Wednesday, May 16, 2012  PA FIREFIGHTER LODD-Medical
The Secret List www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com
 
A Fire-Police Officer from a Bucks County fire company died in the Line of Duty after feeling ill at the scene of a large chemical facility fire this morning. Lightning apparently ignited the massive tank at Dow Chemical in Croydon early this morning, touching off that multiple alarm fire.
 
Bucks Firefighters responded to the large plant at Routes 413 and State Road in Bucks County, less than a mile from the Burlington-Bristol bridge. The county's HazMat team was also called to the scene along with mutual aid HazMat.
 
The fire started at about 0400 and a large black column of smoke extended high above the fire. We'll post more details later. Our sincere condolences to all affected. RIP.
Take Care-BE CAREFUL.
BillyG
The Secret List 5-16-12 / 0739 hours
www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com



 

Tuesday, May 15, 2012  Hey,
According to local media, jurors in Longview (Texas) found the maker of a ladder truck from which two firefighters fatally fell — and the Kilgore Fire Department — equally at fault for the 2009 training exercise deaths.
Wrapping up an eight-day wrongful death suit, the panel reviewed the case brought by the family of Kilgore firefighter Kyle Perkins four hours Monday before awarding more than $800,000 in damages.
The finding that Perkins’ department was half to blame for the fatal accident, which also took the life of fireman Cory Galloway, means all but $192,500 awarded as punitive damages will be cut in half.
And that $192,000 in punitive damages might not stand as 124th District Judge Alfonso Charles told the jury the question leading to that verdict must have a unanimous answer. The eight-woman, four-man jury voted 10-2 that fire truck maker E-One was grossly negligent.
E-One attorney Randy Aiken said it was unlikely the company would appeal the verdict.
“We wish they didn’t find liability (on E-One’s part),” Aiken said. “But this keeps the damages way down, so we’re satisfied with that.”
During the trial, which began May 3, jurors heard from both E-One employees and fire department staff that safety harnesses had not been worn or encouraged by company representatives in either sales or post-sale demonstrations.
Jurors also heard competing opinions on whether the latches on the aerial platform doors used on the 2000 model ladder truck were sufficient. Galloway and Perkins burst forward through those inward-only doors and fell eight stories during the January 2009 training exercise.
Neither man was wearing a safety harness/ladder belt.
During closing statements Monday morning, defense attorney Keith Slade recalled for jurors the 2008 delivery invoice indicating the department was aware safety belts had not come with the ladder truck but were needed.
“Before the truck was even delivered, the city of Kilgore Fire Department was aware and cognizant they were going to have to get safety belts and put them in this truck,” Slade said, later adding: “You don’t go to the worst-possible, highest risk scenario knowing you don’t have safety belts.”
Slade also noted that, when the four men went up in the platform, the overriding, base controls on the truck chassis were at the hands of a 6-month firefighter under supervision.
“If you hit the kill switch in the base control the power is lost on the platform,” he said. “If someone is doing their job, if someone is being instructed to do their job — whenever the platform sits on the (building’s) wall, and you hear the scraping and the boom, you know something’s not right. You hit the switch, you take power from it.”
Perkins' attorney Jack Walker reminded jurors of a string of E-One employees who admitted breaking company policy by not using safety harnesses or telling potential customers to use them.
“Why are the E-One personnel allowed to disregard their own policy, disregard their own instructions?” Walker asked.
He also said the doors, which were redesigned to be stronger in 2006, remain a menace throughout the country.
“The city of Kilgore drew the black bean in this instance,” Walker said. “If the doors stay closed, (Perkins) lives. They had one job to do, and they failed miserably. But, what we know will not do it is 8 inches of aluminum and a slap-latch. And that’s all they gave these firefighters. ... We know there’s 30 more of them out there. You have the opportunity to protect the fire industry. (E-One) has a responsibility to those firefighters, and they completely blew it." This information provided from the News Journal.
Take Care-THINK. Be Careful.
BillyG
The Secret List 5-15-12 / 1155 hours
www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com

 

Saturday, May 12, 2012  All,
The Missouri Fire Service Funeral Assistance Team has advised that the previously reported Line of Duty Death of Kinloch Fire Protection District Captain / Engineer Richard Parks will now be re-classified to an active duty firefighter death.
 
Based on documentation initially provided to their organization, the initial determination of Line of Duty Death was made. Further information that has been made available no longer supports the initial determination.
 
In our opinion, the Missouri Fire Service Funeral Assistance Team always done a very professional job in providing honors appropriate to the circumstances regarding the manner of death, and justifiably prides itself in maintaining the integrity of those honors. Naturally, they can only respond to the details as provided to them.
 
Firefighter honors, appropriate to the new classification, will be provided in recognition of the 31 years of service Captain/Engineer Richard Parks has provided to the Kinloch Fire Protection District. Funeral arrangements will be announced on completion.
Take Care-Be Careful
BillyG
The Secret List 5-11-12 / 2342 Hours
www.FireFighterCalls.com



 

Friday, May 11, 2012  MISSOURI FIREFIGHTER LINE OF DUTY DEATH-Medical Emergency Following Fire Rescue The Secret List www.FirefIghterCloseCalls.com

 

It is with deep regret that we advise you of the Line of Duty Death of Captain/Engineer Richard Parks at the age of 47. Captain/Engineer Parks of the Kinloch Fire Protection District, St. Louis County Missouri. Captain Parks suffered a medical emergency shortly after returning to the fire station following a structure fire with successful rescue of a 16 year old victim.

Captain Parks began serving the Kinloch Fire Protection District as a Junior member of the district and became a Firefighter at the age of 18, and has provided a total of 31 years of service to the community. Funeral arrangements are being provided by the Kriegshauser Mortuary, Olivette Mo. and will be announced on completion.

 

Fire Service Information:

Uniformed members interested in standing Casket Vigil during visitation contact Harriett Vaucher at 314-541-8701

Honor Guards/Color Guards interested in participating should contact Steve Walton 314-630-5442

Pipers and Drummers interested in participating should contact Jeff Holguin 314-707-0410.

Agencies bringing Apparatus and/or Staff Vehicles please contact Mike Bowman at 314-413-2049

Additional information can be obtained from Missouri Fire Service Funeral Assistance Team website at www.mofirefuneral.org

 

 

TEXAS DOUBLE LODD TRIAL CONTINUES:

Ladder Belts, SOP's and The Death of Two Firefighters

Any LESSONS LEARNED here for all of us? Apparatus Manufacturers? Apparatus Dealers?

 

Kilgore Firefighters guiding the hands-on drills for their new ladder/platform truck in 2009 knew the operations manual told them to wear safety belts that could have saved two from a fatal fall, according to department testimony Monday in a suit against the truck’s maker and retailer. Those safety belts, which harness a firefighter to the ladder platform, or bucket, had not been delivered with the 95-foot truck made by E-One. Meanwhile, safety belts sat idle in a ladder truck no longer in service, one officer testified.
The suit, against E-One and retailer Hall-Mark Fire Apparatus-Texas, brought by the family of fallen Kilgore Fire Department Firefighter Kyle Perkins, who with fellow Fireman Cory Galloway, died in the Jan. 25, 2009, training exercise.
“I started slowly rotating over to the building,” 26-year Kilgore Fire Department Instructor James Sanders described guiding the 18-square-foot platform above the rooftop lip of 8-story Stark Hall dormitory at Kilgore College.
Two four-FF crews had completed their training mission to achieve the roof of the city’s tallest building. Leading the third group, Sanders was steering the platform, called a bucket, carrying Perkins, Galloway and Robert King.
He guided it to within 18-24 inches of the overhanging roof parapet, and he needed it to be nearer.
“It dropped rather suddenly,” he recalled. “That’s when it made contact with the wall.”
Sanders testified to telling the men to stay calm and keep their weight steady.
“I looked over the front to see if I could see any obstruction,” he said, describing the light touch, called feathering, he used on the hydraulic controls.
Sanders later testified he had operated hydraulics all his life, from his father’s farm to construction work to a stint on a county roads crew.
He said he “feathered” the boom function, which bends like an elbow from the truck below.
“And nothing happened, it just sat there,” Sanders said. “I feathered again, and shortly thereafter I was in the process of looking over (the front) again when it broke loose. All of a sudden, we were going backward.”
The violent rocking that ensued pushed Galloway and Perkins outward through corner doors designed to open inward only.
“Myself and Robert managed to stay in the bucket. ... It seemed like an eternity. I couldn’t tell you how many forward and backward jerks it made. ... At some point, (King) was very close to the door, and I reached over and grabbed him back. Pretty much, in that time, we were in survival mode.”
On Thursday, Doug Fleming, instructor for ladder truck maker E-One, also testified to neither using nor asking potential customers to use safety belts.
Sanders and Capt. Kyle Huckabee both testified Monday they had never gone up in a platform ladder, in early sessions with the new one in 2008-09 or during sales demonstrations.
Neither the fire chief nor the mayor had worn a safety belt during a platform sales demonstration in 1988, Sanders said.
However, he also testified he included safety belts in the Standard Operating Procedures manual he wrote for a non-platform ladder truck purchased in 1989.
Huckabee testified the Standard Operating Procedures, or SOP, manual was being written for the new ladder/platform truck when the tragedy occurred.
Like Sanders, he said he knew of the safety belt instruction in the truck’s operating manual. He said he did not know whether or not anyone had sought, before the fatal drill, to retrieve safety belts from a ladder-only truck that was out of service.
He also testified Kilgore city policy forbade putting equipment in service before an SOP is written, despite the new truck being used in a fire at Cancun Dave’s restaurant weeks before the fatal training exercise.
“At least, in that context,” defense attorney Keith Slade told Huckabee, “the city of Kilgore failed to have an SOP in place before the equipment was placed in service. True enough?
“True enough,” Huckabee agreed.

MORE HERE: http://tinyurl.com/cqko947

 

 

IF PEOPLE ARE PAID ENOUGH-They Will Say Anything.

FIRE SAFETY & TOBACCO?

Take time to read the investigative series published this week in the Chicago Tribune that examines the relationship between the fire-retardant and tobacco industries. This is one of the most significant reports Janet WIlmoth, Editor of Fire Chief Magazine has read in all her years writing about the fire service. Check it out.

IT IS a must read: http://tinyurl.com/7tg7bze

 

 

FINAL WORD:

=We join New Jersey Firefighters and beyond in saying goodbye to a remarkable young man, Kyle McGetrick of Barnegat, who died at the age of 12, of leukemia, and taught his community the meaning of strength and courage. He was the young man many of you sent FD patches to a few months back. RIP.

=OUR CONDOLENCES to the family and friends of Chief John Lee Cook who served in the fire service in Texas, Virginia and was an instructor at the National Fire Academy. RIP.

Take Care-BE CAREFUL,

BillyG

The Secret List 5-11-12 / 0755 Hours

www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com

 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012  Hey,
Pennsylvania State Police have charged a man with causing a crash that killed Franklin Township's Fire Chief - while returning to quarters - on Feb. 2. Joshua Nickerson, 29, was arraigned yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon on charges including homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault by vehicle and driving under the influence. Nickersons Jeep crossed the center line and struck the car driven by 49-year-old Fire Chief David Flint, of Edinboro. Chief Flint died and Asst Chief Sharon C. Petri, was seriously injured. 
Neither Chiefs were wearing seat belts.
Nickerson also crashed into a parked car shortly before the accident. Nickerson was wearing a seat belt. RIP Chief Flint.
 
 
NIOSH LODD REPORTS:
Here are some recent NIOSH reports you may not have seen yet:
FIREFIGHTER STRUCK and killed while directing traffic at an interstate highway incident – Iowa http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/reports/face201123.html
FIREFIGHTER DIES IN COLLAPSE AT CHURCH FIRE – Indiana http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/reports/face201114.html
FIREFIGHTER DIES AT WILDLAND FIRE-and three fire fighters are injured – Texas http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/reports/face201110.html
 
FIREFIGHTERS CRITICAL INJURY REPORT:
CRITICAL INJURIES/BURNS AT LARGE SINGLE FAMILY DWELLING FIRE REPORT (Non-NIOSH)
Several Firefighters were critically burned at "maga mansion" fire in Maryland:
http://www.hvfd6.org/content/front/3380%20Soper%20Road%20Final%20Report.pdf
 
 
WASHINGTON DC AREA FIREFIGHTER SEMINAR-NO CHARGE (aka FREE)----
BUT NOTE THE SIGN UP DEADLINE!
This Fire Service Lifesaving Leadership Seminar Registration Deadline IS TODAY.
Those interested in attending the Prince Georges County Fire & EMS Department Lifesaving Leadership Seminar, there are still 6 spaces left to take advantage of this valuable training opportunity, FREE of charge. Registration will be accepted until close of business tomorrow, Wednesday, May 9, 2012. To register complete the attached group registration form (link below), and email it back to pgfdos@co.pg.md.us . Registrations will be accepted on a first come, first served basis, until spaces run out.
http://pgfdpio.blogspot.com/2012/05/lifesaving-leadership-seminar.html?spref=tw
 
 
YOUR FIRE FIGHTING EQUIPMENT & THE EXPIRATION DATE:
When is the LAST TIME you checked the expiration dates of ALL the equipment you rely on...from firefighting equipment to PPE to EMS equipment?
IF THE EQUIPMENT IS EXPIRED, it cannot be ignored. Well-it can be-but that's the problem.
CHECK THIS VIDEO OUT FROM GG:
http://www.lexipol.com/check-equipment-exipration-date-t-13.html
 
 
AND SPEAKING OF THE DC AREA...
Former DCFD Chief Dennis Rubin has a new book out - and wanted to pass the word along-check it out HERE:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/dennis-l.-rubin/id515779648?mt=11
Take Care-BE CAREFUL.
BillyG
The Secret List 5-8-12 / 2254 Hours
www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com