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NIST COMPUTER SIMULATIONS AND LIVE FIRE EXPERIMENTS TO BE USED TO DISCOVER CAUSE OF RAPID FIRE PROGRESS IN FLORIDA TRAINING BURN. | |
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Orlando - FLORIDA. Two Osceola County firefighters killed during a training burn in an 'acquired' structure are believed to have died as a result of a flashover. John Mickel and Dallas Begg were killed in July 2002, while working on the training fire, and an investigation has been under way ever since. Federal investigators in Maryland have attempted to re-create the circumstances that lead to rapid fire progress in Florida and their findings suggested flashover occurred in just 2½ minutes. "Certainly the fuel is a concern in the investigation," said Randall Napoli, director of the Fire Marshal's Office. The fuel is the material used to start the fire. In addition to hay and wood pallets, Osceola County Commission Chairman Paul Owen and three other people familiar with the training drill told WESH NewsChannel 2 that a foam rubber mattress was thrown onto the fire. Using a foam rubber mattress in a training fire violates standards by the National Fire Protection Association. That organization has established a voluntary code for live training burns (NFPA 1403). In a letter to an assistant Osceola County attorney, the training officer in charge of the drill, John Simpson, said we follow NFPA 1403 standard on live fire training. Prosecutors wouldn't comment, but experts said the deciding factor on whether to file charges is what's called culpable negligence should the training officers have known that throwing a mattress onto the fire would likely cause serious injury or death. The attorney representing the training officers and firefighters that day declined an on-camera interview, but said he doesn't think this case will ever reach a courtroom or that charges will ever be filed. He said it was an awful situation, but one no one anticipated. The attorney said firefighters didn't know what was happening until it was too late. Orlando criminal defense attorney Roger Scott agreed criminal charges are unlikely. The fire will now be recreated using live experiments and computer simulations by the National Institute for Standards and Technology. "The computer simulations basically are a way to show us a visualization of the fire to basically put yourself in the fire room to help other firefighters see where that fire was moving," institute spokesman Dan Madrzykowski said. The computer simulations are expected to show if the fuel used to start the fire was the problem. "We do understand the fuel loads may have been an issue," Madrzykowski said. The foam mattress represents a violation of the standards by the National Fire Protection Association as foam rubber emits large amounts of carbons and gases. Those amounts can lead to a flashover, the suspected causes of death for Mickel and Begg. Investigators said they will also focus on the only window in the fire room. The glass was reportedly knocked out and the room vented while Mickel and Begg were inside, in an effort to cool the fire. However, investigators said it might have caused the fire to flash instead.
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