Chief Dennis Rubin takes full responsibility for sprinkler demo mishap. No briefing or backup line. “The Rube” thought it looked like a comedy act.
Click here to watch the sprinkler demonstration from Chief Rubin’s point of view.
Read Paul Peluso’s article at Firehouse.com
Listen to Chief Rubin’s interview
STATter911.com and 9NEWS NOW have been trying since Thursday to find out details of what went wrong during a sprinkler demonstration in the District of Columbia a day earlier. The gear worn by three firefighters caught fire during the public display at Gallaudet University. One of those firefighters, a sergeant with the DC Fire & EMS Department’s Engine 6, spent the night in the MedStar Burn Unit of the Washington Hospital Center.
A Plexiglas draft curtain set up to hold in the heat and smoke burned and dripped onto the firefighters sent in to put out the fire in the unsprinklered side of the demonstration.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83_l5mOp5i4&hl=en&fs=1&]While details have not been provided to us, Chief Dennis Rubin gave specific information about the errors made during the demonstration in an interview with one of the participants in the event, Ed Comeau with Campus-Firewatch.com. The recording of that interview was made public today during Comeau’s podcast, Fire Marshal’s Corner at Firehouse.com.
Paul Peluso with Firehouse.com has written an article based on the podcast. Here are excerpts:
“Some of the failures on our part — and I’ll take full responsibility — had to do with the idea that we wanted to have a demonstration was impactful so that the equipment would work in a reasonable timeframe,” Rubin said. “Next time we will need a draft curtain that will probably be something that is not as combustible.” (On the video Chief Rubin can be heard calling for the backup line that didn’t exist.)
Rubin said despite technical failures, not following NFPA 1403, the Standard on Live Fire Training Evolutions, is really where the demonstration went wrong.
“I don’t believe we briefed the crew before they went into the structure and I think (that was) a recipe for near-disaster,” he said.
“I stayed pretty busy doing some of the administrative tasks and 20/20 hindsight, I wish I would have had the chance to take a closer look, but we didn’t have a checklist.”
Rubin said another issue was that two hoselines were laid out, but only one was active.
“I thought one was a backup and one was an attack line, but that turned out to be incorrect. The backup line I thought I was looking at turned out to be the feeder line going into the sprinkler system. When it came time for a second crew — which was not on location — to wet down and protect the first crew; that simply wasn’t there.”
Comeau also pointed out that the firefighters went right into the flames, instead of attacking it from a distance.
“I think they wanted to demonstrate their bravery and skill and that was just the wrong place to do it,” Rubin said. “The other horrifying part of the incident was that they were unaware of the fact that they were burning.”
Rubin said that over the years he’s been present for more than a hundred demonstration burns and that his department simply forgot the basics.
“We worked very hard for weeks to prepare for this event . . . It was the perfect setting on the perfect day,” he said. “You can never let your guard down. I just feel horrible about it. Thank goodness it was very minor injuries, but it looked like a comedy act.”
Also, Chief Rubin said in the interview that there was no safety officer in place for the event. The chief says he is going to make sure this does not happen again in his department. Chief Rubin told Ed Comeau he plans to write an article for a national fire service publication on the lessons learned from the demonstration.
We have expressed our concern to DC Fire & EMS Department Director of Communications Pete Piringer about not being able to interview Chief Rubin and not being provided similar details about the incident. Piringer reiterates that the chief has taken full responsibility for the errors made during the event. Piringer said the chief is currently out of town.
