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South Carolina Department Charged Over 2-In, 2-Out Violation
WCSC
Reprinted with Permission
NORTH CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - Officials with the North Charleston Fire Department said they are committed to safety in the face of recent citations issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration stemming from a July 5 fire.
Related
SCOnFire Coverage:
In that fire three North Charleston firefighters sustained burns battling a house fire on Purity Drive near Rivers Avenue.
This month, the city and fire department received two citations from OSHA stemming from the house fire. Both citations claim the department put their men in a dangerous situation.
A statement released by OSHA said, "The employer knew or should have known that on or about July 5, 2010, firefighters performing interior structural firefighting were exposed to the hazard of being trapped in a burning residential building."
OSHA contends there were three rules that were not followed while trying to extinguish the fire.
The department must have at least two people in contact with each other at all times while inside a burning structure, two firefighters must be outside the structure at all times and everybody must be wearing a self-containing breathing apparatus.
Copyright 2010 WCSC. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with Permission
NORTH CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - Officials with the North Charleston Fire Department said they are committed to safety in the face of recent citations issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration stemming from a July 5 fire.
Related
- Firefighter released from burn unit after North Charleston fire
- North Charleston Fire Department, City slapped with citation
- Fire department cited for safety violations
- Citation and Notification of Penalty
SCOnFire Coverage:
In that fire three North Charleston firefighters sustained burns battling a house fire on Purity Drive near Rivers Avenue.
This month, the city and fire department received two citations from OSHA stemming from the house fire. Both citations claim the department put their men in a dangerous situation.
A statement released by OSHA said, "The employer knew or should have known that on or about July 5, 2010, firefighters performing interior structural firefighting were exposed to the hazard of being trapped in a burning residential building."
OSHA contends there were three rules that were not followed while trying to extinguish the fire.
The department must have at least two people in contact with each other at all times while inside a burning structure, two firefighters must be outside the structure at all times and everybody must be wearing a self-containing breathing apparatus.
Copyright 2010 WCSC. All rights reserved.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Vic Silverfish on
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Honestly Heather, it isn't that dangerous a job. Don't get me wrong, you can get yourself hurt, and if you are unlucky, you can get killed, but it isn't even in the top 10 "deadliest jobs" according to BLS.
A better question to ask is for the number of fires, what does the civilian casualty rate look like? I've noticed in Australia civilians die in fires all the time. It may just be a bias in the news, but I don't recall the same death rate in the US.
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Permalink Reply by Rusty Mancini on
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It doesn't take an injury or a LODD to get a visit from OSHA in SC. One phone call from anyone will be all the invitation they need to see if your department is compliant. They do have a program that they come and check your department without handing out any citations, it lets you know what areas you need to improve on.
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Permalink Reply by kirk elliott on
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safety should be isn`t sometimes
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Permalink Reply by capcityff on
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Heather - If you can't properly do your job because you're worried about losing family and friends, then you really shouldn't be doing this. You know what this job entails when you signed up. You took an oath(maybe you didn't as a volunteer). You promised the people of your city that they can depend on you. If it's something you're scared to do then that's fine. However if that's true then do your city a favor and leave the fire service because you're only going to get someone hurt. Also note that I'm not saying YOU are like this. Was just the vibe that I got from your post, but this is an online forum so I don't know how you really are. There are definitely plenty of people like this though.
Vic - Hard to look at stats like that. Those kind of surveys show jobs like gas station cashier at dangerous because people can just walk in and shoot/assault/rob you. Sure that's true, but there are A LOT more of those jobs around so it's rare that it would happen to you. Firefighters are exposed to fire a lot more than they are exposed to robberies.
Then again, since most here don't go interior unless they have to, it kind of takes all of the danger out of firefighting anyway huh?
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Permalink Reply by Cory on
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Hmm hello are we not always exposed to a hazard of being trapped in a structure? Does your helmet not say firefighting is a dangerous activity you may be killed or injured while using this product? Real fire training is going to help people understand what to expect, not to many departments get fires every day and can keep there skills refined. And even then people are going to get hurt or killed from time to time. We all know our job is dangerous, our leaders need to make sure we get training that applys to us, not bull crap we aren ever going to use. Also we need to try to get extra training by ourselves. We shouldn't have to have others motivate us to train. Man power is a whole different story, you are going to have to make due with what you got. We aren't all as lucky as FDNY and get 100 people on a structure fire.
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capcityff - BLS stats on dangerous jobs are scored as "deaths/100,000 employees" so it corrects for things like large number of workers. They talk a fair bit about the difficulty and statistical pitfalls in doing this type of work.
Check it out: http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfar0020.pdf
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Permalink Reply by Fabulous Heather Days of Summer on
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CapCty FF - you are right, you don't know me.
My response is called a human response.
I don't want anyone's ass dead. I just say what others are afraid to say.
Do some research - the U.S. is disproportionate when it comes to firefighters dying per capita.
Actually the reverse is true - I work under the hero influenced system of the U.S. so I feel that same way - that is the culture I was raised in. So nope, I am not overly concerned about those around me dying - maybe not sufficiently ??? Perhaps I am overly confident that those around me will not die.
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It has nothing to do with being a hero. I do it because it's my job. The people of my city pay me to do this because they trust me. It needs to be done by someone and there are plenty of others that want this job if you don't. If I feel that I can no longer live up to the expectations of those who pay me then I will quit. Absolutely nothing to do with being a hero.
Look at 9/11 alone. 343 firemen gave their lives on that one day. However thousands of lives were saved because of them. I'm sure if you could find the stats for it, we also have a lot more saves in the US than other countries do as well. So maybe those close calls are worth it.
You can't just flat out say that other countries have less deaths so they are better. There are plenty of other things to look at.
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Permalink Reply by Mick Mayers on
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I wrote a little discussion about safety issues here: http://firehousezen.com/2010/09/20/vest-wearing-yard-breathers/
Just my humble opinion, as usual.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Oomkes on
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And in the case of Worcester, where were the homeless squatters when the brothers died searching for them?
What if, mom\dad\whoever comes out of the house and says "everybody is out", do we still not know?
And to be forthright, when I was a dumb rookie (now I'm a dumb veteran) we did have someone die in a fire that wasn't supposed to be there, broke in unbeknownst to everyone around. He was dead before we got there, but we should have found him much quicker.
So I've been there, but I still think there is a point at which we can say a search would be just stupid.
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Mick, your article on wearing- yard- breathers is right on the mark. It's a shame some don't get it, and will continue to take unnecessary risk!! We will continue to read LODD's as long as some continue to take the same routes.
Reading some of the comments, are indicators of the same routes!!
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I don't really want to get into this, but we do know who\what the main push behind 2-in\2-out was, right?
It isn't all about safety, even though it is covered that way.
Anyways, what is always overlooked when these types of policies\regulations\laws are made is common sense. What happens if we have a fire in the incipient stage (room and contents) but since we only have 3 on our engine, we can't do anything other than stick a nozzle in the window--maybe?
So we abide by the rule, and the taxpayer's house is destroyed by a flashover 4 minutes after we arrive because we're standing outside waiting for our 2-out to arrive.
Or, we wait til the 3 minute mark, the next company arrives and we go in and it flashes because we waited too long?
Or, because the residence is lightweight construction, we wait for the next company, go in and the roof gives way or the floor falls into the basement?
I think we need to use our brains, and I think this should be allowed by OSHA\NFPA\whoever.
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