Girl dies after being struck by hose from fire engine

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Girl dies after being struck by hose from fire engine

Authorities baffled by bizarre accident in Coraopolis

Saturday, August 21, 2004

By Jonathan D. Silver, Jan Ackerman and Joe Fahy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A 10-year-old Coraopolis girl died last night of injuries she suffered in a bizarre accident when she and a close friend were struck by a hose that came loose from a firetruck like a giant whip.

   

Erin Schmidt was pronounced dead at Children's Hospital at 6 p.m., the Allegheny County coroner's office said. An autopsy is scheduled for today to determine the cause and manner of death.

Erin's aunt, Judy Morris of Raccoon Township, said her niece had been in a coma after suffering a brain stem injury.

"When it hit her, she was knocked unconscious and she never woke up," Morris said. 

She described Erin as a lively child who had "a thing about insects," liked to catch crayfish in a nearby creek and go rollerblading. 

"It's just a tragic thing that's happened, that's all," said Gerald Schmidt, the girl's uncle. "The family is all broken up about it."

"Nobody expected this," he said. "Something like this is really out of the ordinary."

No one was disputing that point yesterday.

The incident happened about 2:30 Thursday afternoon, when the Coraopolis Volunteer Fire Department was called out to a fire in the 400 block of Mount Vernon Avenue.

A length of hose apparently fell off the passenger side of a pumper truck as it headed uphill on Chess Street before turning onto Mount Vernon Avenue.

Just before the fire truck rounded the corner, Sophie Spencer, 58, who lives two doors away from the Schmidts, was teasing Erin and her 10-year-old friend, Joey Jeffress, about how much they had grown over the summer.

Erin's mother, Joyce, who was outside, called for the girls to get out of the way when she heard the siren. The girls left Spencer's house and were on the sidewalk in front of Schmidts' home at 527 Mount Vernon Ave. when disaster struck.

Spencer said the hose, trailing from the truck and weighted with a six-pound nozzle, got stuck for an instant under her car, parked on Mount Vernon. When the hose and heavy nozzle broke free, it knocked off her bird bath and mowed down two hibiscus plants.

Seconds later, Morris said, Joyce Schmidt saw the hose fly through the air, heading directly toward her and the girls.

"Duck!" Schmidt screamed as she squatted.

Morris said Erin and Joey weren't fast enough. 

"Both were hit on the right side of the face," Morris said.

A witness said the girls were hit by the nozzle. 

Joyce Schmidt was knocked against a fence. She was taken to a local hospital, where she was treated and released. Erin and Joey were flown to Children's Hospital. 

Joey was in fair condition last night at Children's Hospital. Morris said Joey has had two surgeries since the accident.

Coraopolis firefighters described the incident as a "freak" occurrence that defied explanation. They said they followed fire academy training for packing hoses on their pumper trucks, and nothing was done any differently Thursday that would account for the hose coming loose.

"Why it happened, I don't know," said Coraopolis Fire Chief Larry Byrge.

Neither does volunteer firefighter Thomas Cellante, who also is the borough manager and was aboard the truck that lost its hose.

"For us, this is devastating," he said. "For something like this to happen, there's just not words to explain how we feel."

Although homicide detectives are investigating, the incident appears accidental.

"It's going to be some type of accident," Allegheny County Police Assistant Superintendent James Morton said yesterday. "It's not an actual criminal thing right now."

Byrge said the 13/4-inch-wide hose was housed in a box divided into three compartments and mounted behind the cab of the 1995 truck. Each compartment held four 50-foot sections of hose connected by couplings. Byrge said the nozzle lay atop the heavy pile of canvas-and-rubber hose, and a hinged lid closed on top of the pile.

The hose box is open on the sides to allow for easy access. 

Generally, the hose is "held in place by the tight compaction and a lid that is forced down," Byrge explained.

Asked last night if it was possible that the hose was packed improperly, Byrge said, "I don't believe so."

"It had never happened before, ever, and I've been here 24 years," Cellante said. "This truck has probably made 650 calls. It's packed exactly the same way every time. There was nothing different."

But last night, Byrge said he would investigate whether other measures should be taken to keep the hose in place.

At the moment, he said he was in favor of placing netting or similar material over the open sides of the box.

 

Matt Freed, Post-Gazette 

Larry Byrge, chief of the Coraopolis Volunteer Fire Department, shows one of the company's nozzles at a news conference yesterday. A hose came loose off the truck seen behind Byrge Thursday and hit two girls. 

There is no national standard for how hoses must be stored.

The matter is pretty much left up to fire departments, said Carl Peterson, assistant director of the public fire protection division for the National Fire Protection Association.

Byrge said he believes the hose was dangling off the side as the truck headed uphill on Chess Street. He said the hose apparently caught on a vehicle parked on Chess, then stretched out as the truck turned right on to Mount Vernon Avenue.

The truck wasn't going fast at the time, he said, possibly no more than 10 mph.

Byrge speculated that vibrations might have knocked the hose loose.

"There's not a lot of smooth highway here, so things do come [loose] under vibration," Byrge said. 

Cellante said he and his crew had no idea a hose was trailing from the truck or that it had struck anyone. It wasn't until the truck stopped that the crew saw another firefighter carrying the end of the hose that had fallen off the truck.

All 200 feet of hose in the compartment closest to the truck cab, and the nozzle, had come out, Byrge said.

Witnesses said they saw 30 to 50 feet of the hose dangling at the time the children were injured.

"When you're going through those neighborhoods, you're so focused on the kids playing in the street you're not quite as focused on what's happening behind the truck. The driver is focused on what's ahead of him," Cellante said.

"It's just such a freak type of accident," he continued. "If when the hose sprung back, if it had gone 12 inches higher, it would have missed the kids. Or if it had gone lower, maybe broken legs, broken arms, but not what we ended up having to deal with."

Spencer spoke fondly of the girls. She said Joey just moved to the neighborhood a couple of years ago, and she and Erin had become great friends. She called them "very sweet" and said they loved to play with her dog.

"I have been awake all night and cried all morning," Spencer said yesterday. "The whole neighborhood is devastated." 

Spencer said she was at a vacation Bible school Thursday night at Coraopolis Church of Christ where the children all prayed for Erin and Joey.

D.J. Johnson, superintendent of Cornell Schools, where the two girls were scheduled to start fifth grade next Wednesday, said the accident has hit everyone hard. 

"We have counselors who will be on board," both for teachers and students, he said. 

"They were always smiling, always happy," he said of Erin and Joey. "Teachers loved them. They were good friends." 

Nationally, there have been at least a handful of accidents involving fire hoses that caused injury or death.

That included one here on Dec. 11, 2001, when a Brighton Heights man suffered a critical head injury after he was knocked off his feet by a 5-inch hose a city police officer had driven over.

In more than 30 years as Forest Hills fire chief, Raymond Heller Sr. said he had only seen one case where a hose unraveled from the side of a fire truck.

"I can't imagine how it got out of there," said Heller, who also heads the Allegheny County Fire Academy, which trains volunteer firefighters how to fold and store their hoses.

Allegheny County Coroner Cyril H. Wecht said last night that his office would decide early next week whether to hold an inquest into the circumstances of Erin's death.

"At this time, we haven't made a decision. But it is certainly a matter being contemplated," Wecht said.

"We don't want to hold an inquest unless something is to be gained informationally, educationally," he said.

In this case, he said there "may well be some particular safety feature that needs to be addressed."

[Guest alsfirefighter]

What a tragedy. I feel for the family and the department. Gotta keep checking those mirrors and if something comes off, stop. A former department of mine, and I have seen a few in the area, utilize(d) a mesh screen that covers preconnect openings to prohibit such incidents from happening. It attaches at the top with industrial grade velcro for easy access for use but strong enough to take any weight when the load shifts.

My heart goes out to both parties.

[BFD1054 1,552]

Wow, what a terrible accident! Definately a freak accident, but a tragedy regardless. I have never seen or heard of anything like that ever happening. I could maybe see if the nozzle was on top of the cross-lay, but too close to the outside and flew out when the weight shifted. But the article stated that all 200 feet came out with the nozzle, which seems very strange.

As ALS said, drivers must pay attention to everything, not only whats ahead, but to the sides and behind the rig! As you're driving, you should definately be checking your mirrors! I like the idea of having a mesh netting covering the "holes" on the sides where the cross-lays come out. I have seen that type of netting, but never actually on a rig, at least locally. May not be a bad idea though! This may have been a freak accident and may be 1 in a million chances that it happens again, but if a cheap piece of netting can prevent another tragedy, theres no excuse not to give it a try!

Anyway, just my thoughts. My heart goes out to the families of the girls & to the fire department involved, as i am sure they are all upset by this incident.

[WAS967 97]

My god. I wonder if anything similar has happened before? It does sound very "freak" as I've never heard of anything like it.