Falling Ladder Pipe Kills Fire Fighter in Los Angeles
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Staff Correspondent
Photo by Mike Meadows
Staff Correspondent
Seventeen Los Angeles fire companies saved a North Hollywood lumberyard from destruction, but a fire fighter died when he was hit by a ladder pipe. The incident took place at the Mullin Lumber Company in an industrial area.
The alarm was received at 7:39 p.m. April 25, 1979, and Task Forces 89, 60 and 102 were dispatched.
Task Force 89, moving east from its station less than a mile away, saw the flames and requested additional assistance.
On arrival, the task force found a large lumber warehouse fully involved and fire was extending to an adjacent 58X75-foot one-story office building.
Fire spreading rapidly
Division 2 Commander Dudley E. Sorenson reported the fire was rapidly spreading north to the office building and west to lumber storage and south to another storage building.
Under the direction of Battalion 10 Chief Robert MacMillen, crews pulled hand lines between 60-foot-high stacks of lumber on the west to head off the fire from spreading to the rest of the lumberyard.
Ladder pipes from Trucks 89 and 102 were put into operation to cut the heat on structures.
Men went into the office building with hand lines in an attempt to save that structure, but the heat became too intense in the other areas because the pipes had been shut down to allow the entry. The men were withdrawn and the pipes resumed operation.
Fatally injured
When the pipes were charged again, Fire Fighter Lynn Hazlett of Truck 102 was hit by a loose ladder pipe and fell from the ladder to the ground. He was fatally injured.
Sorenson ordered the area around the truck cordoned off and had a battalion chief conduct an immediate investigation. Sorenson said that the fatality occurred because of an apparent failure “to follow procedures at emergencies.”
Fire fighters kept the blaze from spreading to the stacks of lumber and although several structures were lost, the yard was soon back in operation.
Damage was estimated at $750,000 and the origin of the fire was listed as suspicious.
