One topic of scrutiny is likely to be pre-fire plans.
By Laurence Hammack
The Roanoke Times (Virginia)
Copyright 2006 The Roanoke Times
Emergency responders in Salem will review their policies in an effort to never repeat the mistakes of July 14, when three victims of carbon monoxide poisoning were overlooked in the rush to evacuate a Roanoke College dormitory.
“Every emergency department, college and institution will benefit” from the lessons learned that day, Salem Fire-EMS Chief Pat Counts said Friday.
The announcement came one day after the city released documents that showed, for the first time, that firefighters missed two rooms as they did a door-to-door search of the Sections dormitory.
Three-and-a-half hours after receiving the first 911 call, rescue workers discovered the body of Walter J. Vierling, who died from inhaling the invisible and odorless carbon monoxide fumes that had seeped through the building from a malfunctioning hot water heater in the basement.
Two women, one barely breathing and the other semiconscious, were found in a nearby room that was also missed during the initial search. They survived.
Because the two rooms were unlike the others in Sections, with doors that opened to the outside instead of to an interior hallway, firefighters wearing oxygen masks missed them as they checked to be sure everyone had left the gas-filled building.
Firefighters were told by school officials about the unusual configuration of the two rooms, Counts said Friday, but “in the confusion, we truly thought the rooms had been checked.”
School officials also gave the rescue workers a list of who was in the building within an hour of 6:40 a.m., when the first emergency call was received, and by 9 a.m. had provided a floor plan that showed the building’s layout, college spokeswoman Teresa Gereaux said.
But it was not until about 10 a.m. that officials learned of three more people inside. By that point, more than 100 people, many of them with relatively mild symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, already had been evaluated at a triage center and sent to local hospitals.
One of the two unidentified women in one overlooked room apparently regained consciousness long enough to call 911. After rushing the woman and her roommate to Lewis-Gale Medical Center, rescue workers found Vierling dead in his room.
Counts said there was no way to determine whether the 91-year-old retired pastor from Giles County might have survived had he been found earlier.
It’s too soon to say just what changes might come from the department’s review of the incident, Counts said. But one topic of scrutiny is likely to be pre-fire plans, in which high-occupancy buildings are identified and plans are made for emergency operations. The process usually involves having a floor plan of the building on file to assist with evacuations and rescue efforts.
Salem already has such a plan to some degree, Counts said, but the department lacks the manpower to make sure the floor plans are regularly updated.
It was not clear whether firefighters had a floor plan of Sections on the morning of July 14, Counts said. They ended up using one that was provided at the scene by college officials.
The carbon monoxide buildup, which occurred overnight after a hot water heater malfunctioned, sickened more than 100 people who were staying in the dorm for either a Lutheran church conference or a college prep program. Three people were admitted to the hospital; the rest were treated and released.
Considering the large number of victims and the confusion on the scene, “our people did an admirable job,” Counts said.