Wednesday, June 2, 2010 21 March 2010 / Brighton Township Michigan
 
The Brighton Area Fire Department received an alarm at 0216 Sunday morning for a working structure fire in the 5000 block of Kensington Rd. The 911 caller was from the neighboring house and was reporting fire through the roof
 
A full alarm assignment was struck along with AMA (automatic mutual aid) engine from Green Oak Fire Department. Chief 31 was the first arriving officer on the scene and confirmed a working fire. His size up was a single story residential with a walk-out with fire working in the basement, first floor and attic space. The neighbor indicated to Chief 31 that the house has been in foreclosure for over a month and was vacant. Chief 31 then advised dispatch that he would like a second alarm since the closest hydrant was 2 miles away. This also allowed for stand-by coverage.
 
Green Oak Fire Department Chief 802 was second on the scene and assigned IC by Chief 31. The decision was made early that this was going to be a defensive attack due the nature of the structure and 50% fire involvement. The IAP (incident action plan) was announced to all incoming units that this was a defensive attack and no companies were to make entry into the structure. 
 
The structure was ranch with a mid to late 70’s design. Components of the home indicated that cosmetic and structural updates had been done through the years. The square footage of the home was estimated at approximately 3,000 ft2, but soon doubled to 6,000 ft2 with realization of a fully finished walk-out basement and wing. The exterior was completely finished in brick masonry, with energy efficient windows and an asphalt roof. The roof pitch was approximately 6/12 with a single ridge. The walk-out portion of the structure covered half of the C side with two siding doorways on the ground level.  
 
E31 was the first apparatus on scene and laid in 200’ of LDH from the roadway setting up for a rural hitch. E31’s crew was presented with fire venting out of the roof at the entry way and one front window. (It was later discovered, that the fire did not traditionally vent, but that two skylights had failed.) The company officer ordered the 2.5” attack line with a smooth bore nozzle to the front of the structure, and for crews to force the front door for a direct attack. E33 arrived second and sent it’s water to E31, and its remaining crew was sent forward to establish a second attack line. E32 was third on and also sent its water forward, with crew assignment to pull another attack line to the C side. E31 assumed A sector and E32 assumed C sector with Capt 32 assuming operations. The following command functions were also filled as apparatus arrived on scene; RIT, safety, water supply, and staging.
 
As the fire was knocked down and the scene transitioned into the overhaul phase, there became the need to enter the structure from the walk-out ground level to knock down hot spots unreachable from the exterior. The walkout portion appeared to have no fire damage and was structurally sound.
 
The C sector officer met with the IC, RIT and Safety to advise them of a plan to enter the structure through the wing on the C side and for hose teams to make their way around to the B / C corner. Two, three person crews were assembled and briefed to work slowly and attentively. The experience levels of all the crew members ranged from one to thirteen years. For one of the firefighters, it was his first interior operation. The first crew cleared the glass from the siding doorway and probed the floor approximately 3’ in. The floor was sound, as would be expected. Prior to entry, the room was scanned with a TIC and no fire extension was reported. The smoke was light gray and laminar, zero visibility and minimal heat conditions.  
 
The firefighter with the TIC entered the structure, followed by the second firefighter who had control of the knob maintaining positive contact with the first. A third firefighter was positioned at the door assisting with hose advancement. As the first initial firefighter made his way into the room, he was standing upright. On his third step, the floor disappeared from under him. As the second firefighter lost contact with the first, he was in the crouched position. He went to his knees to reach out, and the floor also disappeared from under him. When the two firefighters landed, they quickly made contact and checked each other’s condition. Both were uninjured, had greater than a half tank of SCBA air, and were still wearing all PPE. The door and another outside firefighter noticed the hose line drop sharply off and could hear one of the two firefighters trying the call out a MAYDAY over the radio. The door firefighter crawled in until he reached the edge of the drop off and made contact with the two in the hole. He was still able to maintain contact with the doorway and called back out the firefighters standing outside, “Two through the floor”.
 
The initial reaction for all firefighters in the vicinity was to charge the doorway to assist. The Operation officer issued a MAYDAY across the fire ground frequency, “MAYDAY, MAYDAY. Priority traffic, two firefighters through the floor on C side, activate RIT, activate EMS. ” Command acknowledged, activated the evacuation tones, called for a third alarm, and an additional EMS unit. When RIT arrived, there were three firefighters in the structure working to extract the two from the hole. One of the trapped firefighters was able to jump up and get his upper body on to the ledge but could not pull himself out.  The RIT officer was able to make entry and grab this firefighter by the SCBA bottle and pull him up out of the hole and then through the door way in to the back yard. The other firefighter was not able to pull himself up, nor were the two firefighters able to pull him out using brut strength. An attic ladder was requested and put in the hole for the fire fighter to climb, but the crews noticed the ladder would not stand upright. Once both firemen were removed from the structure, care was taken over by Livingston County EMS. One fireman was cleared on scene, while the other was transported to Providence Novi Hospital with knee pain.
 
In trying to figure out what went wrong, the Operation officer located the TIC and scanned the room from the entry point. It was then discovered this room contained an empty in-ground pool. The next question was why the pool was not discovered with the TIC when the room was initially scanned. It is surmised that the TIC strap was draped across the front of the TIC lense. The firefighter using the TIC had limited experience using the device. The young firefighter likely saw the gray and believed that was the appropriate image without a flame.  When the C sector officer looked over the room with the TIC, every detail of the pool could be made out. The steps in the shallow end, the diving board, the edge, and the tile flooring that surrounded it. Another complicating issue was that the outside of the structure gave no indication of an in-ground pool. The windows were identical to the ones in the home along with no exterior pool pump, sky lights, or additional vents.
 
The fire is currently under investigation by the Brighton Area Fire Marshal Division and the Livingston County Sheriff Department.
 
Investigation points
Ä When the doorway glass was cleared, the firefighter probed the floor with the tool to make sure it was solid but was only able to reach in about 3’. The edge of the pool was at the 4’ 8” mark.
Ä Going into the structure at grade level gave a false sense of security, thus the first man in was standing upright.
Ä Both firefighters went into the pool at the 6’ deep mark. Thus crews from above were able to make physical contact with them.
Ä The pool was 9’ + at the deepest point
Ä The ladder had to be held upright due to the slope of the pool but neither firefighter remember there being a slope
Ä MAYDAY was not issued by the firefighters over the radio. It was done by an outside officer. This was due to the remainder of the crew making  quick contact.
Ä The broken glass from the doorway was covering the tile floor right the edge of the pool.  This tempered glass acted like marbles on the tile, thus making it difficult for the crews that were trying to extricate the firefighters.
 
Lessons learned
Ä Even though the younger firefighters are trained and may possess one to three years on the job, they may have zero time being the lead on an interior assignment. Make sure a tenured firefighter or officer is watching over them during this time period until they get some proven time “working” at a job
Ä TIC’s are great tools for interior attacks, but the basics cannot be forgotten. Stay low on all fours, or crab / duck walk feeling the floor in front of you.
Ä Understand the tool that you are using. If your people have not had much time with a TIC in smoky conditions, get them the training. Most of the time it is the officer with the TIC, but that was not the case this time.
Ä Never drop your guard or sense of danger just because the incident has transitioned to the overhaul phase. This was the reason the first in firefighter was walking upright.
Ä Look at the experience level of your RIT. For departments who do not see regular structural fires, how are you training these folks to deal with a downed firefighters? Does this training include a discussion on emotion control? Our team’s emotions caused them to respond to the downed firefighters without tools.
Ä The RIT officer did not get a size up from the C sector officer and mistaking removed a fireman that had contact with one of the downed firemen.
 
Going forward
The training division announced at the beginning of 2010 that this year’s training objectives was to focus on firefighter survival and rapid intervention teams. After two months of training on some basic skill sets in survival techniques, reviewing case studies, working as teams on firefighter extraction, and radio communications, we were unexpectedly put to the test. Overall, we did some of the things right, but obviously did a few things wrong. Should we be unhappy about those mistakes? Not necessarily. 
The best way for firefighters to learn is hands on; this has been proven time and time again. Undoubtedly, these firefighters learned many valuable lessons and during an incident that could have had a drastically different outcome. Our department has learned very valuable lessons from this incident, and we are going to use these lessons to make improvements.
 
We experienced a great teaching tool to help meet our objectives for the year and gained six excellent instructors for interior fire attack advancement and MAYDAY / RIT procedures. From this we will be better the next time we have an unexpected event.
 
 
GREGORY MOWBRAY is a Captain with the Brighton Area (MI) Fire Department. He is a 13-year veteran of the fire service and also serves as the department Training Officer. He is also a United States Navy veteran. He is a State of Michigan Fire Fighter Training Council Instructor, as well as a class coordinator / lead instructor with the Livingston County Firefighter Training Academy.