Remember585

I came across the Baltimore City Fire Department's Preliminary Findings into the death of trainee Racheal Wilson, the mother of two who was only 29 on 2/9/07. The information that I found and have read, which is an internal finding and not even that of an outside group such as NIOSH or OSHA, is startling. To summize, here is a brief view at what was discovered. 11:35 AM - Fires were lit on all three floors of the building. 11:39 AM - A simulated dispatch was made for the units participating. 12:00 PM - EMS leaves the scene with recruit Wilson who is in cardiac arrest. 12:50 PM - Recruit Wilson is pronounced dead at the hospital. The building that was used is a brick row house, and the unit used was an end of the row unit. This building was used for non-live fire training a couple weeks earlier where many of the wall coverings and ceilings were stripped exposing joists and framing in various parts of the dwelling. Units participating in the drill were an IC, Safety Officer, E1, E2, T1, T2, T3 and a RIT. Radios were only given to the Team Leaders of all 3 Trucks, the RIT, S.O. and IC. The two Engine Companies had no radios. A total of 11 Training personnel were on hand. (3 BCFD and 8 Adjunct Instructors). Wilson was on E1 and that crew took a 1 3/4" line to the 2nd floor and extinguished MOST of the fire, then advanced up to the 3rd floor. While on the 3rd floor the crew noticed an increasing amount of heat and smoke coming from the 2nd floor. One crew member started to experience burns to her legs while in the stairwell. The Instructor with the crew took this FF out a window on to the 2nd floor roof. When the Instructor looked, Wilson was in the window in apparent distress and attempting to escape as well. Due to the unusual height of the window (41") she was struggling to get out and could only do so enough for the upper body to get out. When she was eventually pulled from the window, now unconscious, she was missing a boot, which is believed to have been caught in the wire mesh in the wall below the window sill, which may be why she was stuck. Several NFPA 1403 Standards were not complied with including: - Multiple fires set - Lack of Safety personnel / properly staged Safety personnel - Lack of radio communications - Failure to conduct a walk-through of building beforehand. - Lack of pre-burn plan and pre-burn briefing. Other contributing factors: - Misunderstanding of verbal communications between the IC and E1 Team Leader. - Wilson's SCBA facepiece was either removed or knocked off. - The unusual height of the window hampered rescue / escape efforts. - Improperly equipped and manned RIT - Lack of a charged hoseline for the RIT - Lack of radios for Engine crews Here's what concerns me. Baltimore is a well-organized, fully career fire department that obviously has greater training and experience then most of us in Westchester County (speaking of course of the volunteer side, being I can't comment on what I am not a part of). But the overall picture here, and the things missed / overlooked and/or not emphasized are the same things we see all too often here. Look at the time frame for example, in only a matter of MINUTES, the INITIAL MINUTES things went mortally down hill. MORTALLY, people. Why are we still waiting until we are on scene to start out a FAST or RIT? Are we conducting a walkaround at least before sending our troops in? Are we pre-planning, do we have code enforcement to tell us of key hazards? Are we giving our people radios and TRAINING them HOW TO USE THEM? Do we have competent Officers / leaders taking personnel into these fires? Are our FASTs / RITs equipped to do the job, trained to do the job and most importantly, READY TO DO IT? We need to stop the smoke and mirrors bullshit where just because you called for a FAST you are "covered." We need to end the crap where Departments send a FAST which consists of people not trained enough, not experienced enough and not strong enough to get our brothers and sisters out when we need to. I can't help but wonder what would of happened in this case, in a "controlled" TRAINING SCENARIO if the RIT was staffed and equipped properly and contacted in time if this recruit would have lived? Aside from all the misdeeds of the Instructors who did not heed to NFPA 1403 and their own FD policy which could of prevented this, but what if, WHAT IF the RIT was able to make a rescue and not have a recovery which wound up being the sad, sad case here. Does anyone else get what I am saying? Am I off base or misreading what happened?! As a trained Instructor and as a member of a FAST I am concerned for all of us - this can and obviously DOES HAPPEN! This death should not have happened and we have got to police ourselves better if we are ever going to reduce the number of times a year we bury one of our own. The entire report can be found here: Preliminary Report

Jedi

Running books? I'm not familiar with the term. Can you elaborate?

Rescue Me, Entourage, Family Guy, American Dad, Mail Call, American Chopper.

The home rule thing will always kill us. Everybody wants all the toys they can in their sandbox, but if we put all of them together we'd have a beach full of resources! But we know how that goes... I can't speak for PD things, but in the FD world we are nuts. Everyone is talking about manpower issues but we keep buying more rigs that are bigger and harder to drive in the ever-crowding communities we protect. During the daytime in our little Village we have to squeeze through streets lined with parked cars, avoid pedestrians (especially kids) getting lunch, fight morning & evening Route 9 traffic and let's not forget the growing amount of homes going in with narrow driveways lined with low hanging trees. We're losing the battle! There's one area I can speak of because it's my neck of the woods, the Town of Cortlandt. The TOC includes Croton (Village), Montrose, Buchanan (Village), Verplanck, Mohegan and Continental Village FDs. (Mohegan covers portions of Cortlandt & Yorktown, but for this point I am counting them.) In this area of roughly 35 square miles and a population of about 50,000 we have a total of 18 Engines, 5 Aerials, 5 Rescues (3 Heavy, 2 Medium), 2 Tankers, 1 Brush unit, and a total of 14 units with extrication abilities. (I left out the VA because they are a Federal entity on private property.) With the exception of Mohegan the rest of us won't even break 400 fire calls per year. Most buildings in the Town are 2-3 stories with a few standing at 5 stories. Croton has the biggest area and population and we still did barely 300 fire calls in 2006. Do we really need this much equipment? In the entire town I would say there is an average of perhaps one vehicle extrication per week, and it usually is in Mohegan. Is there honestly a need to have this much stuff in our relatively quiet area? Couldn't each of us meet and come up with a plan to work together, put aside indifferences and do what is best for our public? Am I nuts for even saying something?! I guarantee some people will tell me to shut up, but I really think we are nuts to have as much as we do, especially since in my 15+ years in my Department we have yet to use EVERYTHING IN THE TOWN AT THE SAME TIME, including Hurricane Floyd. Does anyone see my point? I know other Towns are in the same boat and there are many, many people who agree with me. It's just too bad that nobody is truly willing to give something up because they've always had it and "always will." I'm done.

True.....but I like doing it once in a while.... Besides, nothing is better then nice, warm weather when all the chicas start wearing less....Me likey!!!

He is one of the most influential people in my life, and I don't want people to forget him.

Off last week - ended up doing 24 hours of O/T due to the storm. Weather was awful, had no ambition to do anything. Working this week - nice out and I haven't had a chance to enjoy it. The jeeps and the tahoe need a bath, maybe Wednesday when I am off again. I can't seem to catch a break lately with the weather, time to move!!!

Is that 2491?!

Oh no.....another white rig in that area? Has the Briarcliff/Archville curse become contagious?! If this is what you're getting, best of luck with it!

It is exactly two months before the 10th "anniversary" today that my Uncle was killed. What amazes me is that I remember every detail so vividly even after all this time. I was home sleeping off a night out with friends and my mother opened my bedroom door in a frenzy. She told me that my Uncle Mike had been in an accident, did I hear anything on the scanner. Living in Croton I never listened to Putnam so I hadn't heard a thing. My Dad then told me that something happened at a fire scene and my mother and him were heading up there and to stay home with my sisters. It felt like time stood still forever until I got the call from Mom, Uncle Mike was dead. In complete shock I sat there and stared at the floor. I knew I had to go upstairs, wake up my sisters and tell them the awful news. I remember telling them and both of them calling me a liar and that it wasn't possible. We loaded into my car and made the rather fast trip to Brewster. We got to the house and family members, BFD, PCSO and friends were already there. I remember sitting on the steps to the house and looking around thinking this can't be happening. Later on my father and I took a ride to the scene. All I remember is the look on everyone's face and the eerie feeling I got down my spine looking at the burned out shell of house that took one of my favorite Uncles. The days that followed left an impression on me I will never, ever forget. The amount of people that knew "Satch" and admired him was amazing. I always knew how great he was to hang out with, I can only imagine the stories everyone has. Firefighters, Police Officers, Marines, EMTs and people from all over the place came to the wakes and funeral. THOUSANDS of people. I'll never forget the rows of people in uniform lining the streets during the funeral. I recall how impressive the Marine honor guard was. I remember how great the Brewster FD was. I remember how Chief Tumolo from Peekskill PD was there for the family. And, I will always remember the outpouring of support from my other family, the Croton FD. It has been ten years, the void is still there and always will be. What happened to Mike has been my motivation to be the best I can be to honor his memory. What happened to him is the driving force behind how we started our FAST and why, still, we continue to be aggressive and pro-active. My parents have been working with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and helping at the annual service almost every year since. I am proud of them for that. And lastly, I am proud of my Aunt Janet and my cousins Jamie, Mike, Nick and Jennifer. I am sure he is looking down on them and smiling, knowing that even though he isn't here physically, he is a part of everyone's life. Remember 585

The crosslays are in a transverse compartment on trays that slide out. I might be a little off today due to a lack of sleep, but how do you gain compartment space when the pump is in a compartment? It's not a bad concept, I would like to see one in person one day.

I'm sure Tommy O can elaborate, but I believe they are getting rid of R42 & E128 and getting this Rescue-Pumper to replace them. I wonder what color it will be.....

What was the amount spent on kleenex?!

When do you work overtime at 60???!!!!

The Sound Shore area is in for some deep stuff. No pun intended. The north County will see local waterways swell up. Hudson River is expected to see 2-4 foot tidal swells. What does this mean? DO NOT PARK AT CROTON-HARMON STATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am praying we only get rain and that when I am suppost to get off tonight at 0100, I actually do!!

I just noticed in the article RWC posted that it says, "nappy headed hos." At least have the respect to spell it right...."hoes." I don't feel what he said was racist, although it can be misconstrued that way. Nappy haired is a way to descibe a bird's nest of a head, agree? I know plenty of girls/women and in a few rare cases, guys, with hair that I would consider nappy. I found this definition of nappy: Furthermore, I think all guys and most women would agree too that the term "hoe" doesn't always describe a woman of any particular race. Personally every girl I recall being referred to as a "hoe" has been white. If I am not mistaken it usually is short for "whore," but whenever someone says that I have a mental picture of snobbish people banishing a woman for having a baby out of wedlock in the 18th or 19th century. And lastly, one thing that had me thinking this week was the comments made about the New Rochelle riots and in another forum I read about the hasidic community where the people involved were acting unrulely and unlawfully. In neither case do I feel that the term "animals" was derrogatory of race but a statement of the barbaric behavior of people challenging order and law. I would think people on the other side of our War on Terror more then likely think of our troops as "animals" (among other things) even though we look at them as heroes, which I feel they are. The double standard has to stop. I always like to think that my generation and the ones coming up would see things for what they are regardless of race, religion or any other beliefs. We're all people and people should be allowed to express themselves openly and verbally without recourse. Make sense? Or is my 5am dribble confusing and way off base?

Somebody at that ****** should come here and ******* what exactly is going on with that ****** service instead of speculations and rumors.

At our most recent FAST response we were asked to assist with the suppression and overhaul effort. We had two search teams, one with 2 the other 3, and our Rescue team of 4 plus a couple of members not on the team there with us. When the Chief asked us I gave him the non-FAST members and two of the FAST members keeping two two-man search teams and one three man rescue team. When the next in Mutual Aid FAST came we got relieved and all of us assisted at the direction of IC. This has happened to us quite often, and as a Team Rule we will not assist in anything other then FAST responsibilities until relieved unless our actions could be used to prevent an incident. Most of our team is complacent with just doing the FAST thing, we pride ourselves on being proactive and doing what we can to eliminate problems. It is 2007 and we have been doing this for 9 years, and we still hear s*** because in some peoples' eyes we should do nothing but stand there. But that is for a whole different topic.....and another time.

Didn't Mount Pleasant PD request a red alert during the tornado last year?

1. Accepting the fact that you will never know everything. 2. Realizing that it is a Team Effort and one person alone can not get it done. 3. Training is like breathing, it should only stop when you are dead. 4. Share your knowledge and experiences with others so they can learn. 5. There are no dumb questions in the fire service, ASK SOMEONE!

I don't think this is the place to start the eternal pissing match of Paid Vs. Volunteer. This topic is a discussion of a Chief who panicked and moved his Tower Ladder while it was still up with two members in it. I was not there and I don't know what the conditions were when this Chief did what he did, but I can't help but wonder how close to the building the Truck was that it had to be moved. If it was setup far enough away I would think that swinging the stick away would of been more then sufficient? I once was an aerial moved with the outriggers down, but the stick was in the bed. Seeing a rig moved while the aerial is up would be quite a site... kind of like the movie Roxanne.

As sad as this was to me, reading this story makes it even more upsetting. Thoughts and prayers with the Deane and Yonkers FD families during this tough time.

We can be as progressive as we want, but we must always respect our history. I know we all say that the fire service is too "reactive" and not "proactive" enough, but if you think about it and take it all in, you'll find that we do learn from our mistakes and those of us who care enough to prevent it from happening again train ourselves and our colleagues to avoid repeating history. We'll never be perfect, it just won't happen. But there is no reason why we can't hang on to tradition while making the advances neccessary to better serve our people. A helmet - regardless of it's shape, color or style - isn't doing you any good if you aren't wearing it in accordance to the manufacturer's recommendations. The color of a fire engine makes no difference if the guy behind the wheel isn't driving it safely. We are our own worst enemies and unless we can change the habits we have as humans we can't overcome our flaws are firefighters.

Wasn't Jimmy 2497 this past year? Did you do away with one Lt. spot? Good luck "ya damn pointers!!!"