KCFD kept secret that firefighter drowned at training last year: ‘Massive failure’
How is it that a Kansas City firefighter drowned during a water rescue training exercise surrounded by other firefighters at a swimming pool in Gladstone last year, and the public never knew about it until now?
Answer: The Kansas City Fire Department has kept the circumstances of 33-year-old Kyle Brinker’s death a secret for the past 11 months.
This week, The Star found out what happened that day. Not only did Brinker drown, but the firefighters at the training didn’t have the proper emergency equipment on hand to try to resuscitate him, according to an autopsy report and emergency radio traffic.
Three sources within the fire department with knowledge of the incident who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Star that the training event was not authorized. Had it been, its organizers would have been required to have a safety plan in place and an ambulance crew standing by in case of emergency.
Advanced life support equipment would have been at the scene.
The fact that it wasn’t available was “a massive failure,” one high-ranking fire department officer told The Star.
After bringing this information to the KCFD, Michael Hopkins, a department spokesperson, said in an email that Brinker died during the department’s annual swim test, and that an ambulance wasn’t required to be on site.
But many questions still remain — including why the city’s fire department continues to withhold information about the events that occurred around noon on Sept. 17, 2024, at the Gladstone Community Center.
Responding to The Star’s request for comment, a spokesperson for Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas issued the following statement on Wednesday:
“The Mayor first learned about the allegations at issue from the reporter’s inquiry and cannot speak to the veracity of the allegations raised. As you may understand, we have no comment on the issue at this time.”
City pays for firefighter’s death
In a news release KCFD issued shortly after Brinker’s death and in subsequent public statements, the department has provided the vague explanation that Brinker died after suffering “a medical emergency during a training exercise.”
The department has never described the nature of that medical emergency nor the type of training exercise, nor where it occurred. There was no mention of water or a swimming pool.
Yet the site of the incident was no secret within the KCFD, and an autopsy performed the day after the incident confirmed that drowning was the cause of death.
That report became final last December, after all the toxicological reports were in and only became public knowledge when The Star sought a copy of it this week.
Last Thursday, at the end of its regular meeting, the Kansas City Council approved an expenditure of nearly $1.1 million to settle a workers‘ compensation claim filed by Brinker’s widow.
It gave no explanation as to what happened other than Brinker suffered “injuries resulting from an accident on September 17, 2024, while employed by the City.”
The ordinance authorizing the payment passed without comment from council members. It does not mention that Brinker’s “injuries” were fatal, but it was the first time that his death was publicly said to have been caused by “an accident” rather than due to a medical condition.
What kind of accident? A Star reporter followed up in the days after the council action and learned from public records, interviews and emergency radio traffic archives how Brinker died.
Autopsy report
It was not from an unspecified “medical emergency.”
Brinker did not die from a “heart attack,” which is how his cause of death is listed on a database of firefighter fatalities maintained by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, which relies on information provided by local fire departments and is not based on medical records.
No, Brinker’s lungs filled with first water, then blood, and he drowned, according to the autopsy report that the Star obtained by request from Forensic Medical of Kansas City. Forensic is a private company that conducts autopsies for area counties that don’t have their own medical examiner’s office.
Gladstone is in Clay County, which pays for Forensic Medical’s services.
The report says Brinker drowned during a water rescue training session at the indoor pool at the Gladstone Community Center at 6901 North Holmes St., which is across the street from the Gladstone Police Department.
Gladstone is a northland suburb bordered by Kansas City and about a 20-minute drive from the fire station where Brinker spent most of his 11-year career, Station 35 at 3200 Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard.
A Gladstone police spokesman said that his department determined from witnesses that Brinker’s death was an accident and did not conduct an investigation.
The Kansas City Fire Department did not respond to a request for information about whether it conducted its own investigation of Brinker’s death. The department declined to provide The Star with a copy of the initial report filed in its internal record-keeping software, citing patient privacy concerns.
Missing life support equipment
So what happened in the pool that day? All we know for sure is what’s in the autopsy report. It says that Brinker was “observed” swimming in the pool when he allegedly suffered cardiac arrest and went under. It does not say who made the observation.
Cardiac arrest is not the same thing as a heart attack, which is the common name used to describe a myocardial infarction, which can cause damage that might show up in an autopsy.
“A cardiac arrest is simply a sudden loss of heart function, loss of breathing, or consciousness, basically meaning someone is unresponsive due to the heart suddenly not beating which obviously can have numerous causes,” according to Kelsie Gwartney, chief of death investigations and administrator at Forensic Medical.
“And everyone experiences a ‘sudden cardiac arrest’ when they die as it is essentially an all-encompassing term to simply say the heart stopped/not breathing.”
The report said Brinker’s arteries were free of plaque, and he was healthy in most other respects, although he suffered from a condition called Von Willebrand disease that can lead to prolonged bleeding from minor injuries or surgery.
According to the report, observers on the scene said Brinker was pulled from the water “approximately 30 seconds” after being submerged.
The report says Brinker’s rescuers tried to resuscitate him with CPR chest compressions, but that he was pronounced dead at North Kansas City Hospital about an hour later at 12:50 p.m.
Emergency radio traffic confirms that firefighters on the scene suspected at the time that Brinker had drowned after suffering cardiac arrest, and the recording included a key detail that was not in the autopsy report:
The firefighters at the water rescue training did not have the advanced life support equipment available to them that might have helped revive him, according to a firefighter who was manning the radio from Rescue 9 that day.
Rescue 9 was Brinker’s unit, housed at Station 35.
“Compressions are in progress,” the man on the radio told the dispatcher. “We have no ALS equipment on scene.”
Advanced life support equipment includes cardiac monitors and defibrillators to restore a person’s heart beat during cardiac arrest, as well as ventilators and airway management devices to help them breathe, and a wide range of medications.
It’s unclear what the nature of the training was, who conducted it and why it occurred in Gladstone, rather than at a Kansas City pool. The fire department did not respond to The Star’s requests for that information.
Gladstone Deputy Police Chief Karl Burris said he believed that the firefighters were preparing for their annual swim test.
The city’s law department did not immediately fulfill an open records request for the settlement agreement approved last Thursday but said the written agreement would be available on or before Tuesday.
The ordinance approving the settlement says the payment to Rebecca Ann Brinker is for the “full and final resolution” of the workers’ compensation claim. Left unanswered is whether Brinker’s family could also file a wrongful death lawsuit.
His parents and widow did not respond to requests for comment. His wife’s attorney also did not respond to a message left by a reporter with a secretary on Tuesday afternoon.
KCFD did not respond to requests for comment on what changes in the department’s protocols might have been made as a result of Brinker’s death or whether anyone was disciplined.
Brinker was an 11-year veteran of the Kansas City Fire Department and spent most of his career working at Station 35, one of the busiest stations in the city.
Shortly before his death, he was assigned to the Technical Rescue Division.
“Kyle was a dedicated Firefighter Paramedic who operated at the highest level of skill and compassion,” a department statement said when he died. “He was a mentor and role model for many, exemplifying the qualities KCFD looks for in our uniformed personnel.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated after it was initially published upon receiving new information from the KCFD. On Thursday, Aug. 7, department spokesperson Michael Hopkins told The Star in an email that Brinker died during the department’s annual swim test, and that an ambulance wasn’t required to be on site.
This story was originally published August 6, 2025 at 1:00 PM.
