The Coos Bay Fire Department has created a new task force to review its accountability systems in the wake of the fatal Nov. 25 blaze that killed three of the city's firefighters.
The creation of the new body is one of dozens of actions identified in a report required to be filed by the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division to address a list of violations announced in May.
The report also includes re-written guidelines for the department's respiratory protection program, the appointment of Lt. Randy Miles as program administrator and official documentation of additional training exercises for firefighters.
"We want to make sure to address all the issues OSHA has cited us with," Mayor Joe Benetti said Tuesday night.
"What it boils down to is, we don't want to run into any more problems," he added later.
Fire Chief Stan Gibson said the report does not mean the department is conceding the violations identified by OSHA were accurately portrayed. OSHA's identified violations are legally considered alleged until the city exhausts its appeals.
"Doing this does not admit we were wrong," Gibson said. "What it does is show that we have taken action to address the issues."
Following a six-month investigation, OSHA fined the city $50,450 and identified a list of 16 violations of federal safety standards, 13 of them classified as serious.
In a May 16 press conference outside city hall, OSHA Commissioner Peter DeLuca detailed some of the violations as breakdowns in the communication between firefighters attacking the fire burning at Farwest Truck & Auto Supply in downtown Coos Bay.
He said there was a failure to obey a "two-in, two-out" rule that requires firefighters to be suited up and waiting outside a burning structure while two others are inside and that there was a failure to immediately establish a command structure at the fire scene.
Yet many of OSHA's violations were administrative issues unrelated to the fire, details the city believes OSHA should have uncovered during a voluntary review of Coos Bay departments concluded the week before the fire.
Among them were issues regarding training, respiratory equipment and annual testing of firefighters.
Benetti said the city took actions to address many concerns prior to the OSHA's May announcement in an effort to make the department safer and added he still believes many of the fines can be diminished.
"We think we can reduce these fines on appeal," he said.
The city has until Thursday to contest the violations.
An informal consultation can be requested with OSHA and a formal appeal also can be filed with the Workers' Compensation Board, an independent agency within the Department of Consumer & Business Services.
Benetti said he is uncertain which of the violations the city would seek to reverse. The city could choose to file a blanket appeal on all the violations and later decide to sort out which items are the most pressing.
In the meantime, Benetti said there has been some informal discussion with OSHA to determine if the fines could be used to pay for upgrading equipment at the fire department but no decisions have been made.
The Nov. 25 fire killed volunteer firefighters R. Chuck Hanners, 33; Jeff E. Common, 30; and Lt. Randall Carpenter, 46. In May, DeLuca said OSHA's investigation found no link between the violations and the firefighters' deaths.
A preliminary report by the State Fire Marshal's Office identified heat from an oven at Automotive Machine Services, an independent business operating inside Farwest, as the cause of the fire. According to that report, the heat caused a fire to burn unseen, possibly for hours, in a gap between the building's ceiling and roof.
Oxygen vented the blaze when firefighters broke open the ceiling and the structure erupted into flames and a thick pillar of black smoke.
Subsequent to the Fire Marshal's report, city officials said they could find no permits for the oven or its flue and no inspection was done by building officials after the equipment was installed. The flue was later found to be in violation of building codes because it did not extend the required length above the roof.
Jonathan E. Inskeep, 58, owner of Automotive Machine Services, and contractor Verlin Glen Villines, 61, are scheduled to stand trial in December on charges of criminally negligent homicide in connection with the three firefighters' deaths.
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