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Indiana Department Faces Fine Over Confined Space Close-Call
Firefighter Nation
MUNCIE - Indiana's Star Press reports that two Liberty Township volunteer firefighters injured in a May confined space rescue attempt violated OSHA regulations.
On May 26, firefighters Rick Compton and Brian Buck arrived in their personal vehicles at the scene of plumber and his assistant overcome in the bottom of a 12-foot deep hole. Both Compton and Buck entered the hole without any personal protective equipment and were rendered unconscious due to fumes from a chemical being used to clear a drain.
When properly equipped firefighters from Liberty Township arrived, as well as confined-space trained firefighters from Muncie, all four victims were placed in harnesses and lifted out of the hole.
Both Compton and Buck survived, however the plumber, Eric Dalton and his assistant Justin Benson died.
State officials investigating the incident found the firefighters operated improperly by attempting a rescue that they were not trained for. The Liberty Township fire department faced a fine of $1,500 or take corrective action to prevent a similar tragedy from occuring in the future.
Liberty Township Fire Chief Brett Devine has stated that his department has begun making the necessary changes to prevent members from operating in ways that they have not been trained. Devine also reports that the department has stopped members from responding directly to the scene in their personally owned vehicles as well.
Read more of the Liberty Township well-rescue violations here.
Related
FireEMSBlogs Discussion
Are Today's Demands Too Much For Volunteers?
MUNCIE - Indiana's Star Press reports that two Liberty Township volunteer firefighters injured in a May confined space rescue attempt violated OSHA regulations.
On May 26, firefighters Rick Compton and Brian Buck arrived in their personal vehicles at the scene of plumber and his assistant overcome in the bottom of a 12-foot deep hole. Both Compton and Buck entered the hole without any personal protective equipment and were rendered unconscious due to fumes from a chemical being used to clear a drain.
When properly equipped firefighters from Liberty Township arrived, as well as confined-space trained firefighters from Muncie, all four victims were placed in harnesses and lifted out of the hole.
Both Compton and Buck survived, however the plumber, Eric Dalton and his assistant Justin Benson died.
State officials investigating the incident found the firefighters operated improperly by attempting a rescue that they were not trained for. The Liberty Township fire department faced a fine of $1,500 or take corrective action to prevent a similar tragedy from occuring in the future.
Liberty Township Fire Chief Brett Devine has stated that his department has begun making the necessary changes to prevent members from operating in ways that they have not been trained. Devine also reports that the department has stopped members from responding directly to the scene in their personally owned vehicles as well.
Read more of the Liberty Township well-rescue violations here.
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FireEMSBlogs Discussion
Are Today's Demands Too Much For Volunteers?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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"They weighed the risks, time the men had been down with arrival time of dept. Decided to risk there lives to save the men in that hole. If that is how it went down...Then I won't fault them for that."
OSHA can and will fault them for that, because they have the legal power to do so.
If the individual fire department can't afford the training, equipment, or manpower for a confined space rescue team, they can partner with neighboring departments and form a county or regional team. The trade-off is slower response times, but that's better than dead would-be rescuers.
There is a long hstory of firefighters and other rescuers dying in well-intentioned but non-OSHA compliant confined space rescue attempts. If the atmosphere in the hole is unbreathable, then it isn't a case of risking rescuers lives to save the men in the hole, it is a case of tag-team suicide attempts, even if it's unrecognized as such at the time.
The only way to recognize those hazards is usually direct-reading atmospheric monitoring. Yes, they're expensive. No, they're not more expensive than firefighter funerals or medical care.
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Clyde, Good Samaritain legislation doesn't cover anyone who is acting as a member of an organized emergency response agency, whether career or volunteer.
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Permalink Reply by Lewis R. Austin on
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Confined Space Awareness....If a Fire Department selects not to provide Confined Space Rescue (OSHA does list the requirements to provide Confined Space Rescue) and relies on a Regional Response Team, training of those firefighters, paid or volunteer, in an awareness program to recognize confined space, what to do from outside the confined space and how to support the Confined Space Rescue Team. This is also true for Trench Rescue. If a Fire Department does not have the funding, personnel and equipment to provide these services to the community, the Fire Chief is responsible to ensure that his/her department is made AWARE. There is no excuse for this type of needless injury of Firefighters, it was preventable. These firefighters came very close in lossing their lives!
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Permalink Reply by Shawn Sommers on
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That article to me, does kind of show a lack of common sense. The 2 Firefighters should not have entered into a Confined Space without their gear regardless of trying to save the other 2 men's lives or not. They put themselves in danger, and also wasted valuable time in the rescue effort.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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This is addressed in confined space classes....it was a stupid thing to do...and I am sure now everyone involved knows it....sometimes it is hard to do the right thing....always remember to stop, slow down and think BEFORE you act...almost had 4 fatalities instead of 2........good intentions can and will get you killed......
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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Does it cost dollars to get another FD to come and train them in identification of spaces? NO!
There's plenty of ways training can be done- it doesn't have to be a formal course like Roco or others.
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Permalink Reply by Jason on
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Our dept is working...slow but sure...to have a full out tech rescue team in our own county with the right equipment and training needed for the hazards we face in our area. As for right now, we have teamed up with the Regional Team for both training and equipment. We have a ropes team and some confined space equipment but nothing like the regional team has. Best thing we have had going for us is the teams needs members for its roster and we need them for trained personel as well as the large cache of equipment. I myself and a number of others have gone through both ropes(high and low) and confineds space. Its funny how many guys think we are just wasting our time...my reply to them. You never know when it will happen, we need to be prepared for ALL hazards in our district as well and the neighboring ones as well. That and our funding for the training is comming from FEMA as well as the state. Only complaint I made...I can't do this training more often.
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Permalink Reply by Gregory Borg on
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That is very representative of fines in the US, no one gets a real fine, even when someone dies and it could have been prevented. The only fine is when the family sues the FD and gets millions.
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Yes, but are you aware that the Department IS liable for this incident....especially if they didn't have training ......
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55 TRUCK, if they had at least awareness level training, then there's every chance we wouldn't be having this discussion. They don't specialised equipment to know what's safe and not safe, and who to call...
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Permalink Reply by John Dobson on
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I fault the state as much as the firefighters and the department. Its very hard to find a class here. There has never been a confined space class even close to here or any other technical rescue class in the ops level. I have been to Illinois for classes that Indiana won't recognize. (Indiana OSHA state, Illinois NFPA state) I have a technical rescue awareness cert here in Indiana. So I would have set the electric vent fan up and moved some fresh air down while waiting the hours it would take to get a crew here to remove the bodys.
As far as POVs whats that going to do? Make them go to the station get on a truck and still not know what to do on scene? Or hope someone on the truck knows what to do. If we waited for everybody to show at are station are avg response time would go from 7.5 minutes to 20 minutes or longer. Some of are members are 10 miles away and some live within a few blocks from the station. It will never make sense to wait for all the members.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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Point being the guys should have known better in the first place before just going down. There have been plenty of similar incidents one should have learned from. As for a class, that is up to the dept if they wish to go further than just Awareness level. As it is, there is a good chance there are other options out there who are certified in confined space and not a fire dept. Utilities like phone companies, water, sewage utilities etc do confined space all the time and thus could be a resource.
As far as POVs whats that going to do? Make them go to the station get on a truck and still not know what to do on scene? Or hope someone on the truck knows what to do. If we waited for everybody to show at are station are avg response time would go from 7.5 minutes to 20 minutes or longer. Some of are members are 10 miles away and some live within a few blocks from the station. It will never make sense to wait for all the members.
This is the dept's own call here and that can be their policy, it shouldn't affect how you do operations. Where i volunteered there was no taking personal vehicles to the scene and majority of area volly depts operated on the same principle. So for you things may not make sense to wait, for others it does make sense.
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