LAFIRE.COM
Los Angeles Fire Department
Historical Archive


 



J. C. GERARD
CHIEF ENGINEER AND GENERAL MANAGER

May 14, 1979


TO:       Bureau Commander,
          Bureau of Fire Prevention & Rescue

FROM:     Brian D. Bradley Firefighter II,
          F.S. 93-A detailed to 39A

SUBJECT:  FATALITY INVESTIGATION - F.F. HAZLETT

1. When we arrived on scene (I was on Wagon 39) we assisted Engine 81, pulling 1 1/2" lines into the building. Within a few minutes, it was determined that the sprinklers had knocked down the fire.
 
2. Word was given to start a "de-watering" operation. I helped Kuramoto (Wagon 39) pull in 3 sections of 1 1/2" line to use for a Prosser discharge line.
 
3. On my way out for more lines, I helped Captain Mello in trying to move a forklift out of the aisleway.
 
4. Within a few minutes I heard men shouting that the fire had flared up again.
 
5. I ran out to Wagon 39 and put my breather back on.
 
6. I then helped Kuramoto and Alba take in a 2 1/2" line; which we advanced to the fire. We started squirting water and then bells started sounding.
 
7. Kuramoto's bell was sounding, so he started working his way back on the 2 1/2" line.  Then my bell went off, so I too went back on the 2 1/2" line, towards the outside.
 
8. On my way out, I tripped and lost track of the 2 1/2" line.  I found an 1 1/2" line and started to follow it until it made a loop back towards the fire, then I started to go back on it to try to find the 2 1/2" line.  I bumped into a "fresh" fireman who pointed me to the direction of the door and helped me find the 2 1/2" line.  I then ran completely out of air and started to panic.  I tired to unscrew my breather hose so I could put the tube in my turnout, but my gloves were so slippery that I couldn't unscrew it.  I then pulled my mask off and continued out of the building.
 
9. When I got out, I went to the R.A. area and took some oxygen.  I rested for approximately 10 minutes.

 


Bureau Commander
Bureau of Fire Suppression & Rescue  -2-           May 14, 1979


 

10.

I heard someone say that Captain Drake, F.F. Alba, and F.F. Hazlett were  still in the building and that their breathers should be empty.
 
11. I went and asked Captain Mello if I cold go to the back of the building and look for these men back there.  He sent me to the rear, but I came upon a high fence.  I returned and got F.F. Barber, and we took a ladder and put it up against the fence. I climbed up, but I couldn't see anything.  We took the ladder back, then I told Captain Mello that I was going to "run" around the back of the building by going around the block.  He said O.K.
 
12. When I got to the back, I found Captain Drake.  He told me he had come out of the back door with F.F. Alba.  I asked if he had seen F.F. Hazlett outside of the building, he said "no".
 
13. I ran back around the block to the front and checked inside the RA's, looking for Hazlett.  He was not in any of the RA's, so I went back to Captain Mello and told him that F.F. Hazlett was not in the back and that he was not in the RA and he was not anywhere in the front of the incident scene.
 
14. Captain Mello (who was lying down under a paramedics care) instructed me to tell Chief O'Miela what I had said.
 
15. I told Chief O'Miela that F.F. Hazlett was not anywhere to be found.  He told me that F.F. Hazlett had been accounted for in the rear of the building.

I told him that I was just in the rear of the building and that F.F. Hazlett was not there, and had not been seen by anyone back there.  He told me that he had heard a radio report that F.F. Hazlett had been accounted for in the rear of the building.
 
16. I then went to the Command Post and told Chief Bennett and Chief Adams that F.F. Hazlett was still inside the building as far as I was concerned.  They also told me that they had heard that F.F. Hazlett was accounted for in the rear of the building. I told them I had just checked the rear of the building and that F.F. Hazlett was not there and had not been seen back there.  I also told them that I had checked the RA's and the front of the scene and F.F Hazlett was not in those places either. Chef Bennett said he would check it out. Chief Adams asked me to find someone to help me take air bottles to the front of the building.
 
17. I then started back to the front of the building, when I found Captain Drake.  I convinced him that F.F. Hazlett was NOT accounted for.  We went to RA 88 and contacted Captain Grogan on the "Hear" radio at Valley Receiving Hospital.  Captain Grogan; who was said to have had seen F.F. Hazlett, said that he did not have eye to eye contact with F.F. Hazlett outside of the building.


 

Bureau Commander
Bureau of Fire Suppression & Rescue  -3-           May 14, 1979


 

18.

Then Captain Drake and I went to the front of the building and told Captain Mello what we had learned, and Captain Mello formed a search party consisting of Captain Drake, and F.F. Johnson, and Captain Disney and I
 
19. We proceeded into the building with fresh breathers and started to search for F.F. Hazlett.
 
20. After a 10 minute search, F.F. Hazlett was found near the southeast section of the building, laying in about 2 feet of water without his mask on.
 
21. We picked him up and carried him to the outside, where the RA people met us.  We put him on a flat stretcher and started C.P.R. then the RA's took him away on a gurney.


 

 

 

 

 

__________________________
Brian D. Bradley,  F.F. II
Fire Station 93-A

 


 


 


LAFIRE.COM
Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved.