Line of Duty Death Report: 55-Year-Old Lieutenant Dies from Heart Attack While Responding to High-Rise Fire - Illinois

Details

• Personal Author:
  Eisenberg, Judith S. ; Saunders, Robert ; Wilkinson, Andrea ; Barger, Alexandra
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Description:
  On April 5, 2023, at 0656 hours, a 55-year-old lieutenant (LT), assigned to a tower ladder (T1), was dispatched to the scene of a high-rise structure fire. The T1 s five members were assigned to serve as the fire investigation team (FIT). They found the fire had broken out on the 27th floor of a 1970s structure that had 35 floors and no sprinkler system. The LT and two other members of the FIT took the elevator to the 24th floor and climbed the stairs to the 27th floor. When the LT and other crewmembers arrived on the 27th floor, they forced entry into the apartment and discovered the severity of the fire. The FIT noticed they were nearly out of air and began their descent down the stairs on their knees to the 25th floor where the medical team and additional supplies were staged. As the LT was descending the stairs, he encountered a firefighter (FF1) from the squad crew who was alone; FF1 witnessed the LT collapse. A Mayday was called, and emergency care began immediately as well as attempts to remove the LT from the building. Emergency medical personnel reached the LT on the 11th floor at 0804, where another crewmember was administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). CPR was interrupted for the duration of transport from the 11th floor out of the building to a waiting stretcher (the exact duration of interruption is unknown) and then resumed. He was immediately transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital, leaving the scene at 0825 and arriving in the emergency department (ED) at 0828. Four doses of epinephrine were administered pre-hospital. In the ED, lifesaving measures continued, including CPR, endotracheal intubation, and at least one additional dose of epinephrine. Due to prolonged downtime (30+ minutes), persistent asystole, and lack of cardiac activity on point-of-care ultrasound, he was pronounced dead at 0840
• Subjects:
  Emergency Responders Firefighters Fires Mortality Occupational Health Safety
• FACE - Firefighter:
  Cause of Death: Medical ; Cardiovascular: Heart Attack (Myocardial Infarction, Coronary Artery Disease and Coronary Vascular Disease)
• Series:
  Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study ; Case Report
• Place as Subject:
  Illinois
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research ; DFSE - Division of Field Studies and Engineering
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  17 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20070994
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2025
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  922160 - Fire Protection - (NAICS 2022)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:206d2a63770f6963afe79611e3c3014e9da156d00b3e81f527acc75e85aafb41f53225ca58527fcb6d984476949e324b1a6be11c19d75fa10ea43cedb31894d4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/232199/cdc_232199_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.10 MB ]