The last act of city fire cadet Racheal Wilson?s life was heroic, according to a report released Friday by the Baltimore City Fire Department detailing the series of mistakes that led to her death in a training exercise.
Moments before succumbing to the flames on the third floor of an abandoned building during a “live burn” training exercise on Feb. 9, the 29-year-old fire trainee and mother of two turned from a window to warn two cadets that the fire was out of control.
Seconds later, her foot caught in the plaster of the seam between the wall and a third-floor window, investigators suspect, Wilson lost consciousness as three firefighters attempted to pull her to safety.
Fire Chief William Goodwin Jr. said he couldn?t explain why 36 procedures were violated during the fatal training exercise at a news conference at department headquarters on Friday.
“Do I have any answer why 36 procedures were violated? I don?t,” he said.
The report recounts the series of miscues and mistakes that led to the firing of the chief of the Fire Academy, Kenneth Hyde, by Mayor Sheila Dixon on Thursday.
Among the findings of the report was that cadets involved in the training exercise did not have radios, despite Goodwin?s assertion Friday that every member of the fire department has one.
“The department has enough radios,” he said.
The cadets ascended to the third floor of the burning building before the second-floor fire was extinguished, a move that Goodwin said was a violation of basic procedures.
The building itself was not properly treated and inspected prior to the exercise, the report said. Seven fires were set instead of one.
Goodwin said the department would no longer do live burns in abandoned homes, backing off his commitment to the training exercises made at a news conference with the mayor Thursday.
Asked to summarize his feeling about the findings of the report, Goodwin didn?t mince words. “Pain.”
