Prince William County firefighter’s line-of-duty death will have nationwide impact on firefighter safety

The International Association of Fire Chief’s (IAFC) Safety, Health & Survival (SHS) Section will address the national recommendations in the Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue’s investigative report on the line of duty death of Technician Kyle R Wilson in 2007. The SHS Section’s national working group of fire chiefs will review the national recommendations and develop a plan of action to address them. Their work has the potential to prevent future firefighter fatalities, according to Chief Billy Goldfeder, chair of the SHS Section.

Chief Brett Bowman, chief of operations for the Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue and a member of the SHS Section Board of Directors, is serving as special consultant to the national working group.

April 16, 2009 will mark the second anniversary of the tragic day Technician Wilson died in a house fire performing search and rescue for the occupants. After his death, the Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue formed an investigation team consisting of members of the department and neighboring-jurisdiction fire departments. The team spent almost eight months performing a detailed investigation and developing recommendations based on available data and standards to prevent future injuries and fatalities. The report identified actions to implement at the local, regional, state or national level.

In his introduction to the report, Chief Kevin McGee said, “This is the most comprehensive after action analysis performance in the history of the Department of Fire and Rescue. The goal of this report is to ensure the loss of Technician 1 Wilson was not in vain, and we are committed to sharing our findings in the hope of preventing the loss of another firefighter.”

The IAFC’s SHS Section working group will review the national recommendations, including these:

Pursue regional and industry standardization of audio warnings -- radio alert tones, apparatus air horn sounding, mechanical signaling, etc. -- to alert firefighters to an emergency evacuation regardless of the authority having jurisdiction.
A review of the self-contained breathing apparatus performance related to all the components must be performed. This evaluation may have industry-wide implications.
The fire service should evaluate their initial occupant rescue attempts to include external alerting procedures such as the sounding of the initial arriving apparatus air horns.
A national fire service initiative is needed to develop and establish an information warehouse to collect, analyze, catalog and provide a single resource and access point for firefighter safety related issues.

Since the LODD report was released in February 2008, members of the Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue have presented information on the incident and the report findings to more than 3,000 fire service personnel. Their goal is to ensure that Technician Wilson’s legacy is to prevent injuries and death of other fire fighters.

The members of the IAFC SHS Section national working group:
John Sullivan, District Chief, Worcester (Massachusetts) Fire Dept. (Chair of working group)
William Stipp, Battalion Chief, Goodyear (Arizona) Fire Department
John Oates, Fire Chief, East Hartford (Connecticut) Fire Department
Christopher Naum, Chief, James A. Fitzpatrick Nuclear Power Plant
Scott Milligan, Training Chief, Winthrop (Maine) Fire Department
Rick Kline, Chief, City of Plymouth (Minnesota) Fire Department
Michael Chiaramonte, Chief Fire Inspector, Lynbrook (New York) Fire Department
Alan Walls, Division Chief, Colerain (Ohio) Township Fire Department
Edward Hartin, Battalion Chief, Gresham (Oregon) Fire and Emergency Services