Incident Report

Firefighter Recruit Died in Live Fire Exercise

Initial Email Enquiry –

Thanks to the Industrial Fire World for passing on this information. As you are aware we within JOIFF have had serious concerns over the nature of some training methods employed within our trade. The standards through the annual summary of fire deaths reportedly caused whilst training is incredible and unforgivable.

Training is a PLANNED event which should be risk assessed before commencement. There should be no possibility of there being any death or injury from the training activity. All risks being eliminated or minimised to an acceptable level before training commences.

1^st Response –

MIAMI

Hearings on the death of a Miami-Dade fire recruit who died during a training exercise in 2003 are continuing this week. Other recruits in the class are now testifying that the training exercise was too advanced, but they feared they would lose their jobs if they complained.

The Firefighter Recruit Died During a Training Exercise in August 2003.

One of the other recruits who went through a live-fire training exercise in August 2003 said, "If somebody tells me, 'If you leave the burn, you are gonna get fired,' I'm not going to leave that burn." His fellow recruit died during that exercise. It was supposed to simulate a fire on board a ship. The exercise was held in a metal box-like structure at Port Everglades. Some class members say the fire was too hot - so hot that their own instructors bailed out. Another recruit told the members of an independent review panel Monday that she saw the victim, and he appeared exhausted, but was afraid to tell anyone I didn't want to put myself or other guys in a position to get terminated because I told on them to somebody," the recruit said.

All the recruits named the same man as the one who instilled that fear for their jobs if they failed. It was stated that this man said "If you run out of this training exercise, you are gonna get fired on the spot." The stated man was the department's chief training officer. He did not attend Monday's meeting of the panel but told Local 10's interviewer in an interview that he blames the department for assigning inadequate instructors to the recruits.

For the victim's wife and other family members, the days since his death have not gotten any easier. His sister said "my mother is distraught, the family is distraught, and none of it is getting any better." Especially when they heard one of his classmates say his death didn't have to happen. Another recruit said, "I believe if we had instructors that didn't bail out on us, or if we did the buddy system, it could have been avoided."

The Department's Chief Training Officer Blames Administrators

In an exclusive Local 10 interview in October 2004, the Dept's Chief Training Officer said the victim did not need to die in the training exercise. He said it was a "preventable tragedy." But he also said he tried to prevent the tragedy by setting off alarms at Miami-Dade Fire Rescue headquarters - alarms that he says nobody responded to. The Dept's Chief Training Officer said, "I hold administration accountable for this." He faulted former Fire Chief and several of his top subordinates for failing to give the training office the equipment and personnel it needed. He said several of the instructors assigned by higher-ups to Mitchell's class were not experienced in live burn exercises, and a few hadn't fought a fire in years. "I saw it coming," he said, with tears welling up in his eyes. "I saw it coming."

End of email correspondence on Topic to date.

Author’s identities are concealed for privacy and security reasons. Further information on the information contained in this topic can be directed to the JOIFF secretariaty.