling could be pulled smoke and heat levels began to rise rapidly. The Captain had set up IC and was doing observations around the structure when heavy smoke began coming from the roof above the area. Within three minutes fire broke through the roof. Interior crews advised heavy heat bean being felt. The IC ordered all crews out of the residence. An evacuation signal was sounded and crews began pulling back. As the last crew was exiting the building a collapse occurred in the area they had been working. Ceiling and attic structure collapse onto the second floor and caused a collapse of the second floor onto the first. Additional mutual aid was requested and defensive operations were begun and after a 6 hour defensive firefight the fire was put under control. The two exposures nearest the structure were saved with only minor damage. Two minor injuries were reported one fall and one heat exhaustion. The total loss will be in excess of 1.5 million dollars.
Lessons Learned
Following good IC and command and control saved us from a tragic end to this fire. We very possibly could have lost 5-6 firefighters in the collapse. Large structures can have very advanced fires burning in them with very little outward signs. Large open spaces with large amounts of combustible materials can cause very rapid fire development. Wood truss construction can lead to rapid collapse. And number one, would be the need for sprinkler systems in these very large residential buildings.

Thomas Meyer was sitting outside his Lehman Street apartment building a little after 10 a.m. Thursday when he heard a huge bang.

"I heard a big explosion and there was smoke. Everything was flying," said Meyer, who lives on the first floor of the two-story building. "I never seen anything like this except in movies."

What he saw and heard was an explosion caused by vapors from as many as 31 cans of aerosol bug bombs that are believed to have ignited from a pilot light of a gas stove in a second-floor apartment, authorities said.

Seventeen cans of bug bombs were found on the second floor, 12 cans on the first floor and two in the basement, said David Eggert, a deputy fire commissioner.

The bug bombs were being used because landlord John Light had been issued code-violation notices for roach and bedbug infestation, Eggert said.

Tim Balsbaugh, a second-floor tenant, said he was getting ready to set off the bug bombs when another tenant, Dennis Morgan, grabbed some and took them into his apartment.

"He was not supposed to be setting them off yet," Balsbaugh said "I told him, 'Don't do anything' -- I hadn't gotten up there yet."

When the explosion occurred, Balsbaugh said, "I came flying out the side, getting hit with stuff."

He was released after treatment for breathing difficulties at Good Samaritan Hospital.

Karen Light, a second-floor tenant, was on the ground, Balsbaugh said. She was listed in good condition in Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center on Thursday, and Morgan was in fair condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

"We're all lucky," Balsbaugh said.

Zuleyka Torres, who lives next door, said she was awakened by the house shaking from the explosion.

"They took us all out because of the smoke," which she said was coming into her house from the attic.

Residents of adjacent buildings were allowed back in their homes Thursday afternoon after the air was tested.

Barry Fisher, Lebanon's fire commissioner, said one person had fallen from the balcony and one was on the balcony when firefighters arrived.

The aerosol vapors in bug bombs are flammable, Fisher said, and instructions on the cans tell users to make sure there are no open flames.