Department thankful for low death rate
By John Futty
The Columbus Dispatch
Copyright 2007 The Columbus Dispatch
All Rights Reserved
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Every Columbus fire recruit gets training in how to rescue a fellow firefighter who has fallen into a hole.
It's called the "Nance drill" in honor of John W. Nance, who died July 25, 1987, after falling through the floor of a burning building on N. High Street Downtown.
He was the last Columbus firefighter to die in the line of duty.
Yesterday, a day after nine firefighters died in a furniture-store fire in Charleston, S.C., Columbus fire officials were acknowledging their good fortune in avoiding an on-scene fatality in their ranks for nearly 20 years.
"The biggest thing is education," said Battalion Chief David Whiting, the division's safety chief. "We're constantly training, going through the kind of situations where injuries or fatalities can occur."
He expects the division to seek lessons from the Charleston tragedy.
"We realize that could have been us. We're not playing Monday-morning quarterback, but we'll learn from what they did or didn't do. We learn from others' mistakes, unfortunately."
Fire departments throughout central Ohio largely have been spared firefighter fatalities during the past decade. In February 1998, Westerville firefighter David Theisen died in a house fire while volunteering for the Crooksville Fire Department in Perry County.
Nationwide, firefighter fatalities declined from 131 in 1987 to 92 last year, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. However, firefighter fatalities per 100,000 fire incidents haven't changed much since the '80s.
"There's no one explanation, other than it's a very dangerous job," said Mark Whitney of the National Fire Data Center.
Although training and equipment have improved for firefighters, some construction methods have added to the dangers they face, Whiting said.
"Things are being built more cheaply, less sturdy, and they fail much more quickly in a fire," he said.
He mentioned problems with truss construction of floors and roofs, which have collapsed quickly during fires, trapping or crushing firefighters.
But the leading cause of on-duty firefighter deaths is heart attacks. A study by the U.S. Fire Administration found that heart attacks were responsible for 44 percent of the fatalities from 1990 to 2000.
On March 14, 2004, Columbus firefighter Donald E. Ward died of a heart attack the day after working a 12-hour overtime shift in which he responded to seven emergency calls, including a structure fire.
Because Ward complained of feeling ill before his shift ended, the federal agency included his death in its list of on-duty fatalities.
Whitney said the "triple threat" of stress, dehydration and high core body temperatures experienced by firefighters while carrying heavy equipment at fire scenes can put an enormous strain on the heart.
That's why the Columbus Fire Division stresses the importance of its firefighters getting proper nutrition and exercise, said Battalion Chief Doug Smith.
"Every fire station is fully equipped with a workout room," he said. "We encourage them to do a one-hour workout every 24-hour shift."
