Baltimore Firefighter Team Responds When Buildings Collapse, Trains for `High Risk` Rescues

July 23--When the floor fell out from under a pair of construction workers renovating a West Baltimore rowhouse last month, one crawled to safety, but the other was trapped beneath a pile of rubble in the basement.

A specialized team of firefighters responded to the call with power tools and lumber. Some of them set up table saws in the middle of the blocked-off intersection at West Lafayette Avenue and Carey Street to build supports that would allow them to safely enter the 1920s-era dwelling. Others moved in, removing debris with buckets and calling out to the worker.

Within an hour, the Baltimore Fire Department's collapse unit emerged with the man on a stretcher to cheers from passersby.

In a city of crumbling infrastructure, 16,000 vacant structures and extensive efforts to renovate or raze blight, the fire unit's role has taken on added significance. In the past nine months, it has carried out three major rescues. That's an unusual spate, as the unit hadn't undertaken a major rescue effort since March 2008, according to Battalion Chief James Wallace.

"None of these calls have been routine," Wallace said. He noted that the construction worker was "extensively buried" and praised the quick work of his team. "That's pretty remarkable."

These are the units, created across the country after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that are called in unusual circumstances. They are trained for a range of hazardous rescues, including automobile entrapments, boat collisions, and rescues in deep water, in trenches and on ice.

During the riots that followed the death of Freddie Gray, the unit prepared for potential water rescues. Gray's death in April, a week after suffering spinal and other injuries in police custody, sparked widespread protests, and Lt. Patrick Campbell said officials were concerned that large crowds at the Inner Harbor would start shoving and pushing people into the water.

"We're in the business of when things go completely wrong," Campbell said.

About 50 of the department's firefighters are trained members of the Special Operations unit -- one of the largest in the region -- who work around the clock, with about a dozen on each shift.

The unit routinely responds to reports of buildings collapsing, often after heavy rains and high winds. Few involve rescues, and some are determined to be less-serious structural problems.

"There are a lot of abandoned rowhomes in the city," Wallace said. "Any time you have that, you have people selling properties. ... You have a pre-existing problem, and they don't have the familiarity. ... You increase the potential for a structural collapse."

In recent months, the unit freed another construction worker pinned under a home undergoing renovations, and they shored up dilapidated rowhouses in the Carrollton Ridge neighborhood as police searched for a fleeing suspect who had fell through the roof of an abandoned structure. The suspect fell two stories but was conscious and spoke to rescuers, who worked for seven hours only to find that he had escaped.

Before that, the last major collapse that Wallace could remember was in March 2008, when a local historian was killed in a rowhouse on Wilson Street, around the corner from Pennsylvania Avenue in West Baltimore. Alvin Brunson, who ran the nonprofit Center for Cultural Education, was working in the basement of a city-owned rowhouse at 562 Wilson St. when it collapsed on him.

Vacant houses can pose hazardous conditions for firefighters. In November, Baltimore fire Lt. James Bethea died after falling into the basement of a vacant home on North Avenue. Bethea, a safety officer, had responded to the scene of a dwelling fire next door to make sure his colleagues were following proper procedures.

Bethea died of smoke inhalation, and it wasn't until hours later that officials realized he was missing.

Chief Niles Ford has announced a range of reforms in the wake of the incident. Wallace said he has yet to review an investigation into the incident, released last week, to determine whether any changes in his unit's training and procedures are needed.

The federal government encouraged local jurisdictions to create specialized rescue teams after the Sept. 11 attacks, said Ken Willette of the National Fire Protection Association.

Since then, departments have developed more advanced programs and training by modeling the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Urban Search and Rescue teams, which train for terrorist events or natural disasters here and abroad.

"You would have firefighters going into buildings that had already collapsed or were about to collapse," Willette said. "There was no real understanding of what they were doing. No one looking at the building assessing it, or asking, 'What is the risk to us?' It was very dangerous."

Still, in 2012, then-Fire Chief James S. Clack said Baltimore remained behind other major cities in the development of its rescue unit. He overhauled the department's rescue operations and converted the Locust Point station into a new command center for the unit. They trained additional firefighters to cover each shift, and did away with a pager system.

In cities like Baltimore, Willette said rescue units face different challenges because of densely populated urban areas and the prevalence of rowhomes.

In Baltimore County, the Fire Department also maintains a rescue unit that is more likely to respond to a swift-water rescue than a building collapse.

"Here in the county, building collapses are rare," said Elise Armacost, a Fire Department spokeswoman. "We do not have the old building stock that you see in Baltimore City."

Before the collapse last month, city housing officials said the worker and another man were renovating the rowhouse without permits.

"It certainly is an issue here in Baltimore," said housing spokeswoman Cheron Porter.

After such incidents, housing inspectors investigate to determine what caused the collapse, and the homeowner could be fined and criminal charges could be filed.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore rescue unit continues to train and prepare for what can be complex operations.

The team follows a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manual that details how to respond in each type of collapse and the supports needed -- down to the variety and number of nails needed.

They also rely on an array of equipment, from jackhammers to more sophisticated devices.

In the rescue operation last September, the unit deployed a camera that extended on a pole to locate the construction worker trapped in a rowhouse that had collapsed in the 500 block of Paca St. near Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The man had become disoriented, complicating efforts to find him.

The rescuers also rely on math. Wallace said the team constantly takes measurements at a scene, as if they were working on a home renovation project. You can often hear measurements being shouted back and forth.

At a recent entrapment training exercise off Pulaski Highway, the site appeared to be made up of debris from a leveled parking garage, with wrecked cars and old shipping containers. In the middle was a shaft of corrugated metal.

Inside the metal shaft, the team practiced constructing "vertical shoring" -- a wooden tower connected with lace posts, which Campbell said are used to support the structure around a victim.

About half a dozen firefighters with hard hats rigged a pulley system to rescue a mannequin at the bottom.

While many firefighters instinctually want to rush in and save a victim, Campbell said the job requires patience for slow rescues or "surgically removing" debris.

And they must be prepared, he said, because the rescues may be "low frequency" but they're also "high risk."

Baltimore Sun reporter Colin Campbell contributed to this article.

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