Career Fire Fighter Dies While Exiting Residential Basement Fire – New York

Details

• Personal Author:
  McFall, Mark F. ; Lutz, Virginia ; Berardinelli, Stephen P. Jr.
• 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 January 23, 2005, a 37-year-old male career fire fighter (the victim) died while exiting a residential basement fire. At approximately 1337 hours, crews were dispatched to a reported residential structure fire. Crews began to arrive on the scene at approximately 1340 hours and at approximately 1344 hours, the victim, a fire fighter and officer made entry through the front door and proceeded down the basement stairwell to conduct a search for the seat of the fire using a thermal imaging camera (TIC). At approximately 1346 hours, the victim and officer began to exit the basement when they became separated on the lower section of the stairwell. The officer reached the front stoop and realized that the victim had failed to exit the building. He returned to the top of the basement stairs and heard a personal alert safety system (PASS) alarm sounding in the stairwell and immediately transmitted a MAYDAY for the missing fire fighter. The victim was located at approximately 1349 hours, and numerous fire fighters spent the next twenty minutes working to remove the victim from the building. At approximately 1413 hours, the victim was transported to an area hospital where he was later pronounced dead. NIOSH investigators concluded that, to minimize the risk of similar occurrences, fire departments should: 1. ensure that the first arriving officer or incident commander (IC) conducts a complete size-up of the incident scene
  
  2. ensure that fire fighters conducting interior operations provide progress reports to the Incident Commander
  
  3. establish standard operating procedures (SOPs) regarding thermal imaging camera (TIC) use during interior operations
  
  4. ensure that MAYDAY procedures are followed and refresher training is provided annually or as needed
  
  5. ensure that a rapid intervention team (RIT) is on the scene and in position to provide immediate assistance prior to crews entering a hazardous environment
  
  6. educate homeowners on the importance of installing and maintaining smoke detectors on every level of their home and keeping combustible materials away from heat sources. Although there is no evidence that the following recommendation could have specifically prevented this fatality, NIOSH investigators recommend that fire departments should ensure that fire fighting teams check each other's personal protective equipment (PPE) for complete donning.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Firefighters Fires Hazardous Substances Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Respiratory Protective Devices Safety Smoke

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• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Fire-fighters Fire-fighting Fire-fighting-equipment Fire-safety Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 2 Personal-protective-equipment Poison-gases Protective-equipment Respiratory-protective-equipment Safety-equipment Safety-practices Smoke-inhalation Surveillance Toxic-gases Traumatic-injuries

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• FACE - Firefighter:
  Cause of Death: Trauma ; Structure Fire: Residential
• Series:
  Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Subseries:
  Death in the Line of Duty Report
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFFFACEF200504
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study ; Report
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2
• 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:
  1-14
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20030385
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2006-114063
• 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 F2005-04, 2006 Jun ; :1-14
• CAS Registry Number:
  Carbon monoxide (CAS RN 630-08-0)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  92 - Public Administration - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2005/01/23
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7bd02cbf1079292ac1bbde83cf89a37c5715432964dcb2fdb6f06e00618f4addf19143947a8ccd3c3eb54ae524b7ff1240e24f36d075bf5835a54263c86cdb91
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/163687/cdc_163687_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.95 MB ]