Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Report: Fire Fighter Suffers Fatal Heart Attack While Fighting Residential Fire in New Jersey

摘要

On March 9, 2008, a 62-year-old male volunteer fire fighter (FF) was dispatched to a residential fire. On-scene, he assisted crew members in pulling 200 feet of uncharged 1-inch hoseline while wearing full turnout gear and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) and carrying a 10-pound flat-head axe. The FF used the axe to strike the front door to gain entry. Once inside, the hoseline was charged, and the FF and two crew members crawled through the dwelling to locate the fire. The fire was extinguished shortly thereafter, and the FF and crew members checked void spaces for hidden fire. Finding none, the crew began to ventilate by opening windows in adjacent rooms. Suddenly, the FF collapsed. Crew members called a mayday and pulled the FF outside where the on-scene ambulance crew began its assessment. Finding the FF unresponsive, without a pulse, and not breathing, the crew began cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Despite CPR and advanced life support administered on-scene, en route to the hospital, and at the hospital, the FF died. The death certificate, completed by the township registrar, and the autopsy, completed by the assistant state medical examiner, listed 'atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease' as the cause of death. Given the FFs underlying atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD), the stressful environmental conditions and the physical stress of performing fire fighting training duties triggered a heart attack or a cardiac arrhythmia, resulting in his sudden cardiac death.