Firefighter Close Calls | Firefighter Close Calls is the home of the Secret List. The worlds most visited website focused exclusively on firefighter survival

Home of the Secret List

Fire Department Blames It’s ‘Culture & Systems’ In 2021 Death of Firefighter

 Joe Knitter    August 28, 2022    No Comments

All,

Once again, we all have an opportunity to HONESTLY use this information to look at our own departments, our own first alarm assignment agencies and mutual aid.
 
Please don’t ignore this report….it is JAM PACKED with information for all of us…information we can learn from…and there is no better way than to honor Frederick County (Maryland) BC Laird.
On August 11, 2021, Frederick County Fire Captain (Posthumously promoted to BC) Joshua Laird fell through the first floor of that burning house into the basement. Fifteen minutes later, his body was brought out.
An after action report of the death released Friday highlights a host of significant issues that contributed to his death and many suggested improvements for the Frederick County Fire and Rescue Services…that we can all learn from. 
 
PLEASE USE THIS REPORT as a template to critically look at your department and mutual aid partners policies, procedures, training and daily operations.

Some highlights:

ENTER OR NOT ENTER?
Just before Captain Laird fell into the basement, he had a back-and-forth with an assistant chief on the scene. Laird was inside the house in a breakfast nook by a window. He asked the assistant chief to pass him a hose line. The assistant chief told him, “we’re not going inside yet because we don’t have good water.”

The assistant chief then turned away because water flow had stopped in his hose and he checked the line for kinks. When he returned to the side of the house, he saw Laird was no longer standing in the house. He assumed he had exited the building.
MAYDAY w/ 17 RADIO TRANSMISSION ATTEMPTS.
Seconds later Laird called a Mayday, reporting that he had fallen into the basement. Seventeen times while he was in the basement, Laird attempted radio transmissions that were rejected due to other radio traffic. He had not activated the emergency button radio that would have given his transmissions priority over other traffic.

POOR RADIO DISCIPLINE, COMMAND, CONTROL.

The report notes poor radio discipline with respect to stopping radio traffic not needed for the Mayday incident. In addition, the incident command declined to use separate frequencies for traffic related to the Mayday and other communications.

INCOMPLETE 360
No 360 was conducted that looked at all sides of the building, which significantly meant that no one had identified the fire in the basement or the presence of a basement. In addition, no one was initially aware of stairs entering into the basement, which were eventually used to extricate Captain Laird. In addition, even after it was clear there was fire in the basement fire crews proceeded attacking the fire as if it were a first-floor fire.

MOST THERMAL IMAGERS NOT USED, FIREFIGHTING BASICS IGNORED, CREW INTEGRITY MISSING.
Most officers on the fireground had thermal imagers, but almost none turned them on or used them in the fire. In addition, many firefighters did not follow basic procedures such as getting low to the ground in a smoky environment and remaining with their crew.

INEFFECTIVE TRANSFER OF COMMAND, COMMUNICATION.
Four minutes after his arrival, Captain Laird, who was the officer in command initially, transferred command to a chief who had arrived. However, the arriving chief did not receive, nor seek, a complete breakdown of where all people and apparatus were deployed, making it difficult for him to effectively manage the fire.

COMMAND & CONTROL.
The report notes that when the Mayday was transmitted, the chief in command did not have a good knowledge of where his resources were and what they were doing.

MAYDAY PROCEDURES NOT FOLLOWED, FREELANCING, FIRE CONTROL NOT MAINTAINED.
Many of the Mayday policies were not followed, including a failure to rebroadcast the Mayday alert, so many of the firefighters at the scene and responding to the call were not initially aware of it. A formal command structure was never put in place for the Rapid Intervention Team efforts, which resulted in freelancing and uncoordinated efforts to rescue Laird. In addition, no one was assigned to maintain fire control operations.

INEFFECTIVE COMMAND STRUCTURE DUE TO CAREER & VOLUNTEER DISPARITIES
Their dual system of career and volunteer firefighters creates an inadequate system of assigning command and other responsibilities during fires. The report recommended that the county establish a clear and unambiguous command structure that relies not on rank, but rather on the training individuals have received since the standards for career and volunteer firefighters vary significantly.

Captain Laird (who was posthumously promoted to battalion chief) was pulled from the fire and transported to the hospital. The cause of his death was smoke inhalation. When he was found in the basement, his facemask and helmet had been removed and his PASS device had been activated and was sounding.

His final transmission, nine minutes after calling Mayday, was “Tell my family I love them.”

HERE IS THE REPORT:
https://frederickcountymd.gov/DocumentCenter/View/339823/Joshua-Laird-LODD-After-Action-Report-8-18-22—-NO-PERSONAL-INFO?bidId=
HERE IS THE RADIO TRAFFIC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKSzmzuCgDk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy-gnRcLkv4&t=1541s
 
HERE IS VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkHTaPLUpy8
Take Care. Be Careful. Pass It On.
BillyG
The Secret List 8/27/2022-2340 Hours
www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com

 LODD's, News, Secret List

==
FIREFIGHTER
CANCER
==
PROSTATE & RELATED
CANCERS
INFORMATION:

also check the most current issue of the secret list

Click Here

Sign Up for Secret List

For Email Newsletters you can trust.

Please Visit
Our Sponsor

GordonGraham.com


YOU NEED THIS BOOK!
(Trust Us)

400+ PAGES.
90+ CONTRIBUTORS!
100% of the royalties from the sales of "PASS IT ON" will be donated to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the Chief Ray Downey Scholarship Fund.
CLICK ABOVE TO ORDER YOUR COPIES TODAY!


 

Pass It On: The Second Alarm

BillyG-book-170


 

Posters

Click to Print

In Memory Of

fdnyClick this patch

helmet

ragusa

Click Here for The 9/11 Widows’ and Victims’ Families Association

ssc

Click Here: Skyscraper Safety Campaign

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Apparatus
    • Crashes
    • Struck By
  • Close Calls
  • Contact Us
  • Drills
  • FF Cardiac Health
  • FIRE & EMS CIVIL DISORDER
  • EMS Close Calls
  • Fire Communications
  • Firefighter Cancer
  • Firefighter History
  • Firefighter Staffing
  • Gallery
  • LODD Calendar
  • Modern Fire Behavior
  • NIOSH Lessons Learned
  • NIOSH LODD Reports
  • Pass It On
  • Behaviorial Health
    • Behaviorial Health Resources
    • Behaviorial Health Information
  • Safety and Survival
  • Secret List
  • SOG’s
Submit Your
CLOSE CALLS /
NEAR MISS

 

LODD STATS

YearTotals
202359
2022101
2021139
202096
201957
201885
201793
201689
201586
201494
2013101
201283
201181
201087
200993
2008118
2007118
Tweets by @alertpage

Search Site

Contact Info

Email BillyG
[email protected]

Email Weekly Drill
Suggestions to

[email protected]


Copyright © 2003-2023

Copyright Disclaimer: This non-commercial, non-profit and free use website is for the exclusive purpose of firefighter safety, health and survival. All photographs in these posts are either submitted or from aggregate Google and are used in the postings for the purposes of education, satire, and parody, criticism, news reporting, research, and scholarship consistent with 17 USC §107 and never due to intentional or malicious misuse of a copyright.