By Todd Andrews
An incident that took place while on a structure fire on Friday, January 13, 2012, motivated the Springdale (AR) Fire Department to relentlessly identify conditions and practices that were putting our firefighters at higher risk for cancer and to pursue ways to better protect them from these situations and potentially harmful chemical exposures, thereby lowering the firefighter cancer rate.
Our department was dispatched to a residential structure fire with confirmed people trapped. The first-in engine company (staffed with two people) arrived to find a single-story residential structure with dark, heavy, dense black smoke showing throughout. The captain on the engine confirmed a working fire. He pulled a line and opened the front door to fight the fire from the outside until more help arrived. A three-person truck, a one-person rescue, a two-person ambulance, a battalion chief, and a second engine staffed by three all arrived together. The ladder truck began a primary search.
If you are a current subscriber,login hereto access this content.
If you would like to become a subscriber, please visit ushere.
