Required Reading....Incident Summary
On April 16, 2007, the Prince William County region experienced a severe north
eastern storm which was moving off the Atlantic coast. Rain had stopped falling
the previous day, but Prince William County was experiencing significant
sustained winds of 20 – 30 miles per hour with gusts up to 45 plus miles per
hour. At 0601 hours, the Prince William Office of Public Safety Communications
(OPSC) began receiving 911 calls for a house fire in Company 512’s first due
response area. The first caller reported the structure fire but the exact location of
the street address was unknown. A second 911 call was received at 0602 hours
with a specific address location reported as next to 15492 Marsh Overlook Drive.
The incident was dispatched at 0603 and the initial alarm assignment included
Wagon 512, Engine 510, Engine 520, Tower 512, Ambulance 510-A, Medic 512-
C, and Battalion 503. Rescue 510 and Safety 502 added themselves to the
incident dispatch. The exact location of the fire incident was 15474 Marsh
Overlook Drive. Wagon 512 was the first unit to arrive on the scene at 0608 hours and reported
heavy fire showing on Sides B and C of a two story single family home. Tower
512 arrived right behind Wagon 512. Both Wagon and Tower 512 officers
independently performed a size up of the structure and met on Side A of the
structure to establish an initial incident action plan. During their size up, a
minivan was observed in the driveway as well as cars on the street in front of the
house. There were no interior lights on in the house and given the early morning
time period, an occupant rescue situation was suspected. Due to the potential
rescue situation, a second alarm assignment was quickly requested by Wagon
512’s officer.

The initial incident action plan included Wagon 512’s crew advancing a 2 ½ inch
hose line for interior fire attack and Tower 512’s crew performing a primary
search. Both crews planned to proceed to the second floor to accomplish a
search of the bedroom areas first. Interior conditions on the first floor were
reported as light smoke with no heat. Tower 512’s officer reported seeing fire on
the house’s exterior at the B/C corner. The interior windows were still intact and
viewed by the Tower officer from the foyer area on the first floor.

Upon ascending the foyer stairs to the second floor, Tower 512’s inside crew
encountered smoke banked down approximately three to four feet from the
ceiling. Technician I Kyle Wilson and the Tower officer were in the process of
performing a right hand primary search of the master bedroom when conditions
on the second floor rapidly deteriorated and changed to thick black smoke, zero
visibility, and high heat conditions. Reacting to the change in conditions, the
Tower crew began to evacuate the bedroom area to exit the structure. Intense fire and extreme heat rapidly moved down the hallway from Side B toward the master bedroom.

Tower 512’s officer stated that while in the master bedroom verbal
communications with Technician Wilson were maintained during the rapid fire
and heat development. The officer reported that Technician Wilson indicated he
was behind his officer as the officer attempted to locate the bedroom door. The
officer crawled into the hallway and became entangled with a table. The
entanglement caused the officer to fall down approximately five to six stairs to the
curve of the interior staircase. The Tower officer immediately called back for
Technician Wilson who indicated he was having difficulty locating the stairs.
Simultaneously, Wagon 512’s crew experienced the rapidly changing conditions
at the front door area and encountered thick black smoke and a ball of fire that
was reported to have pushed out the front door. Wagon 512’s officer called to
the Tower crew to leave the structure. The Wagon officer heard noises that the
officer believed were the interior stairs collapsing. Wagon 512’s officer reacted to
the noise and informed Command that the stairs had burned out, with a crew
upstairs, and ordered an evacuation of the structure.

Wagon 512’s crew and Rescue 510’s interior crew were at the front door when
they observed a white helmet appear in a ball of fire in the staircase and foyer
area. The crews reached in to that area and located Tower 512’s officer and
quickly removed the officer to the front yard. Tower 512’s officer reported that
Technician Wilson was still on the second floor and believed to be in or near the
staircase.

Rescue 510’s officer transmitted a mayday radio report about the missing
firefighter:
“Rescue 510 officer to, mayday, mayday, mayday, Tower 512 is missing
one firefighter; we have a firefighter missing, in the stairwell.”

This was immediately followed by a mayday transmission from Technician

Wilson stating:“Mayday, mayday, mayday, Tower 512 bucket, I’m trapped inside, I don’t
know where I am, I’m somewhere in the stairwell, I need someone to
come get me out.”

In a rescue attempt, crews reentered the structure. The first floor area around
the staircase, the staircase, and the second floor hallway area were heavily
involved in fire. Crews attempted to protect the staircase with hose lines
operating from the foyer area. Despite the intense heat and fire conditions,
crews made multiple attempts to ascend the staircase to the second floor to locate Technician Wilson while the hose lines operated from the foyer area.

During the multiple attempts in these extreme conditions, crews reached the
second floor landing area twice where Technician Wilson was reported to have
been but were not able to locate him. A partial collapse of the ceiling and roof
structure in Quadrants Charlie/Delta occurred and extremely intense fire
conditions forced crews back down the stairs. Safety 502 observed the
deteriorating conditions from the exterior and issued an emergency evacuation
and all crews were ordered out of the structure by Command.

Crews worked to bring the fire under control, reentered the structure, and an
extensive search was initiated for the missing firefighter. Several areas of the
first and second floors had been burned through and the entire stability of the
structure was of concern.

Tower 512’s officer received partial thickness burns to both ears and the tip of an
index finger. The officer was treated and released from the emergency
department without hospitalization. Crews located Technician Wilson in the master bedroom. Technician Wilson’s body was transported to the Virginia Department of Health’s Medical Examiner’s office. The cause of the line of duty death to Technician Wilson was determined
to be thermal and inhalation injuries.

Executive Summary from the Report
This Line of Duty Death (LODD) Investigative Report is dedicated to Technician I
Kyle Wilson, his parents Bob and Sue Wilson, his sister Kelli, his brother Chris,
his fiancée Kristi, and his extended family and many friends. Kyle will never be
forgotten and to honor his supreme sacrifice, the Prince William County
Department of Fire and Rescue commits to sharing our lessons learned in all
aspects of this report within our department, system, region, and industry so that
no other family or department suffer a similar tragic loss.

This report was developed with a multi-dimensional team approach. The
objectives of the LODD Investigation Team were to examine the events that
occurred at the Marsh Overlook fire incident and identify the factors involved with
the line of duty death of Technician I Kyle Wilson. The Investigation Team has
reviewed all available information at the time of publication and documented the
factual findings, discussions, and recommendations in an effort to prevent
another tragic outcome from occurring again.

Virginia Occupational Safety and Health (VOSH) and the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) performed independent investigations
of the Marsh Overlook fire incident. The Prince William County Department of
Fire and Rescue’s LODD Investigation Team’s report took a dissecting approach
from every aspect which reaches beyond the scope of the VOSH or NIOSH
reports. To prevent another tragic event, a critical self assessment of the
organization was necessary. This report represents thousands of hours of effort
to analyze fire and rescue operations and recommend needed improvements.
These organizational improvements range in complexity and many will have
budgetary impacts that will be impossible to achieve in a single fiscal year.
However, the report provides a framework for improvements that when enacted
will improve responder safety and elevate service delivery to the citizens and
visitors of Prince William County.

The LODD Investigation Team had the advantage of examining this incident over
a period of months. The team would spend days dissecting a single snapshot of
time and considering what actions were taken and what the resulting impacts
were. However, this is starkly contrasted by the actual incident the responding
personnel faced on that fateful day. The Marsh Overlook incident was an
immense fire fueled by extremely flammable building material products and a
vicious wind. It was an environment where information gathering and decision
making had to be performed in a time measurement of seconds. During the
chain of events that occurred and under severe circumstances, fire and rescue
personnel performed at exceptional levels. In an attempt to rescue Technician I
Kyle Wilson, personnel displayed heroic efforts and jeopardized their own safety
to try and reach their missing comrade.

The major factors in Technician Wilson’s line of duty death were determined to
be:
• Initial arriving fire suppression force
• Size up of fire development and spread
• High wind impact on fire development and spread
• Structure size, lightweight building construction and materials
• Rapid intervention and firefighter rescue efforts
• Incident control and management

The fire conditions that were present in the structure, the large size and
lightweight building construction of the structure, the behavior of the fire impacted
by the high wind environment, and the organizational preparation for and
response to the incident were contributing factors in this tragic event. The
weather conditions and construction features resulted in the rapid and
catastrophic progression of fire conditions and the loss of integrity to the building.
The conditions of the fire cannot be changed but this incident investigation shows
organizational response to similar incidents can and should be improved.
Resulting from this tragic incident and the dissecting analysis that followed, the
Department will be improving numerous aspects of their operations centered on
staffing, training, procedures, and communications.

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