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The latest from Chief Billy Goldfeder at Firefighter Close Calls:
While so many of the facts have yet to be determined, initial reports are that, as a part of the 1 alarm response for the automatic alarm, a 4 FF company, including Captain Broxterman and FF Schira, responded from nearby Colerain Fire Station 102, which is less than a mile from the scene. While several companies were responding, the county dispatcher updated that it was now a “working structure fire” and that occupants were evacuating. At 0624 hours, Captain Broxterman advised that her crew, Engine 102, was on the scene with smoke showing. Captain Broxterman and FF Schira went inside for the initial search, 1 FF assisted in stretching and the 4th was the pump operator. A Firefighter with Engine 109, which had arrived behind E-102, later advised the commander to tell the interior crew to pull back out of the house, that “conditions are changing,” and to re-deploy at the back of the house. The IC tried to reach them on the radio, but there was no response after several attempts. A “Mayday” and related procedures were initiated by command around 0645 hours. A rapid assistance team (RAT) of Firefighters was on the scene, went to work and did their absolute best to heroically make their way into the house, but it was too late. An unmanned hose line was found in the dwelling, as was a hole in the floor leading to the basement. Firefighters eventually found Captain Broxterman and FF Schira in the basement at 0710 hours.
Captain Broxterman (the mother of 2 children, who was also engaged to marry a Firefighter from another area FD) and Firefighter Schira, single, represent this year’s first LODD’s in Ohio. In 2007, 5 Ohio Firefighters died in the Line of Duty. Since 1990, a total of 2,248 American Firefighters have died in the Line of Duty.
From The Enquirer’s Cliff Radel:
One by one, the soot-blackened fire fighters trudged up the rain-slicked driveway.
Heads down. Eyes tearing. Hearts broken.
“We tried to save them,” sobbed Colerain Township Capt. Steve Fortunski as he fell into the arms of Dan Meloy, the township’s police chief. “We tried. We tried.”
But their best efforts were in vain. Two of their own, 37-year-old Capt. Robin Broxterman and 29-year-old Firefighter Brian Schira, a veteran and a rookie, died in an early Friday morning house fire. Investigators at the scene attributed their deaths to “a catastrophic structural failure” that trapped them inside the house.
Word of the firefighters’ deaths echoed up and down Squirrels Nest Lane, where the fire took place in the township’s Dunlap neighborhood and reverberated throughout the community.
“This is not just a sad day for our street,” said Janice Figgins, a neighbor of Matt and Sharyn Cones, owners of the fire-stricken house who escaped safely. “This touches our entire township.”
Even before the firefighters’ deaths were officially announced just after 11 a.m. Friday, flags were lowered to half staff throughout the close-knit community, from the township’s administration building to the top of Mount Rumpke, the highest spot in Hamilton County.
Broxterman, a 17-year veteran, was the township’s first female captain. Always helping out her fellow firefighters like a substitute mom, the mother of two children was engaged to be married to Don Patterson, a Green Township firefighter who responded to the scene of the fire. Colleagues led him away in tears when he learned of Broxterman’s death.
Schira was hired in November 2007. He was a part-time firefighter and also served in that capacity with the Delhi Township Fire Department. Both were members of Colerain Township Engine Company 102.
Their bodies were found in the basement of the two-story, four-bedroom house. Fire officials think they may have fallen through the first floor or the floor collapsed upon them, said Capt. Steve Conn.
The fire – which drew firefighters from no fewer than 10 area departments – was first reported coming from 5708 Squirrels Nest Lane at 6:10 a.m. Initial reports said smoke and fire and carbon monoxide detectors were sounding.
Matt Cones tried smothering the fire in his home with a fire extinguisher, Conn said.
No luck. He and his wife left the house unharmed.
A four-person unit, including Broxterman and Schira, responded from Dunlap’s Station 102. The firehouse is less than a half-mile from the scene of the blaze. While the firefighters were en route, the county dispatcher notified them it was a “working structure fire.”
At 6:24 a.m., Broxterman says Engine 102 has arrived and that she sees “moderate smoke showing.” Broxterman, the senior officer, and Schira went inside. The other two firefighters remained outside.
A firefighter with Engine 109, which arrived shortly after Broxterman and Schira, tells the fire scene commander to tell Broxterman and Schira to pull back out of the house, that “conditions are changing,” and to re-deploy at the back of the house.
The fire scene commander tries to call them on the radio. No response. A “Mayday” emergency call went out. It was 6:45 a.m.
A rapid assistance team of firefighters arrived in response to the “Mayday” call. The team is trained to rescue downed firefighters.
The team members battled their way into the house. They found Broxterman and Schira in the basement at 7:10 a.m.
The last Colerain Township firefighter to die in the line of duty was Charles Palm in 1977. He suffered a massive heart attack at the scene of a house fire. His son, Chuck Palm, was among the firefighters responding Friday to the blaze that claimed Broxterman and Schira.
They represent the year’s first line-of-duty firefigher deaths in Ohio, said Shane Cartmill, spokesman for the State Fire Marshal in Columbus. In 2007, five Ohio firefighters died on the job. Since 1990, a total of 2,248 firefighters have died while on duty in the United States. Of these, 2,184 were men and 64 (counting Broxterman) were women,
said Molly McPherson, spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Broxterman is the first female fire captain to die in the line of duty since statistics were first compiled in 1990.
Ohio and Oregon rank second among states in the number of on-duty female firefighter deaths. Each has five. California leads the nation in this tragic statistic with seven.
The deaths of Schira and Broxterman hit Colerain’s 180-member fire department hard.
“This is a nightmare we’re living through,” said Kevin Kelsey. The 15-year Colerain veteran and member of Station 102 held a dozen freshly-cut yellow daffodils someone had placed at the base of the firehouse’s sign.
“Everybody knew Robin, she helped everybody. Brian was a new guy,” Kelsey added as he returned to the flowers to the sign’s base. “Both of them were professionals. They knew exactly what they were supposed to do when they got to that fire.”
Just Thursday morning, Conn worked with the crew that responded to Friday’s fire.
“The last thing we said to each other,” Conn recalled, “was: ‘Be careful,’ ”
The state’s top fire investigator arrived on the scene Friday afternoon. State Fire Marshal Michael P. Bell said about 10 people from his office were assisting local officials in the investigation.
Officials said the investigation was still in its early stages. Several days could pass before they know the answer to what happened. Speculation centers on a floor or stairwell collapsing.
Scores of people have posted e-mail messages on the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Web site praising Schira and Broxterman as courageous heroes and consoling their families, friends and fellow firefighters.
“Just wanted you to know our love, thoughts and prayers are with all the families and friends of the lost firemen,” wrote Gary and Debbie Kramer, of Colerain Township. “Our son belongs to the Colerain Township Fire Department and we are so proud of him and all the firemen who put their lives on the line for all of us in our community every day.”
People from different parts of the country sent e-mails. A member of the fire department in New Madrid, Mo., expressed his condolences in an e-mail.
“Your loss is felt all across the nation among all firefighters,” Jim Russell wrote. “They are our Brother and Sister and will be missed.”
Tyrone Patrick, a chaplain with the Cincinnati Fire Division, heard Friday morning that two Colerain Township firefighters had died fighting a fire and rushed to the Colerain Township Fire Department’s main headquarters on Springdale Road. He spent several hours counseling the dead firefighters’ colleagues who wanted counseling.
“I was just there for support,” said Patrick, who is pastor of the Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church in North Fairmount.
Some of the firefighters wanted to talk, while others didn’t, he said.
“It was like a grieving family,” Patrick said. “Like in any family, when someone you love perishes, you’re in a state of shock and disbelief.”
He said he told the distraught firefighters to take it “day by day, minute by minute.”
“I encouraged them not to try to digest the whole thing at once because it’s overwhelming,” Patrick said. “I told them God will get them through it.”
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