Employees lauded for response to fire

  • Published
  • By Shawn Jacobs
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) officials are congratulating a group of employees who quickly reacted to a recent refrigerator fire in the von Kármán Facility (VKF).

In fact, Wayne Jennings, the safety engineer with Aerospace Testing Alliance's (ATA) Safety and Health Group who investigated the fire, called it a case where "everybody did everything right."

Jennings said six VKF employees responded to the incident and took appropriate action. As a result, the fire was extinguished without injury or damage to the building.

"Those six individuals reacted, as far as I'm concerned, pretty much textbook the way you would want individuals to react," Jennings said.

According to Jennings' report, the incident began approximately 3 p.m. Aug. 16, while Chris Bird and David Harrison were working in Bird's office. Ricky Mead came in and reported smelling smoke.

Those three men, joined by John Wright, proceeded to the second floor of Building 676, where they discovered a refrigerator in room 201 was smoking and flames were coming out of the bottom.

Jennings said Bird then took charge of the situation.

"He [directed] one individual to pull the fire alarm and one to call 911," he said. "He grabbed the fire extinguisher, pulled the pin, pointed it down where you're supposed to point it - low to the ground - and sprayed a couple of passes.

"He did the right thing; somebody had mentioned unplugging the refrigerator and he said, 'no, let's don't do that,' which was a good call because in an electrical fire you don't know what's going on."

In addition, Steve Simpson and Mickey West joined the other four men in ensuring that everyone in the building was evacuated. Jennings said the men were concerned because the audible fire alarms did not properly activate. The AEDC Fire Department was notified, however, by both the alarms and the 911 call. The problem with the audible alarms was immediately investigated to ensure the failure does not happen again, according to Jennings.

AEDC Assistant Fire Chief George Chambers said the fire was put out by the extinguisher used by Bird. Chambers determined that the fire was due to a short in the refrigerator's compressor relay wires.

"In my opinion, they safely evaluated the situation and took the correct action," Jennings said. "They investigated, found it, [and] took immediate action. As a team they made sure that each did the correct action because one person can't do it all."

Jennings said a judgment call must be made as to whether to run away from a fire or get a fire extinguisher and fight it.

"We stress the point that if there's any doubt, evacuate because you're not trained to be a firefighter," he said. "However, if you can safely put the fire out or knock it down, like he [Bird] did, [it's a] good thing because it could have done a lot more damage."

Jennings and Bird both said the company safety training paid off.

"I thought it was a good point for the company that we stress that fire extinguisher training maybe year after year ... but when it comes time to use it, it's what you want," Jennings said. "That's why a lot of professionals do repetitious training; they build that muscle memory so they don't have to think when a situation like that comes up."

Bird, meanwhile, was quick to share the credit for what he called a "team effort."

"I hope none of the other guys took offense to my action and directions and, more importantly, I don't want to look like I am taking the credit," he said. We all did our parts to make the whole effort have a good outcome -- no one hurt, no one in danger, minimal damage."

Catherine Plunkett, director of ATA's Safety and Health Group, urged fellow employees to show appreciation to the men.

"It's a great testimony as why we do some of the training we do," she said. "Chris Bird and the other people are to be commended for their quick response to control the fire and make sure everyone else in the building was notified and evacuated. Their action likely prevented this event from being much worse."