Oregon's Jackson County Fire District No. 3 faces a $5,000 fine

In a live fire training CLOSE CALL, (www.firefighterclosecalls.com)
 Oregon's Jackson County Fire
District No. 3 faces a $5,000 fine for a spring training exercise
where 3 Firefighters suffered minor burns and melted some of their
gear. The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division cited the
fire district for having what it termed "serious violations" at a
training exercise April 25 at a house. The FF's were exposed to the
risk of flash over, the citation said, but the room did not flash.
(Scroll down for links and reports)
Among the points cited by state OSHA:
=Training objectives weren't followed correctly.
=Communication with the attack team was inadequate at times.
=The chain of command wasn't adhered to properly.
=The exercise wasn't stopped immediately when hazards were observed.
The reports stated: "If the training objectives had been followed,
communication with the attack team had been maintained, if the chain
of command had been followed during the training exercise and/or the
exercise was halted when hazards were observed by supervision, this
accident would not have occurred"
The district, which had voluntarily reported the injuries, is
appealing the citation and penalty, arguing that it had responded
vigorously to the incident to ensure the safety of their
firefighters.
A decision on the appeal is expected soon. Fire Chief Dave Hard said
the district temporarily suspended live-fire training until a team
that included outside experts could evaluate the accident. Then it
updated and reinforced policies and training, and upgraded equipment
before successfully staging three more burning exercises this summer.
"We made some mistakes and that's why we called in outside experts,"
said the Chief.
The house was scheduled for demolition and was donated to the district
to burn for training. Wood pallets were stacked in a room to simulate
furnishings, then lit, but crews initially thought the fire was too
small, Hard said. They added more pallets.
An OSHA report said an attack team consisting of volunteer FF Matt
Brite, FF Eric Merrill, volunteer FF Brexson Engle and Instructor Jon
Brite, a district employee and Matt Brite's father, had gone into the
house and put the fire out once.
As they repeated the exercise, the team crawled down a hallway filled
with thick, black smoke. The report indicated that a thermal camera
gave readings of temperatures in the smoke topping 800 degrees, so
interior Safety Officer Stephen Ede ordered the fire knocked down
immediately. But the team didn't get that message and watched the fire
grow for about a minute as smoke filled the room to within about 2
feet of the floor and roiled down the hallway.
Jon Brite told the OSHA investigator that he had the team wait and
watch and stated, "They need to feel the heat," the OSHA report said.
(My note:  How often do we still hear this ridiculous statement from
on ignorant trainer?)
Merrill felt the air in his breathing apparatus growing warmer and
decided to grab the nozzle from Matt Brite to extinguish the fire. The
movement caused Matt Brite, who told investigators that he had been
waiting for instructions from Jon Brite like those given in the first
exercise, to put out the fire.
When the fire extinguished, the team went outside and noticed that the
face shields of their helmets were melting and warping and their
protective clothing had charred. Later examination by experts
indicated the firefighters had prolonged exposure to temperatures
between 500 and 600 degrees.
Matt Brite had redness and several small blisters on his right arm and
hand where his protective coat had touched his skin, Hard said.
Merrill had redness of a first-degree burn on his arm and Engle had
red first-degree burns on the back of his neck. All three went to the
hospital to be examined.
Hard said the district launched an investigation April 27 by its
safety committee and officials from fire departments in Medford and
Josephine and Clackamas counties. It also notified OSHA, even though
the incident didn't meet the legal definition of a catastrophe - three
or more employees admitted to a hospital - in which reporting is
required, he said.
The OSHA investigation identified communication problems, including a
voice amplifier that was not turned on and one that had dead
batteries, heavy smoke that kept people from seeing, and changing
objectives. The investigation pointed out that the team deviated from
the objective of putting out the fire by waiting and watching it. The
report also indicates instructor Jon Brite didn't attend a pre-burn
briefing, though the district contends that he did.
Hard said the district reaffirmed policies related to training with
live fire, including not allowing people to supervise relatives and
requiring everyone involved to go to pre-training briefings and
complete standard checks of equipment. It held meetings to reinforce
those procedures and new ones were adopted, such as moving the
instructor closer to the front of the team working a hose. It also
sent district officials to additional training on teaching crews with
fire.
The district spent $3,432 on new communication gear mounted on
breathing apparatuses even though it claimed that the amplifiers
weren't needed for communication, which generally is done over radios,
according to documents submitted to OSHA.
When the district resumed live-fire training two weeks after the
accident, crews were careful to follow all rules, and have had three
safe exercises this summer, Hard said.
"I was pleased with what I saw as everyone was more attentive to
procedure," he said. "The biggest thing is don't get complacent," he
added. "This could have happened to anybody."
An excellent point and good leadership shown by the Chief. It can and
has happened to many, many FD's. Their burn was a CLOSE CALL and one
where there are some lessons of value to all Firefighters. Some may
blow this off but those who do need to become familiar with past
training burns that went worse-when Firefighters were killed-READ
below. Firefighters absolutely need good solid no nonsense and tough
hands on training - the standards help minimize unnecessary risk and
injury.
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES WHERE FIREFIGHTERS WERE SERIOUSLY INJURED OR KILLED AT LIVE FIRE TRAINING:
Feb 09, 2007-Prob. FF dies while at a live-fire training evolution at
an acquired structure-Maryland
Oct 23, 2005-Fire officer injured during a live fire evolution at
academy dies two days later-Pennsylvania
Oct 17, 2003-Live-fire exercise in mobile flashover training simulator
injures 5 FF's-Maine
Aug 08, 2003-Live-fire training exercise claims the life of 1 recruit
fire fighter and injures 4 others-Florida
Jul 30, 2002-Lieutenant and FF die in a flashover during a live-fire
training evolution-Florida
Sep 25, 2001-FF dies and two others are injured during live-burn
training-New York
Apr 30, 2000-Assistant chief dies during a controlled-burn training
evolution-Delaware
READ ALL OF THE ABOVE FIRE REPORTS HERE:
http://www2a.cdc.gov/NIOSH-fire-fighter-face/state.asp?state=ALL&Incident_Year=ALL&Medical_Related=ALL&Trauma_Related=0024&Submit=Submit
HERE IS HOW TO MINIMIZE THE RISK WHILE STILL HAVING NO NONSENSE, HANDS
ON TRAINING:
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/wp-solutions/2005-102/
(Preventing Deaths & Injury to Firefighters during Live-Fire Training
in Acquired Structures)
Also on September 24th there is a Firefighter Nation live webcast on the topic.
http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=156476&s=1&k=ADED0172F8738D50DFCFD3E4B80261A1&part

It's always interesting to see what others are doing on this topic.