Thursday, October 26, 2006 Incident Description: At approximately 1815, myself and the academy members, my two assistant instructors and our engineer for Engine 7 arrived at the training site and began preparing the drill. My assistants stocked all four vehicles with Class A materials while the academy class began laying out the hose lines for the drill. The 2 ½ inch line was charged, but the wye was left closed and 1 ¾ inch lines were both left dry. Firefighter XXX, acting upon my direction, broke the driver side window of the vehicle to provide adequate oxygen to the fire. I gathered the academy class and reviewed the expectations for this drill, and reviewed safety procedures. They were divided into two two-person teams and one three person teams. Each team was assigned a safety officer/instructor. The plan was to have two teams fight a different car fire simultaneously, with the third manning a safety/back-up line. We had a brief discussion on hose streams, and instructor signals. Due to the fact that we had only 6 SCBA with us, and 7 students, I made the decision to handle the ignition duties sans SCBA. I was wearing my full firefighting PPE ensemble, including bunker pants, coat (collar up and secured loosely), gloves, Nomex hood and helmet. I cannot recall if my hood was actually over my head or around my neck, but judging from the burns I received, I believe it was around my neck. My helmet is not equipped with a face shield or Bourkes (due to prior damage) and the chin strap was not under my chin but behind my head. At approximately 1835, I filled a cup with about 24 ounces of gasoline (instead of diesel, due to previous issues with ignition failure during cold weather and repeated extinguishment) and splashed it into the passenger compartment. At this time, the students were instructed to don their gear and prepare to begin. There were some delays, and the students were just about ready at approximately 1845, although the lines off of the gated wye were not yet charged. I stuck a flare and approached the vehicle, hoping to get it lit and let it get a good start before the students made their attack. My initial attempt at ignition failed, as I was unable to get the driver seat headrest to ignite. Suspecting that the fumes from the gasoline might be a potential flash hazard, I knelt by the driver door and reached my arm up and over the sill of the window, turning my head and sticking the flare down towards the floor of the car. It was at this time that there was a loud “whump” and a significant concussion. The impact of the explosion was powerful enough to knock my helmet from my head and throw it approximately fifteen feet and push me back. I was not knocked unconscious, nor was I knocked from my feet. I could feel right away that my eyebrows had been singed, and my face was very warm. I did not, at this point, think that I was injured beyond that. As my assistant instructors approached me, they asked if I was OK, and I replied that I thought so. They, along with firefighter XXX, took me to Engine 7 and examined my face. It was then that they discovered many small lacerations, probably a result of the remaining windows in the car breaking in the explosion. It also became apparent that I had received burns to my entire face, my ears and left side neck, and that I was bleeding from my nose as well. An ambulance was called and while we waited, I did my best to clean my face with saline and 4x4 gauze pads. Engine 2 arrived shortly thereafter (perhaps at 1855?) and firefighter XXX assumed my medical care. When the ambulance arrived about 5 minute later, XXX walked me to the ambulance and assisted with my care enroute to the hospital. I cannot accurately provide much more information for the next several hours due to the various pain medications I was administered, but upon my discharge from the hospital later in the evening, I was informed that I had sustained first degree burns to my face, neck and ears. There is some moderate blistering, and significant pain. There was no evident damage to my respiratory system and my eyes appear to have been unscathed. LESSONS LEARNED This incident, and my injuries, were completely avoidable. This was no accident, but an incident caused by a failure on my part to appropriately address my own safety on the drill ground. Below you will find a list of omissions and failures on my part that led to my injuries. Fuel Choice: My FD uses diesel fuel as an accelerant when doing live fire training such as this due to it’s significantly higher flash point . I chose to use gasoline due to the ease of lighting and re-lighting during repeated extinguishment while training. This was a poor choice on my part, and a contributing factor. To my knowledge, the NFPA recommends against the use of ANY accelerants during live fire training. The relatively small amount of gasoline I used proved to be more than enough to create a DANGEROUS fume build-up which, when ignited, created an explosion. Ignition Method:As long as I have been teaching similar classes for vehicle fires with my FD, the method of ignition was to attach a highway flare to a broom stick with duct tape and ignite from a distance. I personally have used this method DOZENS of times safely. During this incident, I failed to bring a broom stick and decided to initiate ignition with the flare in my hand. I honestly did not even remember the stick trick, and never considered the danger of this ignition method. This omission on my part placed me at arms length from what was essentially a low-yield bomb. Protective Gear: Due to the shortage of SCBA on the drill ground, and the fact that I wanted to get this class completed by 2200hrs, I made a hurried decision that the students would all wear SCBA to facilitate rapid rotation of the teams through the various fire scenarios. I was therefore not wearing an SCBA during ignition! Had I been wearing an SCBA, this report would not be necessary. Also, I was not using a faceshield or ANY other eye protection. The only reason my eyes were not severely injured was because I had them closed at the time of the explosion. My eyelashes and eyebrows were completely burned off, and the deepest burns are around my eyes. This is probably the most terrifying issue surrounding the whole incident for me. I did receive moderate burns and cuts to my ears and neck as well. As I stated in the initial pages of this report, I cannot remember if my Nomex hood was up or down, and am not positive that I had it on. Due to the injuries I received, I must assume that it was down or I wasn’t wearing it. Once again, a simple, unconscious omission on my part results in preventable injuries. Additional Factor: This Fire Department currently has little or no written standards regarding safety in our SOGs, rules and regs, or by-laws. Many of our training procedures are based simply on what we saw the guys who trained us do. This is a huge deficiency, and easily remedied by adopting NFPA 1403 as our guideline, which we have not done, but I have recommended after this incident. FFCC.COM NOTES : FFCC.COM NOTES