By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
A post-incident report on the fatal March 7 fire at Salisbury Millwork reveals many instances when radio transmissions were unreadable, overridden or failed to transmit.
Capt. Rick Barkley, who was rescued from the fire, attempted to contact outside crews at least 20 times before being able to transmit a successful mayday call that morning.
Firefighter Brian Roberts, who had left the crew to replenish his air, also tried to radio Barkley from an outside loading dock to report that the fire had spread behind the team inside.
Earlier, faulty radio communications prevented Barkley from getting assistance from outside crews in pulling his 2 1/2-inch hose line to a safer location.
Because those radio transmissions didn’t go through, it created a “spaghettied” section of hose which proved difficult for Barkley and his crew to follow out to safety when fire conditions in the shipping area deteriorated quickly.
“According to recorded data,” the Salisbury Fire Department report says, “there are a total of 21 transmissions from Quint 4 (Barkley’s team) which failed.”
Radio communications are just one of the issues addressed in the post-incident report ó routine for all fires, but this one is the most comprehensive in the department’s history because firefighters Victor Isler and Justin Monroe lost their lives in the woodworking plant fire.
City officials have bought new radio equipment for firefighters (see accompanying story), while the department also has instituted new radio testing procedures.
In addition, the report reviews and makes comments on command functions, the weather that day, communication of hoseline placement, water pressure, the buddy system and how the fire spread. It gives the most detailed narrative to date of the morning’s events.
In danger
Barkley, Isler and Monroe were positioned in the shipping area beyond the plant’s accounting room and office when they suddenly found themselves in danger.
“Crews were operating in areas recognized as safe and protected by firewalls,” the report said. “Auto exposures and the collapse of the floor in the office area provided a sudden and unexpected path of travel for the fire to spread into the shipping area.
“As the fire extended through these unforeseen openings, the smoke and years of built-up sawdust trapped in the ceiling and roof supports of the shipping area most likely ignited rapidly, resulting in total engulfment or flashover of the entire shipping area in a very short period of time.”
Records show that at 9 a.m. Monroe walked to the open loading dock door where Quint 4’s hose exited the building. He met with the safety officer to confirm Quint 4 was “in a safe location and everything is fine” before reentering the building to return to his crew.
By 9:06 a.m., Barkley’s call of “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” was heard and, interviews revealed later, Monroe was no longer visible and Barkley couldn’t find Isler, who was supposed to be crawling behind him along their hose.
At 9:07 a.m., Barkley radios the message, “I’m on the hoseline, but the hoseline’s gone dead.”
By then, Rapid Intervention Team 2 ( Locke Fire Department members) was in place and responding toward Quint 4’s distress call. The members found Barkley quickly.
A Salisbury Fire Department captain then entered and found Isler a short time later, pulling him about 40 feet toward the loading dock door before being assisted by others.
Several attempts to enter, find and remove Monroe had to be abandoned because of the deteriorating conditions. After “the bulk of the fire” was knocked down, Monroe’s body was recovered “before a catastrophic collapse of the building occurred,” the report said.
The Salisbury Millwork plant was a total loss. It was insured for $2 million and had $1 million worth of inventory in its warehouse, the report said.
On that morning, Isler and Monroe initially responded as part of Squad 1, but they almost immediately abandoned efforts to ventilate the roof, which was too hot, and they joined Barkley’s Quint 4.
Quint 4 initially took an uncharged hoseline (it was charged later) through the shipping area and into the first-floor office as a back-up for Quint 1. Quint 4 later helped other teams in trying to fight the fire in the basement below the office.
Through the early part of the morning, the Fire Department shifted between offensive and defensive positions and at times seemed to have it contained.
Eventually, the operations officer talked with Barkley about an updated plan for protecting the shipping area. Quint 4, including Isler and Monroe, reentered the shipping area where and followed their original 2 1/2-inch hoseline toward the office area.
As they proceeded in, Barkley said visibility was still good, but they encountered heavy smoke and some heat in the accounting room, which led to the office. Barkley told his crew they would back their line out of the office and accounting area to a safer location near the firewall that separated those areas from the shipping section.
Radio problems
His radio efforts to ask outside crews for help in pulling back the hoseline were not successful. He could receive transmissions from the outside, but could not transmit. He told Monroe to walk about 60 feet to the back loading dock door and tell outside crews they were safe and everything was fine.
Roberts exited about this time for air, as the crew continued to pull the hose back.
Barkley “noticed a roll in the hose blocking a hall/doorway he and Isler were using as a prop,” the report said. Barkley asked Isler to pull the line back to clear the doorway.
“As Isler is backing the hose out, he noticed the fire is behind him and his captain,” the narrative said. “He informed his captain, who then pulled the nozzle back to Isler when the hoseline suddenly loses pressure.”
Conditions quickly worsened, and Barkley laid the nozzle on the floor and crawled about 5 feet to Isler. They were just past a doorway in the warehouse that led to the accounting room.
The pair began crawling along the hose but went the wrong way and ended up back at the nozzle. They talked a few moments about which way was correct before setting off again.
Barkley confirmed for himself that they were going the right way because he spied a fire extinguisher on his right that he saw when entering the building. But Barkley soon encountered “a spaghetti pile of hose,” and he could no longer see Monroe, who was supposed to be walking back toward them.
Outside crews reported that the building “became fully engulfed with fire from one end to the other in just seconds.”
Barkley kept issuing maydays as he worked through the tangled hoseline. When he turned to talk to Isler, the firefighter was not there. He called out for Isler and crawled back several feet to look for him when he was overcome by heat.
Barkley turned again and tried to follow the hoseline. He reached a cut in the hose.
“Due to physical exhaustion, the captain laid on top of the hose where the water was leaking to cool off,” the report said. From there, he kept making mayday calls until one finally got through.