10:10 pm, the Columbus Division of Fire was dispatched to North High Street for a report of

smoke coming from the 1st floor of the Mithoff Building. At 10:12 pm, Engine 1 arrived on the scene

immediately, followed by Engine 9 and Engine 3. Firefighter John Nance was acting Lieutenant on Engine

3.

The Division of Fire used a “battle plan” consisting of two task forces to fight downtown fires.

Acting Lieutenant Nance was with Taskforce two and was staged at the rear of the building. His crew

noticed smoke hanging low to the sidewalk, indicating a basement fire. Nance and his crew from Engine

3 entered the building, joined by teams from Ladder 2 and Engine 2 shortly after. The smoke was so

dense the crews were forced to crawl while advancing the charged hose line.

Approximately 30 minutes into the incident, a second alarm was transmitted. While there was

still no visible fire, the smoke was increasing. Met with a significant amount of smoke and heat, Nance

and his crew continued to search for access to the basement. Unable to access the basement and

quickly exhausted, Nance and his crew vacated the building to cool down and switch out air bottles.

Now, after numerous research attempts, it seems no one knows what happened to Firefighter

John Nance other than he fell through the floor into the basement. A hole was found where he fell

through, leaving firefighters and officials to believe he was cutting a hole to the basement. Firefighters

were attempting to rescue FF Nance utilizing ropes and hose lines. As the fire began to show, Nance had

run out of air. The Assistant Chief started to remove people from the fire. Using a “search rope” type

technique, firefighters once again entered the building in a final attempt to save FF Nance. Firefighters

were again pulled from the building; last attempts were made to gain access to firefighter Nance, but all

turned empty.

Eventually reaching the 4th alarm, the fire was placed under control around 5 am.

Unfortunately, FF Nance did not make it out of the fire, and his body was recovered on the afternoon of

July 26th. According to reports, the building was intentionally set on fire, making this line of duty death a

murder.

As always, a line of duty death results in training tactics for firefighters. This LODD brought us

the “John Nance Drill” or “Hole in the floor.” The drill removes firefighters from a basement should stairs

or easier access not be available. I have attached a link to watch it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umzJmtMHrdA this incident also shows the importance of using a

search rope or tag line. Although firefighters had a hose line to follow in this incident, a search rope still

provides an additional tool to help guide a firefighter out and to assist firefighters in to assist a downed

firefighter should anything happen.

I must admit, when looking for my LODD topic this month, I was unaware of John Nance. As I

researched it and found multiple articles and stories, I became a bit obsessed with always looking for

more information. To my knowledge and what I have seen, the murder has yet to be solved, officials and

investigators have found why the building was set on fire but have yet to find out who started it. I found

a story written by Michael Norman on FFprovinggrounds.com. Mr. Norman, a writer for Columbus

Monthly, provides detail on the incident in his write-up. I encourage anyone unfamiliar with this to do

an internet search and read up on it.

**Video link provided by FFprovinggrounds YouTube page**