So I need to comment here... give my very humble opinion on the most commonly asked question I have seen. Why were these Firefighters in the building and why were they not ordered out when things went downhill. I have looked at the videos, listened to the 911 tapes and read the stories. When these fire crews arrived on-scene they entered the building with smoke showing. This is something firefighters do on a regular basis. Then the unthinkable happened, the perfect storm of such.... something that even the most seasoned firefighters never see happen. While the investigation will tell the story it seems that the strong wind (which I was in the city that day) got into this building and drove this fire so fast (within seconds) that those crews that were fighting a routine fire were overwhelmed with heat and flames... again in seconds. When this happens (and you can hear the struggles in the 911 tape for more water) the amount of water that they had to put on the fire was just not enough... not sure if they could have even put enough water on the fire if they had it. Think of trying to put out a large camp fire with a squirt gun, or even two or three squirt guns. This was even more a challenge than that. This fire went from a very routine call to absolutely out of control in under a minute. These firefighters had no chance. I think the incident commanders knew this right away... seconds after the situation went from routine to out of control... so fast that the crews inside did not have enough time to get to the door out. They did order everyone out... only a minute or so after things got out of control. This is the most difficult situation any incident commander could ever face... orders for everyone out when you know you have firefighters trapped. They made this decision... I feel it was the right decision... I feel that at least from what I can get from this the Boston Fire Dept did everything by the book, per protocol and it was those actions that prevented what could have been a much higher number of injuries and line of duty deaths. I dont think what happened could have been prevented. I think what they did, how they handled the situation prevented what could have been an even greater tragedy.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 16:49:12 +0000
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