FF Close Calls

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Submit Your Close Call / Near Miss Navigation Home Close Calls Secret List Gallery EMS CloseCalls Drills Firefighter Staffing Personal Survival Safety and survival SOGs Links Modern Fire Behavior About Us Never Forget Fire Communications Pass it On LODD STATS Yearly Totals Year Totals 2015 9 2014 87 2013 101 2012 83 2011 81 2010 87 2009 93 2008 118 2007 118 2006 107 "In Memory Of" Click this patch   Custom Search Contact Info Email BillyG info@ firefighterclosecalls.com Email Weekly Drill Suggestions to Drills@firefighter closecalls.com Click Here for The 9/11 Widows' and Victims' Families Association Click Here: Skyscraper Safety Campaign       Also check the most current issue of THE SECRET LIST for related News and Updates-(Click Here) UPDATE: Fire Chief Survives Fire Truck Explosion NewsOn6.com - Tulsa, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports - KOTV.com | KOTV Video Friday, February 13, 2015   The chief of the Bristow Fire Department is in the hospital with serious injuries, after an accident in the last place any firefighter would expect to get hurt. Chief David McSpadden was hurt when a truck he was working on at the fire station exploded on Tuesday, February 10, 2015. "He's extremely lucky. As far as I'm concerned, somebody was really watching over him," said his son, Matt McSpadden. Being the chief's son and a former firefighter himself, Matt, knows the risks and always knew a call saying something had happened to his dad could come at any time. "You expect this stuff to happen on fires," Matt said. "You don't expect it happen in the station." Chief McSpadden was working on a tanker truck Tuesday afternoon when the explosion happened. The 1984 former military truck was donated to the department about a year ago and firefighters have been trying to get it up and running ever since. "He smelled batt... [ more ]         FIREFIGHTER RECALLS HIS CLOSE CALL---A BRUSH WITH DEATH IN LONDON, ONTARIO, CANADA Friday, February 13, 2015   A little farther and Firefighter Phill King wouldn’t have been around to tell this story. A few seconds more and the London fire captain and his crew might have lost their lives at a fire last weekend. “In a matter of minutes it (changed) from a very average fire. It went from good to bad very quickly,” King said Thursday, perched on the bumper of the fire engine that took him to the fire on Clarence St. on Feb. 7. Beside him, his safety helmet is melted from the intensity of the blaze. It was knocked off his head for seconds during the intense fire, searing the top of his head. The helmet used to be a bright red — it’s now charred black. So are the helmets of two of his crew members who were inside the home with him. “If we’d been three feet closer to that room, survival would not have been an option,” he said. When King and his crew — Matt Lane, Jason Lundy and Scott FitzGerald — got to the call, there didn’t appear to be smoke comin... [ more ]         FIREFIGHTERS CLOSE CALL IN OREGON - 02 TANK MISSLE Friday, February 13, 2015  Two engine companies from Jackson County Fire District 5 arrived to see fire coming from a window on the second floor of this dwelling this week. A lighter accidentally ignited an oxygen mask that was turned on and lying on a mattress in the room. Firefighters were getting ready to make entry when an oxygen tank came flying out of the structure, all the way through the wall. The resulting concussion budged some trusses on the structure and blew out the window frame as it exited. The tank landed on a car windshield but did not strike anyone, though it missed several firefighters by a slim margin. EXPECT the unexpected!        Exploding Tank Video   UPDATE: GEORGIA FIREFIGHTERS RECOVERING FROM BURNS FOLLOWING LODD DWELLING FIRE LT RANDY PARKER, RIP. Friday, February 13, 2015  As of last night, Macon-Bibb Firefighters Adam Mitchie and Ferrell Cromer have been upgraded from fair to good condition. FF Steven Stafford is still serious. Earlier last night, firefighters Matt Couey and Ben Bollinger were released from the Medical Center Navicent Health. As you are aware, Lt. Randy Parker died in the Line of Duty while fighting the house fire on Wednesday evening. Flags across Macon and Bibb County have been lowered to half staff in his honor.         FATAL FIRE APPARATUS VS PEDESTRIAN (UK) RULED AN ACCIDENT Friday, February 13, 2015   The death of an elderly woman who was struck by a fire engine in Oxford (UK) was a "tragic accident", a coroner has ruled. Sultana Begum, 79, was hit on Cowley Road on May 16. She later died of her head injuries in hospital. An inquest heard the fire engine, based at Rewley Road fire station, was heading to an incident where a boy got his hand stuck in a bike chain. The coroner said Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue had acted appropriately and the death could not have been avoided. The court heard witnesses saw Mrs Begum, described as frail and elderly, slowly cross to a traffic island, before looking up and stepping into the path of the oncoming fire engine, which had its sirens and blue lights on. The driver, Gavin Carter, described seeing Mrs Begum look him in the eye. He said he applied the brakes when she stepped out. "I did everything in my power to avoid the collision. I did everything I'd been trained to do," he told the court. Recording the ... [ more ]         FIREFIGHTERS CLOSE CALL IN FLORIDA Friday, February 13, 2015   Firefighters battling a blaze in an unoccupied house in northwest Ocala were able to get out of the burning structure a couple of minutes before its roof collapsed. Ocala Fire Rescue units were dispatched to the vacant house at 1832 NW Third St. at 3:41 a.m. Firefighters could see fire when the first units arrived. After making sure the structure was unoccupied, they proceeded to fight the fire. Firefighters with Engine No.3, along with engines No. 1 and No. 4, were advised by outside command that the roof of the home appeared unstable-the firefighters got out. About two minutes later, the roof came crashing down. The cause of the fire is under investigation.         WOMAN INJURED IN PHILLY APPARATUS CRASH Friday, February 13, 2015   A woman was hospitalized early Monday morning after a crash involving a fire truck in West Oak Lane.It happened around 5 a.m. at the corner of 69th Street and Old York Road. The injured woman is in stable condition. No one on the fire truck was injured. It was not immediately clear what led to the accident.         LODD UPDATE: Georgia Firefighter Killed In South Macon Dwelling Fire Was 'Pinned In' Lt. Randy Parker - RIP Friday, February 13, 2015   A 1:45 p.m. news briefing about a house fire that killed firefighter Lt. Randy Parker was opened with a prayer for Parker and his friends and family.Fire Chief Marvin Riggins said the call for the south Macon fire came in at 5:46 p.m., and crews arrived minutes later. Firefighters fought the blaze for over an hour, and then a code red was called, "which in our world means something has happened or something catastrophically is about to occur," Riggins said. The floor of the house had collapsed, and five firefighters fell down into the basement, he said. Firefighters then began rescue efforts. Four firefighters were rescued "relatively quick," Riggins said. "Lt. Parker was apparently one of the first firefighters to fall through from the first level and was pinned in," Riggins said. "It took us a substantial amount of time to extricate him from his entrapped situation. Unfortunately, by the time we were able to extricate him ... he did not survi... [ more ]         3 LONG ISLAND FFs INJURED AT HOUSE FIRE Friday, February 13, 2015  Three firefighters were injured and a Rockville Centre home was destroyed by a Thursday morning blaze that started in the basement -- one of the hardest types of fires to put out, the village fire chief said.A woman inside had already escaped into the yard by the time the first firefighters from four departments arrived shortly after 9 a.m. at the South Long Beach Road home, said Rockville Centre Fire Chief John Thorp, who was the first on scene. Flames were already raging out of three or four basement windows, he said, and they spread up through the voids between floors, a common construction in older homes. "It really took off," Thorp said. It also didn't help when two hydrants were frozen and that the fire was in the basement, which generally have limited access down a staircase or two, he said. Precious minutes were lost when firefighters had to shovel snow off one hydrant and found that one and another frozen, the chief said. more ]         DAUGHTER OF FIREFIGHTER KILLED IN TRAINING "SHOCKED" TO SEE IT HAPPEN AGAIN-BY THE SAME TRAINING COMPANY The Late Firefighter Gary Kendall Thursday, February 12, 2015   The daughter of a volunteer firefighter who died five years ago in an ice rescue exercise in Ontario says the province should have acted then to ensure those taking private training courses aren't putting their lives at risk.Myrissa Kendall, 28, says had the provincial government stepped in to regulate the safety training industry after her father's death, it might have protected an Ontario firefighting student who died in a similar exercise this weekend. Kendall says officials at the time vowed they would do something to ensure such a tragic incident never happened again. She says her family was "shocked" to hear of Adam Brunt's death in an ice rescue exercise in Hanover, Ont. on Sunday. Police say Brunt, 30, was trapped under the ice for 15 minutes. Brunt's father has said his son took the course -- which isn't mandatory to become a firefighter -- through a private company to increase his chances of finding a job.