OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #170249213
FIREFIGHTER,RESPIRATORY,WORK RULES,FIRE,BURIED,COMMUNICATION,SMOKE INHALATION,HIGH TEMPERATURE
Event description
Employee dies of smoke inhalation when lost in fire
Investigation abstract
Employee #1, a fire service officer, was fighting a multiple-alarm arson fire of ntributing role in the fatality. There was no tracking of fire fighters inside t he structure, which accounted for the lack of a timely search and rescue. The la ck of required radio monitoring equipment and a required dispatcher at the scene contributed to Employee #1's call for help not being heard. an unoccupied lumber company warehouse. Employee #1 and his partner became sepa rated inside the burning structure. The partner was able to escape from the buil ding, where he emerged in a severely hyperthermic and fatigued condition. Approx imately 2 hours later, a search and rescue was implemented for the missing offic er. Employee #1's body was uncovered 1 1/2 hours later beneath more than two fee t of rubble inside the building. The official cause of death was smoke inhalatio n. Since the fire is believed to be arson, the medical examiner classified the d eath as a homicide. There are indications that hyperthermia may have played a co
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 32 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 417
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 10
- Task assigned
- 1
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.