SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — The Illinois Department of Labor's Division of Occupational Safety and Health (IL OSHA) has released a report regarding the investigation of an apartment fire in Chicago that left one firefighter dead.
The Marmora Incident Report will be used as an educational tool for the Illinois Fire Service while also detailing an incident in December 2021 that took the life of a firefighter.
MaShawn Plummer, 30, had recently celebrated his one-year anniversary at the Chicago Fire Department in December of 2021 when he was alone on the first floor of a building during a fire. His self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) began to malfunction and he called for a mayday (firefighter in distress).
He was found unresponsive and out of air before he was rushed to a hospital. He died from his injuries five days later.
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The following May, he was honored at a ceremony attended by the governor and state fire marshal to remember the fallen.
IL OSHA determined there were several contributing factors that led to Plummer's death:
- The initial fire suppression team did not enter together and stay together.
- No other members in the structure or on scene had communication with the firefighter when he suffered a life-threatening emergency.
- There was a delay between the firefighter in distress declaring a mayday and the incident commander confirming a mayday emergency.
“Interior firefighters must enter as a team, stay together, and exit as a team,” said IL OSHA Chief Erik Kambarian. “Fire department leaders, incident commanders, and officers must ensure firefighters never operate alone in building fires.”
A diagram showing a tear in the self-contained breathing apparatus of a Chicago firefighter who died from injuries sustained in a fire.
Following the report, IL OSHA made specific recommendations to keep a similar tragedy from happening again. These recommendations are not only for the affected fire department, but also the entire Illinois Fire Service.
IL OSHA inspects municipal fire departments and fire protection districts across Illinois due to the dangerous environments in which firefighters work. The Division’s focus is to identify lessons from incidents and then share those lessons with the Illinois Fire Service so that lessons identified become lessons learned.
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