fire prevention essay

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Feb 20, 2024

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1 The Cost of Prevention Christian Herrington Columbia Southern University FIR3306 Fire Prevention Organization and Management James Golden 09/26/2023

2 The Cost of Prevention In September 1989 Castlewood Fire Protection District suffered a Line of Duty Death (LODD). In the early morning hours of September 10 th , a fire was reported at a strip mall located in Greenwood Village, Colorado. During firefighting efforts, the roof of the building suddenly collapsed. This collapse was unexpected and trapped several firefighters inside the structure, ultimately trapping and killing Captain John Hager. This event led the department to implement some serious changes such as staffing, communication, preplans, and training. Building construction also played a large role in the LODD which also made the department invest more into inspections. As with many historic large fires, building construction (engineering) and fire prevention/preplans (enforcement) could have prevented or lessened the death and destruction. There are contributing factors that led to the LODD and those have also contributed to multiple fatal fires. The changes and implementation of the five Es of fire prevention have been made to improve life safety and prevent fatalities. Between 2013 and 2022, there have been 32 reported firefighter deaths due to collapse (U.S. Fire Administration, 2019a). Most of these were during firefighting activities at a structure fire. This is even after sweeping changes to fire prevention and building construction over the years. As far back as 1679 in the United States building codes were being changed to make a more fire-resistive building (Giesler, 2016). Even though most fire departments across the country have prevention or inspection teams many don’t have the funding to be thorough and invest the time needed for every structure in their jurisdiction. In 1989 in Greenwood Village, CO there wasn’t a robust preplan system in place. This meant that the responding firefighters didn’t know the layout or construction of the building prior to the collapse (South Metro Fire Rescue, n.d.). The next key factor that contributed to the LODD was communication. There was

3 only one radio per unit and only the officer carried them. There were also no lapel microphones to assist with hearing and communicating on the fireground (South Metro Fire Rescue, n.d.). Today, every member carries a radio with a lapel microphone. They take a basic communication class and are expected to know how to communicate properly during any type of emergency. In several historical large life loss fires communication between people who reported the fires and even call boxes sending responding units to the wrong address occurred. Communication is a constant battle but has continuously improved especially with technology. When it comes to training, RIT or Rapid Intervention Team wasn’t on the list during the 1989 fatal fire. Today at South Metro Fire Rescue (formerly Castlewood FPD) every crew is expected to perform RIT duties as needed and train weekly on MAYDAY drills. During the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire there were several shortcomings that occurred like crews being unfamiliar with the topography of the area and having difficulty with placing apparatus (Giesler, 2016). These setbacks could have potentially been avoided with some training. Within South Metro Fire Rescue fire prevention has become its own bureau through Community Risk Reduction that does public education programs. The Fire Marshal’s office performs inspections and enforces fire codes in new and existing builds. The engineering aspect of fire prevention can fall under the fire marshals’ office during inspections and plan approval but ultimately falls onto the cities and their approval of certain building methods and materials. Emergency Response has changed significantly since 1989. South Metro Fire Rescue is currently attempting to make every apparatus a four person apparatus. In 1989 the minimum staffing for an apparatus was 1 (South Metro Fire Rescue, n.d.). The 5 Es of Fire Prevention is a very solid foundation to keep the public and firefighting personnel safe. It has taken many years and lives to bring prevention to where it is now. The

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4 U.S. Fire Administration has many free resources available for prevention and community risk reduction that are available to the public and Fire Departments (U.S. Fire Administration, 2019b). Having free resources such as these can only benefit those departments that are struggling financially and help them keep their communities safe.

5 References Giesler. (2016). Fire & life safety educator + navigate 2 advantage access : principles and practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning. South Metro Fire Rescue. (n.d.). South Metro Fire Rescue . Vimeo. Retrieved September 23, 2023, from https://vimeo.com/user3340295 U.S. Fire Administration. (2019a). Summary incident report . Fema.gov. https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/firefighter-fatalities/fatalityData/incidentDataReport U.S. Fire Administration. (2019b). U.S. Fire Administration fire prevention and education resources . U.S. Fire Administration. https://www.usfa.fema.gov/prevention/

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