January’s deadly vacant rowhome fire along south Stricker Street rocked Baltimore City to its core.
Three firefighters were killed and another was injured that day, and since then the cries for change have grown louder.
Now, a new report from Maryland Occupational Safety and Health reveals the possible failures that may have put the firefighters in danger.
Several firefighters who responded to the fire told investigators they were not aware the vacant home was damaged in a fire in 2015 which left several firefighters injured, and if they’d known they may have approached it differently.
One of the men who responded to January’s fire told MOSH he had actually fallen through the floor in the home in 2015.
However, MOSH says dispatch never advised the firefighters, and an old system where x’s were placed on buildings to warn firefighters of damage no longer existed.
Councilwoman Odette Ramos says Code X-Ray began in 2010 but didn’t last long.
“Residents complained about how it looked and that it didn’t look good in the community, so it stopped,” she said.
Ramos says the program is now returning, a recommendation made in the report.
The report also recommends firefighters should immediately be alerted that a structure is unsafe.
“There’s more collaboration now between the housing department and the fire department around getting the data to the fire department in their CAD system so when the call comes in there’s data that says wait this has been compromised before,” he said.
Legal analyst Kevin Stern says the firefighters were failed in many ways by the city and questions why the home was even still standing.
“The ownership should be on the city to protect the firefighters and tell them when you’re in route what to look for. This is the type of property you’re entering. It’s either been condemned or has fire damage from 6-7 years ago and there’s concern of collapse,” he said. “These are things that should be told to them and there was a program in place and it wasn’t there in January, and here we are talking about three firefighters that paid the ultimate sacrifice.”