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March 4, 1908: Catastrophe in Collinwood

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Are Our Children Safer?

Lake View School
Collinwood, Ohio

One hundred and five years ago this morning, disaster struck Lake View School in Collinwood, Ohio.

Fritz Hirter, school custodian, had arrived near dawn on a late winter’s day,  to fire up the school’s coal burning furnace.  The children were let into the building around 8AM and the fire was reported by a student at about 9:30.

The next minutes were a panicked blur as fire ascended the open 3-floor staircase trapping students and causing a blinding rush for the few exits.

Bodies piled up at the doorway to the point where pulling the children out was impossible.

 

Collinwood Memorial

172 students and two adults were killed in minutes, some as they were forced to jump from upper floors.  Bodies were so badly burned they were unidentifiable and were buried in a mass grave at Lake View Cemetery.

Where fire is concerned, today’s schools are some of the safest buildings in America but our children are not much safer.

A Collinwood parent, circa 1908, would doubtlessly be astonished to learn that in 2013, the number one threat to children is murder by gun fire, often in mass killings and frequently at the hands of fellow students or young adults.

What would they say from their vantage point afar?  No doubt they would marvel at both our schools and our unwillingness to keep our children safe in them.

As, indeed they should.

 

 

 

Posted by on March 4, 2013 • Filed under: History, Major Incidents, Mass Casualty Incident, Sculpture, Statuary, Outdoor Art, Values and Ethics

Fire Safety: Kiss, The Station Redux

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No Seconds to Spare

Station Fire at 40 seconds

Sunday was a day of disaster in the Brazilian city of Santa Maria as a raging fire at a popular club called Kiss killed over 230 patrons.

The fire was caused by pyrotechnics initiated by the band.  In addition to reports of severe crowding, witnesses stated that revelers were prevented from exiting by guards concerned about lost revenue.

Panicked club-goers then streamed toward bathrooms that were a dead-end with no exit.

West Warwick, Rhode Island 2003

We are just a few days shy of the 10th anniversary of the West Warwick, Rhode Island, Station night club fire that killed 100 patrons on February 20, 2003, in nearly identical circumstances.

At 11:07 that evening the band ignited pyrotechnics which rapidly spread to the ceiling and wall coverings, some of which were covered with polyurethane foam.  The sequence of events were nearly instantaneous and shocking in their severity.

The building had no sprinklers.  A fire detection system went into alarm at +41 seconds after fire ignition.  At +36 seconds three patrons had already made a call to 911 reporting the fire.  At +1:30 thick black smoke was visible from windows and smoke appeared to be at floor level inside.  As a reference point, the first engine arrived on scene at +5:21.

Victim Locations

NIST Study

In the wake of the fire the National Institute of Standards and Technology conducted extensive testing to explore the conditions in the club and the effect that sprinklers would have had.

In the unsprinklered test, roughly paralleling the actual fire event, at +60 seconds the temperature below the ceiling was just under 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  At +1:30 the temperature ten feet below the ceiling was 464 degrees Fahrenheit.  Lethal conditions existed well before the fire department ever left quarters.  They faced an impossible task on arrival.

In the sprinklered test, the fire was controlled and conditions were clearly survivable for over five minutes, indeed the temperature held at just 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Santa Maria fire is a wake-up call for firefighters and patrons, alike.  Firefighters should use the event to visit such high hazard occupancies in order to warn against the use of  pyrotechnics and to monitor the condition of life safety features.

We all must remind ourselves and those we care about to stay out of venues where fire survival is unlikely.

Stay safe.

 

Posted by on January 29, 2013 • Filed under: Command & Leadership, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Mass Casualty Incident, Safety and Health

Murders in Webster: The Deafening Silence

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Fire Service Leaders with Nothing to Say

Webster, New York

On Christmas Eve, four Webster, New York, firefighters were shot and two killed when a paroled felon with a prior murder conviction set them up.  It’s more accurate to say they were executed with premeditated precision.  Arson was used as the pretext for drawing them into the killing zone so the connection to our profession is both direct and compelling.

If our national/international fire/rescue organizations exist in part to protect us by formulating solutions, they are all asleep at the wheel on this one.  A scan of web pages (IAFC, IAFF, NFFF, NVFC) reveals either complete silence or the issuing of  platitudinous press releases.  Pretty thin gruel under the circumstances.  So much for decisive leadership.

By the way, I’m not talking about overturning the second amendment but you would think they could momentarily shrug off their collective holiday torpor and (at least) pretend to give a shit.

If “balls”, (or rather the lack of them) is the problem, they can look to NYPD’s Chief Ray Kelly for leadership inspiration.  Kelly said,”I think it’s important to let the federal government know that something has got to change.”  Kelly backs his tough words up with action, something fire service leadership, both labor and management, seem unable or unwilling to do.  Come to think of it, we don’t even have the tough words so we are a long  way from action.

NYPD’s Ray Kelly

 

And Chief Kelly is no simpering-pinko-liberal-lefty.  He is a combat veteran and Marine who served (and led troops) in Vietnam as a Second Lieutenant.

The guy’s got balls enough to loan out.  Perhaps he’ll give us some.

 

We are certainly in need of them.

 

(Credits:  USA Today and NYDN)

Posted by on December 27, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Fires, In the Line of Duty, Line of Duty, Major Incidents, Mass Casualty Incident, Values and Ethics