By Lou Michel
The Buffalo News
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo firefighters are better trained in how to issue a “mayday” call for help, now carry improved portable radios for operation in blinding smoke and practice more thorough tactics for fighting basement fires.
A year ago today, when two firefighters perished in a Genesee Street fire, those enhancements were not in place. The deaths of Lt. Charles W. “Chip” McCarthy Jr. and Firefighter Jonathan S. Croom were a wake-up call for the city Fire Department.
The fire early on the morning of Aug. 24 started in the basement of Super Speedy Deli, which doubled as a secure warehouse for cigarette storage. By the time firefighters arrived at about 3:50 a.m., the blaze was burning fiercely, and civilians mistakenly told fire officials people were trapped inside.
Faulty electrical wiring has been mentioned as a possible cause, but a definitive ruling on what started the fire has never been issued.
Now all that’s left at 1815 Genesee St., just west of Bailey Avenue, where the rambling 2 1/2-story, wood-and-brick structure once stood, is a vacant lot.
And a whole lot of hurt.
“The only thing we can do to honor the memory of those who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty is to try and get better at what we do and be there for each other,” Fire Commissioner Garnell W. Whitfield Jr. said.
There is no question, he added, that the Fire Department has made progress in becoming better prepared. In fact, the now-completed mayday training was under way prior to the fatal fire.
“We are absolutely a better department than we were then,” Whitfield said. “But that does not mean another member will not get hurt. We had two guys fall off a ladder recently, and the week before that, a roof collapsed on several firefighters. Thank God nobody perished.”
When McCarthy, 45, of Rescue 1, fell through a collapsed section of the deli’s first floor by a rear row of coolers, other firefighters initially did not know who was screaming over the radio for help or the location.
Croom, outside the front of the deli, apparently was able to figure out that the mayday call was coming from somewhere inside the deli portion of the building and re-entered the structure as other firefighters were leaving.
Teaching ‘self-rescue’
In the heavy smoke, the 34-year-old firefighter from Ladder 7 fell through the same hole as McCarthy.
The mayday training, department officials say, not only gives firefighters more direction about what to broadcast over their portable radios — such as location, unit, name, assignment and resources needed to assist — but teaches them how to “self-rescue and self-evacuate.”
To do that, the firefighter tries to compose himself by regaining presence of mind, figure out what happened to put him in the perilous situation and remember how he entered the building.
“When you go into the structure, you have to size it up, then you have to determine a means of egress, if the environment is compromised,” Whitfield said. “You need a preplan on how to exit. These are things we do normally, but we’re reinforcing it on a daily basis.”
In addition, the commissioner said the department is purchasing new portable radios and has retrofitted others that let firefighters know what channel the radio is set to, even when visual confirmation is impossible because of heavy smoke.
“Our radios now have an audible alert that tells you what channel you’re on,” the commissioner said. “Also, the dial, at the front and back, is the same first four channels. If you are trying to find one of those channels in a blind situation, you turn your dial all the way right or all the way left and you know you are on channel one. Channel one is our main channel.”
Despite these changes, Dan Cunningham, president of the union representing city firefighters, said the radio enhancements fall short of what’s needed.
Better communication
“Enhancing would make the radio equipment more powerful,” Cunningham said. “Our alarm office can only track six radios at a scene. The equipment at the alarm office holds the last six transmissions, identifying the individuals with those six radios. What about the other 20 radios at a scene?
“If you want to enhance the system, there is technology out there that can keep track of substantially more transmissions from different radios.”
Other improved technology, Cunningham added, can rapidly identify the name of a firefighter who presses his “man-down” button on the portable radio.
Whitfield, in making his case that improvements are occurring on multiple fronts, said firefighters also are receiving training in effective communications, so that the incident commander “gets good information with which to make his decisions.”
An independent investigation of the fatal fire found that the incident commander had received some misinformation about the status of the basement.
The department, at the recommendation of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, also has adopted a standard operating procedure (SOP) for dealing with basement fires, which are known to be treacherous.
New tactics in place
“We now have an SOP for basement fires. It’s been reviewed and tweaked. We adhere to certain tactics and strategies, not that we didn’t have them, but they needed to be reinforced,” Whitfield said.
At the deadly blaze, firefighters were entering the building long after the first floor had been structurally compromised. Flames were venting through a section of the flooring, and other sections were reported to be spongy. In fact, a third firefighter fell through the floor but was able to stop himself from plunging into the basement.
Another equipment improvement that will be in place by the end of the year calls for outfitting the department’s more than 700 firefighters with new self-contained breathing apparatuses. The units will replace ones that are a decade old.
When the remains of McCarthy and Croom were recovered from the store’s basement, their breathing units were empty. The two men had died from inhaling super-heated gases, autopsies later confirmed.
Though there was no indication something went wrong with their breathing apparatuses, Whitfield said it is time to buy new ones.
More help needed
Cunningham, president of Local 282, Professional Firefighters Association, hopes the department will adopt a routine maintenance schedule for the units, which, he claims, does not now exist.
“Currently we have Firefighter Larry Parker as our only certified repair specialist for the self-contained breathing apparatus,” Cunningham said. “We did have two full-time people, but one has advanced to deputy commissioner, so when Larry is on vacation, if we have a rash of breakdowns, who is going to do the work on them?”
Another improvement made by the department, Whitfield said, requires every fire company responding to a blaze to carry a thermal-imaging camera to assist in searches of burning structures.
As for confusion and misinformation at the Aug. 24 fire scene — it took three head counts before it was determined Croom also was missing — the commissioner said he is looking into providing state-sponsored training courses for the department’s upper command.
Whitfield disputes claims that there was any more confusion at that fire than is normal at a major fire.
What about the national institute’s recommendation that incident commanders at fire scenes should have an aide or command technician to assist them in keeping track of firefighters and rapidly changing conditions?
“We have an assigned accountability officer to keep track of the whereabouts of our members at every fire,” the commissioner said in countering that suggestion.
Cunningham, however, says that the accountability officer also doubles as the emergency medical service officer, coordinating first aid to injured firefighters.
“We need a full-time accountability officer. Right now he has two jobs, and he is one person with no relief,” Cunningham said of the distractions the officer can face.
On overall staffing for training firefighters, Cunningham said additional dedicated training staff is needed.
“Normally we have four lieutenants on duty training, and now we have one,” he said.
And while the commissioner and union president do not agree on very much, they are in solidarity when it comes to extending continued heartfelt expressions of concern to the families of Croom and McCarthy.
“Not only are those families in the department’s prayers, but all who have lost someone in the line of duty,” Whitfield said.
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