Ex-Miami-Dade Firefighters Charged with Manslaughter in Deadly Training Incident

Devoun Cetoute, Milena Malaver
Miami Herald
(TNS)

An ex-Miami-Dade firefighter lost his son during what authorities are calling an unauthorized training session that he was partly in charge of last summer in Virginia Gardens. He was booked into jail on Friday for his son’s death, along with another ex-firefighter.

On June 21, firefighters from Virginia Gardens and Miami-Dade County were called to a fire at a Virginia Gardens warehouse at 6595 NW 36th Street. On the third floor, which was on fire, authorities found Fabian Camero, 28, unresponsive and not breathing.

Lorenzo Camero, 25, and Natalia Contreras, 40, were treated at the scene, but Fabian Camero was taken to Jackson Memorial Ryder Trauma Center, where he died the next day. It is unclear if Lorenzo was employed by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, but his brother Fabian was not. Contreras was filming the exercise.

The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation and found that Fabian’s death was the outcome of a training exercise gone wrong, according to an arrest warrant.

The exercise was under the instruction of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Lt. Rafael Fernandez, 52, Firefighter Francisco Camero, Fabian’s 48-year-old father, and Firefighter Steve Colon, 49.

The training was part of an international firefighter fellowship program, which spiraled into a fatality and led to Fernandez and the elder Camero being fired and facing charges.

What was supposed to happen?

The exercise was supposed to be a culmination of training conducted over weeks by eight international fellowship program firefighters, the warrant read.

The international firefighters were to go to the third floor, force their way into a specific room and extinguish a fire.

Lorenzo and Fabian arrived early with their father, Francisco, to help set up the training, the warrant read. They arranged barrels that would be used to start the fire. They were tasked with filling the barrels with wood.

During the exercise, Fabian and Lorenzo donned full fire-protective gear, including breathing equipment. Their father told them to watch the training in a room on the third floor adjacent to where barrels with fire inside were set up.

Lorenzo told detectives that the smoke conditions worsened quickly after the barrels were ignited. It escalated so much that the brothers had to put on their breathing masks and get out of the room. Visibility was also worsening, and the pair got lost inside the building while trying to evacuate. Lorenzo could hear his brother losing air before he collapsed.

Lorenzo and Contreras were forced to leave Fabian behind.

As investigators looked into how the events transpired, they learned a live fire exercise was never supposed to have taken place, the warrant read.

What went wrong?

A month before the fire, Fernandez, the elder Camero and Colon surveyed the building. They agreed with the building’s owner that they would conduct “non-destructive” training, meaning procedures that would not cause property damage.

In addition to the trio, Lt. Darwin Villavicencio, who represents Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s Professional Standards Division, attended the meeting. He told detectives that Fernandez never mentioned training involving live fire, which the building owner had also warned against.

Detectives also spoke to the Professional Standards Division chief, who reinforced that live fire training is “explicitly prohibited” in buildings that fire rescue acquires for training and is only approved at training centers at Miami Dade College and the Homestead Air Force Reserve Base, the warrant read.

While a fire-rescue captain did approve the use of barrels in the exercise, they were supposed to be smoke simulators.

Detectives wrote in the warrant Fernandez, Francisco Camero and Colon violated “several standards for live fire trainings.”

Fernandez and Camero were both charged with one count of manslaughter, two counts of culpable negligence. As of Friday night, the pair remained in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. It is unclear why Colon was not charged.

“As a result of the findings, the employees involved in the incident are no longer employed with MDFR and are currently facing charges,” Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said. ”MDFR is committed to the safety and well-being of all personnel, and our Department remains dedicated to upholding the highest standards of professionalism and accountability.”

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