Career Fire Fighter Dies and Another is Injured Following Structure Collapse at a Triple Decker Residential Fire – Massachusetts

Details

• Personal Author:
  Merinar, Timothy R. ; Bowyer, Matt E. ; Tarley, Jay L. ; Loflin, Murrey E.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Description:
  Death in the Line of Duty…a Summary of a NIOSH Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation
  
  On December 8, 2011, a 43-year-old male career fire fighter received fatal injuries when he was trapped under falling debris during a partial collapse at the rear of a three-story residential structure. The victim was part of a rescue company that was conducting a secondary interior search for a reported missing resident. The secondary search was initiated approximately 30 minutes after the crews had arrived on-scene and approximately 10 minutes after fire fighters evacuated the building due to deteriorating conditions within the burning structure. The secondary search was initiated after the missing civilian's roommate persisted in telling fire fighters that his friend was still inside, and most likely in a rear, second-floor bedroom. The collapse trapped the victim under debris on the first floor while the injured fire fighter rode the second floor down to the basement. A total of 11 fire fighters were inside the structure at the time of the collapse. Rescue operations took approximately 50 minutes to free the victim who was unresponsive. Extensive shoring was required within the unstable collapse area and crews had to breach the brick cellar wall to reach the injured fire fighter. Following the extrication efforts, fire fighters continued to search for the missing civilian. It was later determined that the missing civilian was not inside the structure at the time of the collapse. The civilian had left prior to the arrival of the fire department. Contributing Factors: 1. Civilian resident persistently stated another resident was still inside
  
  2. Fire burned well over 30 minutes before being brought under control
  
  3. Structure reacted to fire conditions in an unexpected manner
  
  4. 1890 era balloon-frame wood structure in deteriorated condition
  
  5. Instability of cellar wall and surrounding soil due to age and weather conditions
  
  6. Structural deficiencies not readily apparent
  
  7. Unusual cellar configuration for this type of residential structure
  
  8. Building inspection findings not readily available to fire department through city dispatch system. Key Recommendations: 1. Fire departments and city building departments should work together to ensure information on hazardous buildings is readily available to both
  
  2. Authorities having jurisdiction should ensure that hazardous building information is part of the information contained in computerized automatic dispatch systems
  
  3. Fire departments should train all firefighting personnel on the risks and hazards related to structural collapse
  
  4. Fire departments should use risk management principles including occupant survivability profiling at all structure fires.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Emergency Responders Firefighters Fires Occupational Health Risk Assessment Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Emergency-responders Fire-fighters Fire-fighting Fire-safety Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 5 Risk-analysis Surveillance Traumatic-injuries

  More +
• FACE - Firefighter:
  Cause of Death: Trauma ; Structure Fire: Residential ; Structure Fire: Collapse ; Structure Fire: Arson
• Series:
  Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Subseries:
  Death in the Line of Duty Report
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFFFACEF201130
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study ; Report
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-41
• Contributor:
  Dunn, Vincent
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20041117
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2012-112921
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE F2011-30, 2012 Jun ; :1-41
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• NORA Priority Area:
  Public Safety
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  92 - Public Administration - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2011/12/08
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0f4667c0148fa351dc645af44d5b816d8c84838bd698e0127c19249eb9d2734aa8d26cff15e8240d47a18cf5aa6701ffedc08215da03786bbb139163d6d620e4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/163491/cdc_163491_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.61 MB ]