By Dave Statter
STATter911.com
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — Two Montgomery County, MD firefighters remain hospitalized following Saturday's fire that injured a third firefighter and killed a man living in the apartment where the fire began. On Tuesday, Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service Chief Tom Carr announced he has formed a regional review panel to investigate all aspects of the fire at the Halpine View Apartments in Rockville.
Chief Carr says it is very clear that Captain Dwayne Dutrow, Firefighter James Heikka and Firefighter Mark Mechlin, came close to losing their lives.
Fifty-year-old Timothy Moran did die in the fire reported just before 1:00 AM. Investigators believe the fire started in Moran's bedroom in apartment 103 of 12,819 Twinbrook Parkway. According to Carr, Moran's burned body was discovered at the opposite end of the apartment from his bedroom. Investigators say Moran was a heavy smoker and believe that is the likely cause of the blaze.
Looking down through where the floor used to be in apartment 203 into apartment 103. All pictures courtesy of Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service.
The three firefighters fell into that burning bedroom from apartment 203, one floor above. Chief Carr described the collapse of the bedroom floor as catastrophic and complete, extending "wall to wall and wall to wall". Carr and investigators believe this is evidence the fire burned for a considerable amount of time before it was discovered and reported.
Chief Tom Carr said the floor collapsed "wall to wall and wall to wall".
The panel, led by Division Chief Mike Love, will try and determine, among other things, if smoke alarms operated in Moran's apartment. Chief Carr said, "We do not know if one sounded, we have no reports that it did".
The initial call to 911 came from the occupant of apartment 203. Chief Carr said the smoke alarm in that apartment sounded only after the call was made.
The smoke alarms are hard wired with no battery back-up. Chief Love could not yet confirm if the alarms were the ionization type or photoelectric. Recent studies indicate ionization alarms are not as good at detecting smoldering fires and are less likely to last as long as photoelectric versions.
The complex did not have a manual-pull alarm system and was not required to have one because each building has fewer than 12 units. Chief Carr said the first firefighters on the scene discovered many residents still in the buildings, with some unaware of the fire raging next door.
Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service released its own video taken during Saturday's fire. It shows fire on the top two floors and through the roof of the garden-style apartment building. The video also shows crews treating Firefighter Heikka and then Firefighter Mechlin.
The panel will also look closely at fireground tactics and how crews responded to their trapped colleagues. Chief Carr praised those in charge of the fireground. He also believes the training of the injured firefighters and those coming to their rescue played a major role in the firefighters' survival.
Chief Carr said at the time of the collapse Firefighter Mechlin was not on the nozzle, but that the hose fell beside him. Mechlin was initially trapped under furniture that had also fallen. Carr said Mechlin was able to use the hose line for protection while attempting to free himself. Firefighter Mechlin was released from the hospital on Monday. Even though he remained in the burning room the longest, his injuries were the least severe of the three firefighters from Engine 723.
A view from apartment 103 looking up at apartment 203. The hanging, large piece of wall-to-wall carpet apparently initially blocked FF Mechlin's view and access to the doorway.
Firefighter Heikka and Captain Dutrow landed closer to the bedroom window. With fire all around them, each fell or jumped through that window to the ground 13-feet below.
Incident commander and Volunteer Division Chief Alan Hinde, set up on Side C of the building, looked up as the "mayday" was called to see, first Heikka, and then Dutrow, fall to the ground. Chief Hinde can be heard on the recording of the fireground audio trying to get a ladder to the window, but there was no time. Hinde described seeing the firefighters emerge from the wall of flame as "surreal" and like a scene out of a movie.
According to Chief Carr the debris field from the collapse raised the floor level in apartment 103, allowing Captain Dutrow and FF Heikka to crawl or roll out of the window
Chief Love will be joined on the panel by other members of the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service and representatives from fire departments in the District of Columbia, Fairfax County and Prince William County.
