From the Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Fire Department should create and implement standard rules regarding the use of fire escapes and review its safety policies, especially those concerning carrying heavy equipment, a federal report has concluded following an investigation into the falling death of a firefighter from a fire escape 10 months ago.

Christopher Wheatley died Aug. 9 when he fell 53 feet from the the fire escape behind a four-story West Loop building that housed an upscale restaurant.

Dressed in his full firefighting gear and clutching a 63-pound manual hand pump in his right hand, the firefighter/paramedic lost his grip on the metal structure as he tried the climb a vertical fire escape ladder leading to the roof, officials said.

The report, issued by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and released Tuesday, implies that Wheatley’s life could have been saved but for a few tweaks or additions to department policy.

The Chicago Fire Department, for example, lacked a formal written policy on using fire escapes at the time of Wheatley’s death, though there was an “unwritten policy” to only use them as a last resort, according to the report. The report suggests that either the aeriel ladder or an interior stairway would have offered Wheatley a safer route to the roof. The report added that many big city departments avoid using fire escapes altogether because they often corrode over the years.

Read the rest of the article here.

Read the full NIOSH report here.

Does your department have a formal or “unwritten” policy regarding fire escapes? Does this report prompt you to reexamine those policies?