In the early morning of July 23, 2018, at approximately 0200hours, Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services was dispatched to lightning-caused structure fire in a single-family residence in Clarksville, Maryland.

Shortly after arriving on scene, Lieutenant Nathan Flynn and his crew were advancing a hose line into the structure when the floor collapsed. A Mayday was initiated around 0220hours by Lt. Flynn and another member of the crew. All of the crew members were rescued after about 20 minutes in burning basement at approximately 0245hours.

Lt. Flynn was transported to the hospital but did not survive his injuries. The cause of death was multiple injuries.

He was the first line of duty death in the history of Howard County.

Incident Location: 7000 Block of Woodscape Road, Clarksville, MD (U.S. National Grid: U.S. National Grid: 18S UJ 34363 39282 (DD: 39.187, -76.918))

Lessons Learned as per NIOSH

Fire departments should ensure that crew integrity is properly maintained by visual (eye-to-eye), direct (touch), or verbal (voice or radio) contact at all times when operating in an immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH) atmosphere. The intent is to prevent firefighters from becoming lost or missing
Fire departments should ensure incident commanders conduct a detailed scene size-up and risk assessment during initial fireground operations and throughout the incident including Side Charlie
Fire departments should develop and implement a standard operating procedure/guideline (SOP/SOG) to identify below-grade fires and ensure that appropriate tactical operations are implemented
Fire departments should ensure that a deployment strategy for low-frequency/high-risk incidents is developed and implemented for large area residential structures with unique architectural features
Fire departments should ensure that incident commanders develop an incident action plan (IAP) that matches conditions encountered during initial operations and throughout the incident
Fire departments should ensure that critical incident benchmarks and fire conditions are communicated to incident commanders throughout the incident. This is accomplished with effective fireground communications
Fire departments should have a procedure to ensure all members operating in the hazard zone have their radios on the designated radio channel
Fire departments should ensure all members and dispatchers are trained on the safety features of their portable radio, particularly the features useful during a Mayday
Fire departments should develop a process to prevent task saturation of incident commanders during multi-alarm incidents
Fire departments should ensure that the member assigned to the resource status and situation status function is not given other duties during an incident
Fire departments should develop a formal training program that defines the job duties and functions for staff aides, incident command technicians, or staff assistants
Fire departments should ensure incident commanders maintain control of situation status, resources status, and communications to ensure the completion of tactical objectives
Fire departments should incorporate the principles of Command Safety into the incident management system during the initial assumption of command. This ensures that strategic-level safety responsibilities are being incorporated into the command functions throughout the incident
Fire departments should review and/or develop SOG/SOPs to ensure that water supply is established during initial fireground operations, particularly in areas with limited or no hydrants
Fire departments should ensure adequate staffing and deployment of resources based on the community’s risk assessment
Fire department should periodically review and, if necessary, revise their SOP/SOG on the deployment of rapid intervention crews (RICs)
Fire departments should use resources from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Underwriter’s Laboratories (UL) Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), and the International Society of Fire Service Instructors (ISFSI) to develop and revise operational procedures on fireground tactics and provide training in fire dynamics in structures for all firefighting staff
Fire departments should consider having all members carry a wire cutting tool

We remember…

Lieutenant Nathan "Nate" Flynn, 34, Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services