Standpipe Failure Led to Delayed Fire Flow

A SERIOUS FAILURE IN GETTING WATER to the fire in Asheville, North Carolina, on Thursday that killed a fire captain and injured eleven others is coming to light.  Radio transmissions during the event disclose that the standpipe failed for some reason to carry the water to the hose lines connected to the interior valves.  The first water that was eventually applied to the fire was more than twenty minutes into the operation and came from a hand line that was elevated to the fire floor by an aerial ladder.

Citizen-Times

The Asheville Citizen-Times is breaking the story after culling through the dispatch tapes and interviews, writing in part:

Firefighters repeatedly made references to a lack of water, even as they reached the fourth floor and made their way toward flames one floor above.

"We got no water. No water," a firefighter on the fourth floor says about 13 minutes into the recording.

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The fire scene commander, at about eight minutes into the incident, confirms from the water supply crew that water is flowing to the standpipe connection outside the building.

"Just let me know when you get water on the fire, please," he says to a crew inside.

Five minutes later, Rescue 301 — Bowen's crew — breaks in. The crew was on the fourth floor.

"There is a lot of heat in here," a firefighter says. "We believe the fire is above us. We need to get some water in that standpipe so we can purge the lines."

"There should be water to the standpipe," the commander replies. "The valve needs to be opened to the standpipe."

"The valve is open," the firefighter says. "We are in the north standpipe. We got no water. No water."

After the truck crew broke through the windows to make entry into the fire floor, the onrush of fresh air brought the fire up and introduced new challenges to the firefighters.

Read the entire (and upsetting) report from the Citizen-Times HERE.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) National Response Team (NRT), along with ATF special agents from the Charlotte Field Division have been called in to assist in the investigation of the fire.  The building's standpipe is supposed to be inspected annually, but it is not yet known when that was last done and what the results were.

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