Life or Death: A Firefighter’s Decision

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Found this on another forum. A pretty interesting read

Life or Death: A Firefighter’s Decision

By Warren Jones

While we don’t like to think about it, there comes a time in our fire service careers when a decision has to be made about life and death. For four members of Wilmington’s Station 4 that decision happened in the early morning hours of November 7, 2005.

Station 4, C Platoon, was working the night shift. Station 4 is a double house, housing Engine 4, Ladder 1, and on this night, Battalion 4. The night was typical for Wilmington, Delaware’s second busiest engine company. But now the bunk room was quiet, except for the noise of the sleeping firefighters.

At 0459 hours that quiet was abruptly halted by the sound of the alert tones as the dispatcher blared “Attention all units, 315 W 35th Street, house fire, with possible subjects trapped, Engine 4, Engine 3, RIT 5, Ladder 1, Rescue 1, Battalion 4 respond, between Garden Place and North Church Street, time out 0459.”

Battalion Chief 4 was Chief Al Huelsenbeck. Huelsenbeck, known as the “Falcon” to his shift, is a 33-year member of the department and has been a battalion chief for 20 years. Battalion 4 went on scene that morning reporting “working fire, middle of the row, occupied dwelling.” Engine 4 was commanded by Acting Lieutenant Jeffrey Schaal. Upon arrival, Engine 4 was ordered to stretch their hose line to the rear of the structure since the victim was possibly located in a room near the rear.

“When Acting Lieutenant Schaal and nozzle man, Firefighter Michael Kane, came into the building with their hose line, I ordered Firefighter Kane to be extremely aware of steam conditions during water application and I ordered Acting Lieutenant Schaal to make a search of the room to the right and locate the victim,” said Chief Huelsenbeck. Firefighter Kane started to cool the ceiling in the kitchen and Acting Lieutenant Schaal confirmed he had located the victim and the victim was conscious. Huelsenbeck next said, “Conditions continued to deteriorate as I was retreating, to assume the command position in the front of the structure. I knew this operation would require heightened command and control with unusual tactics. On my way out I encountered Ladder 1’s Lieutenant Tom Kapa and Firefighter Terry Gadson crawling in the back of the residence. I ordered both of them to assist Schaal.”

To these four firefighters the rescue of a trapped victim was something they had trained for ever since they had been on the department but on this day they encountered a situation that no one could have ever imagined.

The victim was a 67 year-old paraplegic man who weighed over 400 lbs. He was lying on the floor and entangled in what was left of his hospital bed and medical equipment. He was conscious and calling for help. It was surmised that he used his hoist to get out of his bed and to lower himself to the floor; however, either his hoist or some other medical equipment fell over and restrained him.

“When I first entered the room I turned on my thermal imaging camera but every thing on the screen was white. That’s how much heat was in the room. I found the victim; he was about four feet inside the bedroom, on the floor. He kept saying, ‘get me out, get me out’,” Acting Lieutenant Schaal said. Schaal continued, “I told him to stay low, we’ll get you out. I reached down to grab him but I couldn’t move him.” The conditions then started to deteriorate rapidly. The thermal layering was almost at the floor. The heat build-up was tremendous. “Just before Lt. Kapa and Firefighter Gadson entered the room I was laying on top of the victim; he had a death grip on my arm and he kept saying, ‘get me out, get me out, I am burning.’ I could feel my skin burning under my hood but there was no way I was leaving that guy and I know that no one else in the room that morning would leave him either,” Schaal said.

Meanwhile Firefighter Kane, with the hose line, was in the room right next to Schaal. “I could see the fire in the ceiling. I kept trying to drive it back with short burst. I didn’t want to create too much steam that would burn the victim. The victim was unprotected; we had our fire gear on,” Kane said. With a solemn note he added, “When we first got there, we heard Chief Huelsenbeck talking to the victim. I thought I would go in, knock down the fire, Jeff would pull the guy out and it would be over.” It wasn’t.

Now Kapa and Gadson were in the room. The room was totally black. You could not see the victim or Acting Lt. Schaal. The heat had gotten so low that the hospital bed, which was in its lowest position, about two feet off the floor, was melting. Rollover had occurred in the room and the fire was rolling over the firefighters’ heads.

“When I entered the room I yelled at Jeff, ‘where is he, where is he?’ Schaal responded, ‘he is right in front of me.’ I yelled to him, ‘well pull him out, and let’s get going.’ Schaal responded ‘I can’t move him, I just don’t know why’,” said Kapa. Kapa crawled in the room next to Schaal and both of them tried to move the victim but could not. The heat was now unbearable. Kapa felt his face burning. He then yelled for Ffr. Kane to bring the hose line in the room and knock down the fire. He and Schaal laid across the victim as fire was being knocked down. Kapa said, “I pulled Kane into the room and he lay on top of Schaal and I as he opened the nozzle. After Kane used some short burst to knock down the fire, Gadson and Kapa crawled across the victim to get to his lower extremities. Now, all three attempted to move the victim but again to no avail.

By this time the crew from Engine 3, under the command of Lt. Kevin Dorsey, had entered the front of the residence, with a 2” hand line, and was extinguishing the main fire. Once the fire was knocked down and hot spots extinguished, Engine 3 started hydraulic ventilation through a first floor window and for the first time the firefighters in the room with the victim could actually see him. They were in awe about the victim’s size and condition.

The victim, who was now moaning lay entangled in his hospital bed as well as other debris in the room. By now Lieutenant Kevin Malloy, Firefighters Eric Haley and Edward Brooks, from Rescue 1, were also in the room.

Lt. Malloy took over the rescue extrication operation and ordered a reeves stretcher brought into the room. While waiting for the stretcher Lt. Malloy removed the face piece of his breathing apparatus, turned on the by-pass valve, and placed it over the victim’s face to give him some clear air. When Malloy’s tank was empty, Firefighters Haley and Kane also gave their air to the victim. Next, Haley and Brooks lifted and held the hospital bed, while Malloy, Kapa, Schaal, Kane, and Gadson put the victim on the reeves stretcher.

The next problem was already foreseen by Battalion Chief William McKim who was commanding the “C” (rear) side of the structure. Once McKim became aware of the victim’s size he ordered a removal path cleared of obstructions by the other firefighters on the scene. A bathroom sink was demolished to allow the doors to open wider and the porch railing was removed as well as any and all obstacles that would impede the removal of the victim. By now the original crew who moved the victim to the back porch was exhausted and RIT 5 was ordered to help with placing of the victim on the stretcher and to assist the Paramedics and EMS crew with moving the victim to the transport unit.

The victim and his wife, who had escaped before the firefighters arrived, were transported to the Crozer Burn Center and Acting Lieutenant Schaal was transported to the Wilmington Hospital Emergency Department for burns to his ears, face, and neck. “In all my years of command experience this was the best rescue but also the most complicated structural fire rescue I have ever been involved in,” said Chief Huelsenbeck. Lieutenant Kapa added, “That was one of the most frustrating fires I have ever been in. I was touching him but I couldn’t move him. It was really frustrating.”

The victim, Rev. Gentle Daniels, who was communicating on his way to the burn center, was burned over seventy-five percent of his body and succumbed to his injuries thirty hours later. His wife remains hospitalized as of this writing. Lt. Thomas Kapa, Acting Lt. Jeffrey Schaal, Firefighter Terrance Gadson and Firefighter Michael Kane were nominated for the Medal of Honor. Lt. Kevin Malloy and Firefighter Eric Haley were nominated for the Individual Valor Award.

In his nomination letter, Chief Huelsenbeck wrote, “The success of this rescue was not dependent solely on those who were in direct contact with Elder Daniels. All aspects of this operation including ventilation and fire extinguishment required sound decision making by company officers and teamwork by all personnel. One prematurely broken window or mismanagement of a hose stream could have brought a very different outcome.” All members of Engine 4, Engine 3, Ladder 1, and Rescue 1 were nominated for the Unit Award.

Everyday in this country, firefighters are faced with daily instant decisions, some involving life and some involving death. This day, Chief Huelsenbeck, these six firefighters and the rest of the firefighters on the W. 35th Street fire made the right decisions that they will probably remember the rest of their lives.

(The writer: Warren Jones is the past Fire Chief of the Elsmere Fire Company and he is an owner and the publisher of the Delaware Fire Service News)

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I am humbled by the teamwork and leadership of this unit. Bravery, improvisation under fire, tactics and, most of all discipline and unit cohesiveness under extreme conditions. I can't even imagine a 2-foot high metal bed melting next to me...