When the International Association of Fire Chiefs and National Volunteer Fire Council announced the theme for this year’s annual Firefighter Safety Stand Down week, my memory shot back to March 2002.
This year’s theme, “Building a Superhighway to Safety—Protecting Our Responders on Roadways,” focuses on one of the leading causes of death and injuries to firefighters in the past few years: firefighters being struck on roadways, whether they’re limited-access highways or secondary streets in small-town America.
Jack Sullivan, who is the director of training for the Emergency Responder Safety Institute (ERSI), says firefighters have to be aware of the five D’s that affect today’s drivers (distracted, disgruntled, drowsy, drugged and drunk) when they work along roads today.
It was drugged and drunk driving that led my mind back to March 25, 2002. That night, I was in Massachusetts with the late Harvey Eisner, who was going to talk to Boston-area firefighters the next day about the FDNY’s response to the September 11 terror attacks. I was staying at a friend’s fire station, and, late in the night, the calls and pages started coming in about a terrible event back on Long Island.
Two members of the Roslyn, NY, Rescue Fire Company were struck as they were wrapping up a training exercise in Greenvale, right on the border of the Roslyn and Glenwood (my company) fire districts. They were training in a vacant building and had one lane blocked off with barrels, cones and flares, the normal procedure at the time, as they conducted training to hone their firefighting skills.
Capt. Allen R. “Big Al” Frye and Chris Boffa were picking up a supply line when a driver, who was impaired by alcohol and antidepressants, drove around the barriers and struck them. Both were thrown into the air, and Boffa travelled 20–30 feet from where he was struck. He was critically injured. Big Al died from his injuries almost immediately.
I recently spoke with Peter Liotta, who was Roslyn Rescue’s fire chief at the time. When he reflected on that night, he said, “There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about Big Al and that night. I think about it all the time and ask myself ‘What else could we do?’ And now we’re doing it.”
It already was a trying time for members of Roslyn Rescue when Big Al was killed. Six months earlier, they lost two members—FDNY firefighter Peter Langone and his brother, NYPD Emergency Service Unit officer Thomas Langone—at the World Trade Center attacks.
But Big Al’s death and Chris’ near miss wouldn’t be forgotten by the fire company. Liotta said the company implemented a fire police unit to help with traffic control at emergency incidents and training events, and it increased the PPE that firefighters donned when working along roadways. As roadway safety for first responders evolved, the department focused on positioning apparatus to protect all of those who are at roadway incidents and added additional striping to increase visibility.
The team at ERSI have worked countless hours with organizations that are focused on roadway safety, including traffic management and control groups to increase firefighters’ awareness of the dangers that roadways and drivers present to not only firefighters but police officers, EMS crews and tow company workers. Even at seemingly minor calls, firefighters have been struck while exiting or entering cabs or while retrieving equipment from a compartment.
During this year’s Stand Down week, June 14–20, every department must set aside time to focus on operations along roadways in honor of Big Al and the others who were killed or injured. Officers and drivers need to get on the same page when positioning apparatus for both tactical assignments and safety. The entire crew needs to understand areas that are safe and that are dangerous to work in and how to keep out of harm’s way.
You can find training and information for this year’s Stand Down on Firehouse.com, at ERSI’s website, respondersafety.com, and at the official Stand Down website: safetystanddown.org.
Peter Matthews | Editor-in-Chief/Conference Director
Peter Matthews is the conference director and editor-in-chief of Firehouse. He has worked at Firehouse since 1999, serving in various roles on both Firehouse Magazine and Firehouse.com staffs. He completed an internship with the Rochester, NY, Fire Department and served with fire departments in Rush, NY, and Laurel, MD, and was a lieutenant with the Glenwood Fire Company in Glenwood, NY. Matthews served as photographer for the St. Paul, MN, Fire Department.
