Training exercise gone terribly wrong

[mikeinet 37]

http://www.history.com/media.do?id=shockwa...amp;action=clip

Amsterdam, NY.

"He took a house to the face"

[Guest alsfirefighter]

"He took a house to the face" because they were incredibly stupid and did not follow NFPA 1403. They were lucky there were no deaths for what happened. What's even worse is this occurred on the heels of the September 2001 live-fire training incident in Lairdsville, NY where a 19 year old kid was killed because of not following NFPA 1403. Leading to the arrest and conviction of an Assistant Chief there. I don't even know how anyone could sit and tell that story with a straight face when they knew what they did was wrong and preventable.

[JetPhoto 626]

This was posted on here a long time ago. It still is a valuable common sense thing all should be careful when useing gas to start a fire

[IzzyEng4 427]

The History Channel is basically in my opinion creating a show showing how people, after eating a bowl of stupid for breakfast, had total disreguard for their own lives (and others) and survived a terrible situation. At least that is how the trailers for this new show are being presented. Even look at the firefighters operating at the gas / oil plant when it explodes and you see a FF diving down into the product. That happened in Honolulu back ten plus years ago.

Hopefully they have some sort of disclaimer or something about watching the show on what not to do. I'll watch it because it seems there will be a lot of good survival stories but when it comes to use, lets hope that they get the story right. Remember, trailers only show a smidge of the segment to attract viewers.

[helicopper 1,050]

"He took a house to the face" because they were incredibly stupid and did not follow NFPA 1403. They were lucky there were no deaths for what happened. What's even worse is this occurred on the heels of the September 2001 live-fire training incident in Lairdsville, NY where a 19 year old kid was killed because of not following NFPA 1403. Leading to the arrest and conviction of an Assistant Chief there. I don't even know how anyone could sit and tell that story with a straight face when they knew what they did was wrong and preventable.

I also wondered how those guys were able to sit there and talk about it as they did. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" - that was stupidity plain and simple. And the tragedy is they probably all pat themselves on the back for their heroics.

Edited November 27, 2007 by Chris192

[firecapt32 282]

Lets not get carried away here. Stupid yes -controable yes-preventable yes. I am in no way defending the actions of that fire department but history has shown us one thing we are doomed to repeate it. Maybe "thats the way we always do it" applies here. Maybe for the last 10 years the Department has burned a house and it was a great training exersize. This time they werent so lucky--well in a way they were only one person got hurt.

Have they learned form the mistakes thats the important question?

NFPA 1403 is now the bible for the fire service when it comes to live burns.

We inthe fire service are so shall I dare to say dumb we had to have the State legislature make laws to protect us from our selves. talk about fixing stupid

Have a good day all

[e92l44 0]

This was posted on here a long time ago. It still is a valuable common sense thing all should be careful when useing gas to start a fire

If they had used GAS, this wouldn't have been quite as bad........They told us at the Rock that this department decided to use AVIATION FUEL to "start" this fire, AND let it soak, I think overnight. You could see when the video was slowed down that the "pool" of fumes, outside the building, ignited before anything in the house, thereby causing the explosion.

L-U-C-K-Y.

If there was ANY humorous part, it's the tones going off after the explosion, for all the other companies to respond to the scene.....it goes for like 2 minutes!!!

[ex-commish 490]

If the Lairdsville incident was not a wake up call than I don't know what is.

[Guest]

There is another video out there I believe also from upstate New York where a similar event happened. The Dept. was doing a live burn and placed gasoline in the house, and while they waited to light the fire the fumes built up. They lit it using a fuse of sorts, literally blowing the roof off the house. Unfortunately I can't find the video.

[NYMedic37 22]

Dumber then a box of rocks.

[Guest TomStrech]

Wow, they are very lucky, i guess this just proves that people don't always think their plans through before excuteing them.

[Guest]

There was an article and full video clip of this on firefighterclosecalls.com

I cant find it right now but if I recall it stated they used gasoline and quite a lot of it.

[Guest]

It's actually "dumber than a box of rocks", not "...then a box of rocks".

[Goose 188]

I saw this a while ago. One would think that they understand, at least at a basic level, the behavior of flammables and their vapors. As cold as it may sound, i can't say i really feel sorry for anyone involved.

[hudson144 150]

Because of others we may learn. In NYS an accident which was a fatal accident from a "live burn drill", a firefighter lost his life and a fire officer is serving time. The nys live burn policy is an important document put into place to make sure that situations that have happened do not take place again. The procedures are in place for our protection. It does not matter if you are doing a class A burn or simply burning a car up for training. Yes, the best training and most productive training as far as getting the real "hands on" experience can be a live burn but you have to do it correctly. The liability factor in place is strong and you better do it right or you might be in alot of trouble in the end.

Lets just say we are going to do a live car fire drill. No big deal? If I get this video clip on here you might change your minds. The clip shows a van heavily involved in fire and apparantly the fuel tank lets go. Flames are shot across the lanes of traffic poroble a good 30-40 ft. I do not have the guidelines in my possession right now but I am sure that others havee access to them to post here to give you an idea of what is required. Lets not forget, a small incident can escalate into a larger one sometimes with tragic results. EG;Baltimore, Amsterdam ny, lairdsville. b safe no luck in downloading,if someone can post it thank you,

[gpdexplorer 46]

I just watched this segment on the History Channel. I feel a little more sympatheitic to these firefighters now. There were some clips that were not shown on the video that are in the segment. These firefighters don't seem to be taking it as a joke on TV. Also, the FF throwing the flare was a 2nd Assistant Chief.