Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Report: Two Career Fire Fighters Die Following a Seven-Alarm Fire in a High-Rise Building Undergoing Simultaneous Deconstruction and Asbestos Abatement in New York

摘要

On August 18, 2007, a 53-year-old male career fire fighter (Victim no. 1) and a 33-year-old male career fire fighter (Victim no. 2) became trapped in the maze-like conditions of a high-rise building undergoing deconstruction. The building's standpipe system had been disconnected during the deconstruction and the partitions constructed for asbestos abatement prohibited fire fighters from getting water to the seat of the fire. An hour into the incident, the fire department was able to supply water by running an external hoseline up the side of the structure. Soon after the victims began to operate their hoseline, they ran out of air. The victims suffered severe smoke inhalation and were transported to a metropolitan hospital in cardiac arrest where they succumbed to their injuries. By the time the fire was extinguished, 115 fire fighters had suffered a variety of injuries. Key contributing factors to this incident include: delayed notification of the fire by building construction personnel, inoperable standpipe and sprinkler system, delay in establishing water supply, inaccurate information about standpipe, unique building conditions with both asbestos abatement and deconstruction occurring simultaneously, extreme fire behavior, uncontrolled fire rapidly progressing and extending below the fire floor, blocked stairwells preventing fire fighter access and egress, maze-like interior conditions from partitions and construction debris, heavy smoke conditions causing numerous fire fighters to become lost or disoriented, failure of fire fighters to always don SCBAs inside structure and to replenish air cylinders, communications overwhelmed with numerous Mayday and urgent radio transmissions, and lack of crew integrity.