On the exhibit hall this afternoon at Firehouse Expo, Deputy Chief Billy Goldfeder of the Loveland-Symmes (Ohio) Fire Department gave a no-nonsense presentation that focused on a select group of firefighter fatalities and the crucial, lifesaving lessons that can be learned from them. Among the real-life accounts of firefighter fatalities was one out of San Francisco in which a firefighter died in a residential fire. The smoke coming from the residence at the time of the fatality was black. “Black smoke is pre-flashover conditions,” Goldfeder warned. “Black smoke is black fire.”
Goldfeder’s advice: Do not rush to enter this type of fire. “If you have heavy fire/heavy smoke conditions, don’t go in. Hit the fire first. In Chicago they call this ‘resetting the fire.’ Remember, this isn’t your grandfather’s fire or even your father’s fire. “
A second fatality occurred in Ohio, where a young firefighter with three months on the job was decapitated when a homemade, pressurized tank that the department had mounted on a Humvee exploded. The lid of the tank was located several yards from the vehicle. The department was a rural department, trying to save a buck, “and who isn’t these days?” Chief Goldfeder asked.
Goldfeder’s advice: “Don’t make your own apparatus. The person who made that tank now has to live with what happened.”
In a third case, a young firefighter by the name of Steven “Peanut” Koeser was killed at the scene of a dumpster fire in Wisconsin when the dumpster suddenly exploded. The message behind this particular case: A dumpster fire may sound simple, perhaps even boring, but the potential for danger is incredibly high. Why? “People put anything in a dumpster, anything,” Goldfeder warned. “The people who make mobile homemade meth labs are going to dump them in the dumpster at the nearby McDonald’s at 2 in the morning.”
Goldfeder’s advice: “Check your exposures and cool down from far away,” he says. But fighting a dumpster fire should start long before one takes place. Preplanning is crucial. “You need to determine what’s being manufactured in your community,” Goldfeder said. This will help departments know what types of materials are generally being dumped in specific dumpsters. You can also talk to your local manufacturers and try to strike a deal: Ask or suggest to the manufacturer that they help pay for resources and specialized equipment, depending on what they manufacture, in exchange for protection.
“The best way to honor Koeser the next time you arrive at a dumpster fire: take a breath,” Goldfeder suggested. “Slow down.”
