Free Essay On Factors Or Operations That Contributed To The Incident

Firefighters are one of the heroes in the country as they save a lot of lives while putting their own lives at risk. They are also exposed to various chemicals when they are surrounded by fire, so they are more prone to injury, suffocation, and death. Without them, a lot of lives would be lost in fires. For me, they should be given credit. They should be given care and safety in their jobs. People rely on them too much but are taken for granted. Their safety is not being looked at much. The worst part is that those in the industries of firefighting and emergency are the ones not taking care of them. As such, they end up being placed in danger. These are some issues that should be addressed and looked at from now on.
I am bringing this up because I want to analyze an incident that happened years ago, when the lives of two firefighters were put at risk because of some disappointing factors and actions that could have been prevented. In order for this incident to not happen again, I will discuss and enumerate what should have been done. I will also give my recommendations as a safety and health program manager.

After reading the incident analysis, I realized that there are a lot of major factors and operations that contributed to the incident. If it were not for these factors, the life of the firefighters would not have been put at risk and one of them could still be alive right now.
For starters, the instructions were not given clearly to each team and to each person. There are a lot of personnel and teams that came to the house and from the way it looked, they were enough to put out the fire. But it seems instructions were not given clearly and the firefighters, especially the two, became very hasty in entering the burning structure.
Based on the incident analysis, it looked like the whole team did not check the whole house/structure to see where the fires are and if it is safe to go inside. In relation with this, the two involved firefighters did not also check for the structure and the front door. As I have read in the incident analysis, “unknown to the firefighters, three separate fires were burning in the basement—one fire was directly below the entry of the front door” (CDC). So, instead of checking on those three fires, the two firefighters just went inside using the front door, which resulted to them falling to the basement. If they bothered to check that, falling to the basement would not have happened.
The two firefighters hastily went inside the house through the front door, nobody was overseeing what they did. Nobody was guarding the front door or even stopped the two firefighters from getting in. Based on the incident analysis, there was no mention that the District Major or anyone even gave orders to the firefighters to get in the front door. As for the firefighters, they did not even wait for the signal and just went in without checking.
Another factor that contributed to this incident is the very slow response time in rescuing the two firefighters that fell to the basement. One of the firefighters already “manually activated his personal alert safety system (PASS) device. However, due to the noise of the engines, pumps, PPV fans, etc., no one heard the alarm” (CDC). Nobody even heard it and realized they were missing. Worse, nobody even bothered to check them after they went inside the structure. Making being busy as an excuse is never acceptable because lives are at risk here. Eight minutes may be short for some, but these 8 minutes is what it got one firefighter injured and the other one dying from asphyxiation. Even after they found out about the missing firefighters, there was still the slow and late response time.
These are just some of the factors that I think contributed to the incident and they are not very minor, in my own opinion. If these factors were done before the injury of one firefighter and the death of another, the incident could have been prevented in the first place.

Recommendations in Preventing Similar Incidents

As I have listed the factors I have mentioned above, here are some of my recommendations to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.

Coordination

If there is something lacking in putting the fire out from the structure, it is coordination. While the District Major gave some orders to the personnel, I did not see him coordinating with the others, which left others doing some actions on their own (like what the two firefighters did). In relation to this, I think the lack of coordination contributes on the firefighters not checking the whole structure. This also contributes to not guarding the two firefighters when they are about to go to the front door, in case something happens to them.

Quick Response

I think everyone knows that firefighters should be quick to respond in saving the lives of people---including their fellow firefighter. I find this disappointing as they did not notice the victims being gone for 8 minutes. Even when they found them, they were still slow. I think a quick response is the major recommendation I would give for them because time is very important in saving lives. It is the duty of the firefighters to always be there to save lives, especially lives of their fellow firefighters. Everyone should be helping out each other in order to their jobs well.

Conclusion

It is very important to take care of firefighters even if they are the ones saving lives. We should never take them for granted and I hope my analysis paper will be helpful in taking care of them in the future. Let this incident years ago serve a lesson to everyone involved in the firefighting and emergency industry and know that every life is important---including their own.

Works Cited

CDC. “Floor Collapse in a Single Family Dwelling Fire Claims the Life of One Fire Fighter and
Injures Another – Kentucky.” cdc.gov. CDC, n.d. Web.
< http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/face/In-house/full9704.html>.