Claymont, DE, November 13, 2001-One person was killed at an early morning house fire on November 10. During the incident, the fire department encountered problems with radio communications; however, the radio problems are not believed to have been a factor in the fire fatality.
Claymont’s fire chief, the first to arrive on the scene, was unable to give directions to the first-arriving engine. And at one point during the fire, six firefighters could not send a message to their incident commander to advise him that they could not get down a stairwell to the first floor of the structure. Two of the firefighters escaped through a second-floor window and explained the situation to other firefighters, who cleared the stairway, thereby allowing the other four firefighters to use the stairs as an escape route.
The 800-MHz radio system, installed at a cost of approximately $50 million in 1999, has been fraught with problems since the fire companies began using it. The radio failures were reminiscent of a June house fire in which two firefighters were trapped in a burning house after having fallen through a floor. The radios completely failed at that fire.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Damage is estimated at $200,000.
