Chicago Fire LODD

[cmollison]

http://couriernews.suntimes.com/news/2986760-418/hopp-firefighters-fire-chicago-wednesday.html

A friend sent me this today. Prayers are with the families and our brother and sisters in Chicago.

[mfes04]

RIP Brothers. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your families.

Again..........multiple LODDs, abandon building, bowstring truss roof........God, this is frustrating!! History keeps repeating itself.

[OSMFF]

All we can hope for is that History will stop repeating itself, enough is enough.

R.I.P

[oldboot]

History is always going to repeat itself with this job!
Putting ourselves in harm’s way to save life and protect property is what we do.
All the training in the world will not stop Firefighters from getting hurt and occasionally getting killed in the line of duty.

RIP Brothers

[FLASHOVER05]

There is talk that the owner of the Building will face criminal charges as a result of the fire. The roof was deemed unsafe by an inspector years ago

It doesn't by any means right the situation, but I hope that the families of the fallen get some closure

[Brydon]

RIP brothers

[irsqyu]

History is always going to repeat itself with this job!
Putting ourselves in harm’s way to save life and protect property is what we do.
All the training in the world will not stop Firefighters from getting hurt and occasionally getting killed in the line of duty.

RIP Brothers


Well put oldboot, like me if you make it safely through to retirement you only have to wonder what the toxins you have been exposed to over the last 40 years will do!

[report1033]

It was an accident. Unfortunately they happen. Thoughts and Prayers with the CFD.

RIP
Edward J Stringer
Corey D. Ankum

[3rdGen]

History shouldn't replay here. It will, but it shouldn't.

When will we recognize the difference between risking the lives of firefighters to save someone and risking the lives of firefighters to minimize damage in an abandon building. This clearly wasn't worth the loss of life, nothing was saved, and so much was lost.

RIP - As a service we need to learn from incidents like this; a token of appreciation to the brothers and sisters that don't go home.

[itsnotahobby]

History shouldn't replay here. It will, but it shouldn't.

When will we recognize the difference between risking the lives of firefighters to save someone and risking the lives of firefighters to minimize damage in an abandon building. This clearly wasn't worth the loss of life, nothing was saved, and so much was lost.

RIP - As a service we need to learn from incidents like this; a token of appreciation to the brothers and sisters that don't go home.

Seriously??? 3rdGen I'm assuming that you mean 3rd generation firefighter? Why not do a little reading before running your mouth.

The guys in Chicago probably run more fires in a year than you and your 2 other generations have in your lifetimes.

They were inside searching for victims as fires in abandoned buildings often don't magically start by themselves. In a building with no ignition source (ie utilities cut), wouldn't it be a better idea to assume that it is either children playing, vagrants trying to keep warm or an arson? In any of these cases there could be a savable life. Just ask the 8 year old boy who was rescued from an abandoned building in Niagara Falls, New York a few months back. Should those firefighters have taken your advice and not conducted a search because it was an "abandoned" building? I'm sure the family of the 8 year old would tell you differently.

Would your feelings have been any different if they had found the body of a victim inside or if they had saved someone?

I think this is more about knowing your first due and taking educated calculated risks, which it would appear they were doing here.

[itsnotahobby]

http://backstepfirefighter.com/2011/01/02/why-we-searchchicago-two-fires-with-rescues/

Anyone else want to question why we do what we do?

[fdfish]

.....nope...

[Hacienda216]

Seriously??? 3rdGen I'm assuming that you mean 3rd generation firefighter? Why not do a little reading before running your mouth.

The guys in Chicago probably run more fires in a year than you and your 2 other generations have in your lifetimes.

They were inside searching for victims as fires in abandoned buildings often don't magically start by themselves. In a building with no ignition source (ie utilities cut), wouldn't it be a better idea to assume that it is either children playing, vagrants trying to keep warm or an arson? In any of these cases there could be a savable life. Just ask the 8 year old boy who was rescued from an abandoned building in Niagara Falls, New York a few months back. Should those firefighters have taken your advice and not conducted a search because it was an "abandoned" building? I'm sure the family of the 8 year old would tell you differently.

Would your feelings have been any different if they had found the body of a victim inside or if they had saved someone?

I think this is more about knowing your first due and taking educated calculated risks, which it would appear they were doing here.

INAH I think you're talking about the fire in Niagara Falls, NY where the 8 year old boy was KILLED in a fire in an "abandoned" building. Just to be clear I'm not trying to assign blame, or infere that NFFD didn't search, but yes, ItsNotAHobby got the point across. BackstepFirefighter.com has about one post a week about saves from supposed "abandoned" buildings. There's a lot of risk involved with what we do and that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

[itsnotahobby]

INAH I think you're talking about the fire in Niagara Falls, NY where the 8 year old boy was KILLED in a fire in an "abandoned" building. Just to be clear I'm not trying to assign blame, or infere that NFFD didn't search, but yes, ItsNotAHobby got the point across. BackstepFirefighter.com has about one post a week about saves from supposed "abandoned" buildings. There's a lot of risk involved with what we do and that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

Yes you are right. I was thinking of two separate fires and mixing them into one. As you stated though the point is that you can never be sure, and if there is a chance to search, through proper tactical decision making then it should be done.

[bcfire]

History is always going to repeat itself with this job!
Putting ourselves in harm’s way to save life and protect property is what we do.
All the training in the world will not stop Firefighters from getting hurt and occasionally getting killed in the line of duty.

RIP Brothers

Well said OB and RIP Chicago's Bravest Brothers. These guys are aggressive fire attack style. Sometimes the worst can and does happen.

[TruckCo11]

It is always amazing what crawls out of the dark when incidents like this happen. It is amazing because guys will always condemn, criticize and vilify the actions of the department in question when there are no facts officially released. How many people on this forum that are critical of local 2's actions in this incident, actually know anything about it, other than the few news reports? My guess is none.

This incident was nothing other than a glorified rubbish fire inside of an abandoned building. On their arrival, there were tracks in the snow in front of an open door. That kind of tells most normal firemen that there could be people inside of that building, meaning a search must be conducted. But that is all beside the point; the fire didn't involve structural components of the building, it was mostly rubbish and other materials. The full still and box assignment was called because there was an issue with two hydrants being frozen; the box was called as a precautionary measure only. At the time of the collapse members were picking up and exiting the structure. The fire had nothing to do with the collapse.

This is why people should learn to keep their mouths shut until factual data is available. This was a sudden, catastrophic failure of a building not due to fire load. Guys who were there said that the building was clear of smoke, that it was a clean atmosphere.

So go ahead, I want to hear someone say it. I want to hear someone say that a homeless person's life is not valuable enough to search for, because they happen to squat in a vacant home or building. Are we never going to ever enter another vacant building ever again? C'mon, just say it and at least admit it out loud.

Once again, two members were killed and not even buried yet, and guys are slamming them for their actions. Class act guys, you're what the brotherhood truly is not about.

BTW; there was a very good turnout of Canadian firefighters for the services. I saw members from Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, London, Montreal, Brampton, Windsor and others I apologize to have forgotten. There was even representation from the LFB.