Man Does Everything Right In Helping His Rescue

Calif. crews coordinate to rescue man from fireThe 80-year-old who was rescued called 911 when he realized he was faced with a wall of fire

By Brent Ainsworth
The Marin Independent Journal

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — An 80-year-old San Rafael man did everything he was supposed to do when fire engulfed his condominium building and deserves partial credit for saving his own life, a fire chief said Monday.

The crew from San Rafael fire's Engine 54 found the building at 3665 Kerner Blvd. with a first-floor condo fully engulfed in flames at 1:28 a.m. Friday. The first attempt to rescue the inhabitant in Unit D was repelled by smoke and flames, Chief Christopher Gray said, but an aggressive, coordinated effort between Engine 54 and Engine 52 resulted in the rescue.

Russell Bertuccelli was sent to Kaiser hospital in Terra Linda and treated in the intensive care unit for smoke inhalation and burns to his hand and face, Gray said. He was released Sunday and is being cared for by family, the chief said.

Bertuccelli was alerted to the fire by a smoke detector, retreated to a back bedroom and called 911 when he realized he was faced with a wall of fire, and there's no way he would be in position to celebrate his 81st birthday this Thursday he he hadn't taken those steps, Gray said.

"This incident could have gone far worse — most do in conditions like this," he said. "We don't save these people usually. We're all lucky he had a working smoke detector. So many people either don't have smoke detectors or have one with dead batteries."

Gray said Bertuccelli might have even placed something to block smoke coming from underneath a door.

"Faced with this, he did everything right," Gray said. "We are very fortunate that we had a successful rescue. There were some very important lessons learned. It was a textbook situation from our end."

Fire personnel searched the building for other occupants and worked to ventilate the building. Larkspur firefighters also responded, bringing the total to 19 personnel.

Damages were estimated at $75,000. The cause of the fire was still under investigation.

Calif. save highlights 3 key issuesFirefighter near-miss and fatality reports are filled with instances where command, control, and coordination breakdowns were contributing factors

Editor's note: Earlier this week, San Rafael Chief Christopher Gray praised crews for "an aggressive, coordinated effort" that led to the rescue of an 80-year-old man from a house fire. Chief Gray added there were some "very important lessons learned. It was a textbook situation from our end." Check out the full story here and read FR1's Editorial Advisor Adam K. Thiel's take below.

The positive result of this incident demonstrates three related issues:

1. The value of fire prevention and life safety efforts

2. The importance of tactical coordination between companies working on a dynamic and challenging fireground

3. The need to identify lessons learned for all incidents, even (especially) the ones where everything goes right.

Even the best aggressive interior attack is often not enough to make a successful rescue; as Chief Gray suggests in this case, "we're all lucky he had a working smoke detector."

So many people either don't have smoke detectors, or have one with dead batteries. Fire departments that spend time on fire prevention and life safety education will often increase their chances of making the save(s), as well as providing a higher safety margin for both occupants and firefighters.

Firefighter near-miss, injury, and fatality reports are filled with instances where command, control, and coordination breakdowns were contributing factors in firefighter casualties.

By contrast, this incident offers an example of how coordinated fire attack, search and rescue, and ventilation operations led to a good outcome.

While this was by all accounts a textbook situation, Chief Gray still identifies that, "There were some very important lessons learned."

Firefighters tend to be hyper-critical and we generally do a great job finding things that went wrong; it's just as, if not more, important to identify things that went well on an incident during regular after-action reviews and post-incident analyses.

My Opinion

This is a great story in the fact that this man was rescued, but I like the second part of the story where it outlines the 3 keys to the successful rescue of the victim. Just to recap them they were:

1. The value of fire prevention and life safety efforts

2. The importance of tactical coordination between companies working on a dynamic and challenging fireground

3. The need to identify lessons learned for all incidents, even (especially) the ones where everything goes right.

We all need to realize that on every incident things go wrong. I'm sure even though this was a "textbook rescue" something went wrong that no one noticed as it was quickly fixed and probably only the person it happened to noticed it was happening and self corrected. But we can't just look at the things that went wrong. We NEED to look at the things that went right.

When things go right we need to learn from them as well. Sometimes that may work again, but we can't rely on it. If it worked really well in this situation, it's just another idea to add to our vast repretoire of ideas that we on the fireline often go through and use. The more ideas you have, the better chance you have at saving someone. You can go through two or three plans, and all of a sudden you're out of ideas. The more ideas you have, the more adaptive you are. It's good to have a standard set of procedures, hence SOP's and SOG's, but then there are times when they won't apply because it's a "textbook situation" but with some sort of a twist in it. This is where being adaptable and flexible works well. Great work by everyone in San Rafael