Lessons learned from a fatal fire should save lives in the future

Two Kansas City firefighters died last year as they tried to protect a pumper truck.

That’s one of the chilling facts established in a valuable Kansas City Fire Department report released Tuesday. It was an essential part of Chief Paul Berardi’s promise to the community to deliver a “warts and all” response to the Oct. 12 blaze.

Berardi focused on the most important aspect of the report, saying its purpose “is to lessen the likelihood” of future deaths among firefighting crews.

But for that to happen, Berardi, firefighters and their commanders have to take seriously the conclusions reached and the recommendations made.

The report highlighted the fact that the Fire Department is “tactically aggressive,” an approach that can save lives and property. However, the aggressiveness “needs to be re-calibrated to always include risk versus reward determinants.”

Indeed, while battling the same fire earlier that night, firefighters stayed too long in untenable conditions inside the building before evacuation orders were given. “This was too close to further tragedy,” the report notes.

The Fire Department needs to make sure firefighters don’t place themselves or others in danger without compelling reasons to do that. The report accurately summed up this point by saying “the cultural norms that work against the safety of firefighters are and can potentially be disastrous and should not be tolerated.”

All 14 recommendations in the review appear solid, but the first especially so: “The department should develop a collapse zone policy.”

This is something the agency should have had in place before Oct. 12, and this tragedy must ensure that proper markings are used for future collapse zones.

The report also found fault with the ability of commanders to communicate accurately and quickly with others on the ground at the fatal fire. That put the lives of too many firefighters at risk.

The recommendation of updating communications policies makes good sense. However, those policies must be followed for them to do any good at helping to protect the lives of firefighters.

The report clearly shows grave mistakes were made that night, ending in the deaths of Larry Leggio and John Mesh. The department has vowed to learn from those errors, and an upcoming federal report into the fatal incident may offer even more ways to improve the Kansas City Fire Department.

The chaotic events of Oct. 12 showed the agency at its finest moments, the report noted, as “firefighters rescued two citizens from upper balconies on the north side of the structure during the fire fight.”

However, in that confusion, bad decisions also were made. Two lives were lost. The public and the Fire Department must never forget the cruel lessons of that night.

This story was originally published May 25, 2016 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Lessons learned from a fatal fire should save lives in the future."