24-year-old Anne Sullivan was among four firefighters who died in a hotel fire in Houston, Texas, in a tragic blaze that is already being called the worst in Houston Fire Department’s 118-year history.
Fourteen firefighters were also hospitalized, with one reportedly having his leg amputated after the roof collapsed in the inferno.
Twenty four-year-old probationary firefighter, Sullivan, had only graduated from the Houston Fire Department Academy in April, and was killed alongside Captain Matthew Renaud, Robert Bebee, and Robert Garner.
The fire broke out on Friday with over 150 firefighters responding to control the blaze — staff were able to safely evacuate the hotel, but fire crews still had reason to believe there could be more people inside who needed rescuing.
Fire crews were sent in to look for guests and patrons of the South West Inn & Restaurant who could still be trapped, but were then trapped themselves by the roof collapsing in on them.
The fire moved quickly, with high winds causing it to spread rapidly throughout the building.
Fire captain Ruy Lozano defended the decision to send in fire crews saying that “it was an occupied structure, during business hours. There was every indication to think there was a life to be saved.”
In a press conference, fire chief Terry Garrison added:
Unfortunately, the building had much more fire in it than we had originally thought. The structure collapsed and our members, while trying to save lives, were trapped.
And if you think about it, firefighters do their work in groups. We work in groups of four on the fire ground — we protect and watch out for each other — so when we have something as devastating and sudden as a collapse, that’s where we have the potential to have many firefighters at one time.
HFD has never lost four firefighters in a single incident before, with the previous worst incident being in 1929 when three firefighters died after their engine was hit by a train.
The investigation into what caused the fire is ongoing, with the fire department’s Arson Division appealing for any witnesses to come forward. While the investigation continues, questions will inevitably fall on why the fire crews were sent in when it later transpired that the public had been safely evacuated.
If fire crews had known there were no lives left to save, then officers in charge would have been able to take a less aggressive approach to tackling the blaze.
In April, the US-based National Institute of Standards and Technology said that a five or six man crew was “significantly” more effective than a three or four man crew in tackling fires in a high-rise building. The Houston blaze was not a high-rise, but the study showed that a six-man crew was able to face a fire 60 percent faster than a three-man crew.
Whether a larger crew would have helped in this incident, or simply led to even more fatalities, remains to be seen.
FBU response
In 2007, four Warwickshire firefighters died in a similar incident when a roof collapsed in a fire at a vegetable warehouse. Investigations led to questions about why the fire officers had been sent into the warehouse, despite all the workers having been accounted for.
That investigation led to the prosecution of station manager Timothy Woodward, and watch managers Paul Simmons and Adrian Ashley, on charges of manslaughter, but all three were eventually acquitted, with chief fire officer Graeme Smith saying it was “clear these cases should never have been brought to court.”
The Fire Brigades Union has extended their sympathies with the Houston Fire Department, saying:
Please pass on our condolences, our best wishes and our solidarity to all concerned and to the members and officials of local 341. At such a time firefighters in the UK and across the world will share the sadness of our brothers and sisters in Houston and throughout the IAFF [International Association of Fire Fighters].
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my condolences…I;m sorry and sad to hear this news… sad, sad, sad….
Everyone involved in this incident had some very tough calls to make. An active hotel is no place to assume that everyone made it out given the nature of the business and judging by the number of responders the size of the structure. It’s hard to send anyone into harms way but had they not gone in and a handful of people were trapped inside then the decision to stay out would have been questioned as well. One thing that I hope to see in the near future though is an advancement in technology that lets us avoid sending humans… Read more »
As you say the nature of the business makes it a very tough call. These firefighters paid the ultimate price though, so the questions will have to be asked. The first and most important one though is what (or indeed who) caused the fire, and why did it spread so quickly resulting in such a devastating weakness in the structure supporting the roof.
That is a very good question but it does seem like any of the hotel fires that I’ve heard about got out of hand very quickly. Maybe there is something lacking in building code for hotels because the last one I heard about around here burned in a way that sounds very similar to the one in the blog post. Luckily everyone got out but it was totally engulfed in minutes. This was an extended stay style of hotel and they had many residents who had been there for years and IIRC it was someone cooking in their room who… Read more »
That does seem strange. There shouldn’t be any reason why a fire in a hotel would spread faster than a fire in another type of multiple occupation building, as the rooms should all be properly compartmentalised for fire. But in the US, of course, the fire and building codes vary state to state, so it would be difficult to pinpoint weaknesses in codes at a glance.
It makes me wonder a lot of things about the buildings in particular. The one locally here was “in disrepair” and was basically used as low rent housing. If the fire control systems were neglected then it makes sense that once a fire started it wouldn’t be contained the way the system was designed. I’ve also been in some older hotels that have been retrofitted with HVAC systems that seem to defy the compartmentalization designed to keep fires under control in large buildings so there are probably a lot of things fed the fire I’m thinking of.
Yes, ‘additions’ to a building over time are right up there as causes in failure of compartmentalisation.
safeNsane a very tragic news indeed. I think we can count numerous lapses on the part of different agencies. I think regulations need to be passed calling for installation of fire appliances thus reducing chances of human casualities and have time to evacuate. I think these kind of places do not need to even exist which are only their for money and put safety standards at their back. I think first of all goverment needs to be blamed for lapse on their [part.
One thing that I would like to see is more sharing of data when things like this happen. Sure we’re talking about it but how many metropolitan fire departments are looking at this and waiting for the reports so that they can look and see if there is anything that they can do better themselves?
That happens quite frequently around here, in tourist heavy areas hotels are constantly being renovated and I wonder how often enough changes take place to compromise the systems designed when the building was being planned. I know we had a big push a few years ago with apartment buildings becoming condominiums and people gutting the entire space to build it out the way they wanted. I can imagine that changes the nature of compartmentalization as well.
Hm, yes, indeed, I’ve read about quite a few incidents where walls have been removed and that has then aided the spread of the fire. It’s not something most people think about when you’re looking at getting a nice big living room.
I had an interesting conversation in a lunch meeting on Friday around the lack of consistency in fire standards in hotels across Europe. It seems the EU are getting quite animated about the fact that EU citizens have a right to feel safe wherever they’re staying in Europe on holiday. Could be an interesting area of development in rules in the next few years. Wonder if the US needs something similar?
In attached living situations I can see where remodeling could be a big issue and I think that long term living in hotels introduces a lot of problems too. Imagine someone with a hot plate and a hording issue living in a hotel room. It’s only a matter of time until there is an accident and if you have things like smoke detectors that were disabled so that someone could cook or smoke in the room then the fire just has that much more time to spread before anyone is alerted.