On April 30, 2004, a 58-year-old male career fire fighter (the victim) sustained a fatal head injury when he fell from a moving, cab-forward engine. The engine was responding to a reported gas odor with a fire fighter/driver and an officer in the cab, and two firefighters, including the victim, seated in the open jump seats. Upon departure from the station, the engine made a right turn from the apron onto the street. During this turn, the victim fell out of the drivers side jump seat door landing on the street and striking his head. He was treated at the scene for head trauma and transported to a local hospital. He died from his injuries three days after the incident.
On January 13, 2003, a 46-year-old female career fire fighter/emergency medical technician (EMT) [the victim] died from injuries she received after falling from a moving, open-cab engine. The engine was responding to a reported airport emergency with an officer and a fire fighter/driver in the cab, a fire fighter/paramedic and a fire fighter/EMT (victim) seated in the open-cab jump seats. While enroute, as the engine was rounding a bend and accelerating up a slight grade to enter a highway, the victim lost her balance and fell from the apparatus onto the road. The victim was treated at the scene for multiple traumatic injuries and transported to a local hospital. She died from her injuries five days after the incident.
On December 8, 2011, a 43-year-old male career fire fighter received fatal injuries when he was trapped under falling debris during a partial collapse at the rear of a three-story residential structure. The victim was part of a rescue company that was conducting a secondary interior search for a reported missing resident. The secondary search was initiated approximately 30 minutes after the crews had arrived on-scene and approximately 10 minutes after fire fighters evacuated the building due to deteriorating conditions within the burning structure. The secondary search was initiated after the missing civilian's roommate persisted in telling fire fighters that his friend was still inside, and most likely in a rear, second-floor bedroom. The collapse trapped the victim under debris on the first floor while the injured fire fighter rode the second floor down to the basement. A total of 11 fire fighters were inside the structure at the time of the collapse. Rescue operations took approximately 50 minutes to free the victim who was unresponsive. Extensive shoring was required within the unstable collapse area and crews had to breach the brick cellar wall to reach the injured fire fighter. Following the extrication efforts, fire fighters continued to search for the missing civilian. It was later determined that the missing civilian was not inside the structure at the time of the collapse. The civilian had left prior to the arrival of the fire department.
On April 23, 2005, a 27-year-old male career fire fighter (the victim) sustained a fatal head injury when he fell from an enclosed-cab quint. The incident occurred shortly after leaving the station while the truck was en-route to a reported structure fire. It is believed the victim reached to close a rear passenger door that had opened during a turn to the right, when he fell out of the quint and landed on the pavement. The victim was treated at the scene and transported to a local hospital by ambulance. He died two days later from his injuries.
At 0444 hours, a 3rd Alarm was transmitted for Box 5-49. At 0446 hours, the officer of Ladder 5 transmitted a Mayday for crews trapped on the 2nd floor. A firefighter from Engine 4 (E402) was separated from the other firefighters on the 2nd floor. E402 was able to get to a bedroom window on the Side Alpha/Delta corner and was removed via a ground ladder. Four other firefighters came out another bedroom window and onto the platform of Ladder 7. A firefighter from Ladder 5 (L502) and a firefighter from Ladder 4 (L403) were separated from the other crews and from each other. Both firefighters moved toward Side Charlie of the fire building. As L502 moved toward Side Charlie, L502 heard an end-of-service time indicator (EOSTI) sounding and found L403. L502 moved toward the other firefighter and asked for L403’s name but heard no answer. L502 started looking for a window to escape because the 2nd floor was getting hot. L502 entered a bedroom and found a window on Side Charlie, broke the window, called a Mayday on the radio, and started yelling for help. L502 retrieved L403, led him to the window and put the firefighter’s hands on the windowsill. L502 then exited the window and descended a ground ladder. L403 did not follow L502 down the ladder. The time was approximately 0455 hours. Rescue efforts were started to remove L403 from the bedroom. Using a rope-haul rescue system, L403 was removed from the building at 0551 hours. L403 was transported to the local trauma center and pronounced deceased. The fire was declared under control at approximately 0651 hours.
On January 6, 2012, a 49-year-old male career fire fighter (the victim) died from injuries sustained after falling from the tip of a 105-ft aerial ladder during training. The aerial ladder was set up behind the victim's fire station so that personnel could climb the ladder for training. Fire fighters were dressed in station or exercise attire. All fire fighters, including the victim, were wearing ladder safety belts as they ascended and descended the ladder. Some personnel included the ladder climb into an exercise routine. Prior to the victim's second climb, he complained of his legs being wobbly and feeling out of shape. After reaching the tip of the ladder on his second climb, the victim failed to immediately come back down. The fire fighters on the ground did not think anything of it until they heard a noise and looked up to see the victim tumbling down the rungs of the ladder. The victim tumbled out of the protection of the ladder rails and struck the passenger side rear outrigger. Lifesaving measures were taken by fire fighters on scene, but the victim succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.
On July 29, 2011, a 53-year-old career lieutenant (the victim) died from injuries he received after a vehicle he was performing maintenance on crushed him. The victim had lifted the vehicle with a portable floor jack. While on a creeper, the victim positioned himself under the vehicle and was preparing to remove the oil drain plug when the vehicle came down on him. Fire fighters within the station came to check on the victim and discovered that the jack was no longer supporting the vehicle and the victim was motionless under the vehicle. The fire fighters quickly repositioned the jack and attempted to raise the vehicle but the jack failed to support the vehicle's weight. The fire fighters had to use hydraulic spreaders to raise the vehicle off of the victim. The victim later died at the hospital from injuries sustained during the incident.
On June 28, 2015, a 46-year-old male career fire fighter/engineer was critically injured after falling through a translucent corrugated roof panel. The fire fighter was the engineer on Truck 8, the third truck company dispatched to a possible structure fire at a multipurpose commercial structure at 2132 hours. The first arriving companies found an exterior dumpster on fire with flames extending approximately 4 feet up the exterior sheet-metal wall along the edge of an exterior window. District Chief 2 arrived on-scene and assumed incident command (IC) just as the dumpster was being pulled away from the structure. Fire fighters quickly extinguished the fire in the dumpster using a booster hose. The IC directed crews to force entry into the structure to conduct an interior search for occupants and fire extension. The IC also directed the Truck 8 crew to the roof to check for fire extension. All searches were negative. The IC requested that the Truck 8 crew size up the approximate building dimensions. While reporting the building dimensions to the incident commander, the Truck 8 engineer stepped onto a translucent corrugated roof panel, which cracked under his weight. The roof was not well illuminated and the translucent panel blended with the rest of the roof. He fell approximately 17 feet onto the concrete floor below. The engineer suffered multiple open bone fractures and vascular damage. He was immediately transported to a trauma hospital (Hospital 1) where multiple surgeries were performed over a 2-week period. On July 9, 2015, the engineer was discharged from the hospital to continue his recovery at home. On July 15, six days after discharge, the engineer experienced sudden onset of severe shortness of breath. He was transported by ambulance to Hospital 2, but upon arrival in the hospital?s parking lot, he suffered a cardiopulmonary arrest. Efforts to resuscitate the engineer in the hospital?s emergency department were unsuccessful. An autopsy revealed a massive pulmonary thromboembolism originating from a thrombus in his lower extremity formed as a result of blunt trauma injuries sustained during his fall. The pulmonary thromboembolism occurred despite being on anticoagulation therapy.
