Transmission pad failure sparked fire truck malfunction
SEATTLE -- A transmission pad failure is to blame for the fire engine that malfunctioned at the scene of the city's deadliest fire in years that killed four children and a woman in Fremont earlier this month, officials said on Thursday.
City officials said the broken pad, an electronic device that acts as a gear shift for the fire engine, prevented firefighters from engaging the pump to shoot water on the flames.
"This was absolutely the issue," said Fred Podesta, acting director of the city's fleets and facility division. "the failure of the time was using this piece of equipment was to engage the pump, to use the power from the vehicle ... to drive the pump to be able to put water on the fire. The specific failure was this pad, an electronic pad ... could no longer engage the engine anymore."
The preliminary findings are the result of 39 hours of testing all pieces of equipment related to the transmission on Engine 81, officials said. An independent expert, as well as the makers of the apparatus participated.
Six of the department's 10 rigs with the same equipment were already in service to have their transmission pads replaced, officials said, and the remainder were to be replaced by noon Friday.
Podesta said consultants who helped isolate the problem on Engine 81 has also provided recovery procedures for firefighters in case the transmission pad fails again.
Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean said if the apparatus fails, "then he (the firefighter) has to wait 10 seconds after turning the battery off to erase the memory." After rebooting the battery, the pump could then be engaged, he said.
When asked whether the reboot could be depended on as a solution every time the transmission pad fails, Podesta said, "These are really reliable devices. We've had them in service for 14 years. And we've only had to replace only five. These get used thousands and thousands of times."
Engine 81, a reserve engine, was being used by the crew of Engine 18 earlier this month while their first line engine was undergoing routine maintenance when. But after it arrived on the scene of the deadly fire, Engine 81's transmission broke, preventing the truck's pump from spraying water at the flames.
Fire investigators have determined a light bulb sitting next to a foam mattress sparked the fire. The fire began in a living area on the first floor of the two-story unit, and quickly spread to the second floor, trapping the five victims in an upstairs bathroom.
Killed in the fire were Eyerusalem Gebregiorgis, 22;Joseph Gebregiorgis, 13; Nyella Smith, 7; Nisreen Shamam, 6; and Yaseen Shamam, 5. A relative of the victims said the whole family had gone out the night before to watch a movie, then came back to the Fremont home for a sleepover.
"There's no words you can say to comfort someone who's lost five members of their family," said family friend Finan Yohannes. "All you can do is be supportive and give them a shoulder to cry on. There's nothing you can say to bring their kids back or make them feel any better about the situation. All you can do is be there for them."
Dean has said the fire engine was working just hours before it malfunctioned. The fire chief has also said he believes firefighters did all they could in their response to the fatal fire, and he doesn't believe the engine's setbacks changed the outcome.
"We believe that by the time our crews arrived, it was hot enough that you were unable to sustain life," he said.
Podesta echoed a similar message at Thursday's news conference.
"I can't stress enough the procedures we have in place, the equipment we have in place and the preventative maintenance that occurred -- all those were followed," he said. "But we owe it to everybody involved in this situation to take what we learned from it and figure out how to do this better in the future."
In light of the tragic fire, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn decided not to propose any budget cuts to the fire department in his mid-year reductions. He initially told fire, police and human services that they needed to cut 1.5 percent.
McGinn's office said leaving the fire department's budget intact will give officials an opportunity to fully review the safety implications of any changes to the department's budget.
Anyone who'd like to help the victims' family can make a donation to the Problem Solvers fund.
City officials said the broken pad, an electronic device that acts as a gear shift for the fire engine, prevented firefighters from engaging the pump to shoot water on the flames.
"This was absolutely the issue," said Fred Podesta, acting director of the city's fleets and facility division. "the failure of the time was using this piece of equipment was to engage the pump, to use the power from the vehicle ... to drive the pump to be able to put water on the fire. The specific failure was this pad, an electronic pad ... could no longer engage the engine anymore."
The preliminary findings are the result of 39 hours of testing all pieces of equipment related to the transmission on Engine 81, officials said. An independent expert, as well as the makers of the apparatus participated.
Six of the department's 10 rigs with the same equipment were already in service to have their transmission pads replaced, officials said, and the remainder were to be replaced by noon Friday.
Podesta said consultants who helped isolate the problem on Engine 81 has also provided recovery procedures for firefighters in case the transmission pad fails again.
Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean said if the apparatus fails, "then he (the firefighter) has to wait 10 seconds after turning the battery off to erase the memory." After rebooting the battery, the pump could then be engaged, he said.
When asked whether the reboot could be depended on as a solution every time the transmission pad fails, Podesta said, "These are really reliable devices. We've had them in service for 14 years. And we've only had to replace only five. These get used thousands and thousands of times."
Engine 81, a reserve engine, was being used by the crew of Engine 18 earlier this month while their first line engine was undergoing routine maintenance when. But after it arrived on the scene of the deadly fire, Engine 81's transmission broke, preventing the truck's pump from spraying water at the flames.
Fire investigators have determined a light bulb sitting next to a foam mattress sparked the fire. The fire began in a living area on the first floor of the two-story unit, and quickly spread to the second floor, trapping the five victims in an upstairs bathroom.
Killed in the fire were Eyerusalem Gebregiorgis, 22;Joseph Gebregiorgis, 13; Nyella Smith, 7; Nisreen Shamam, 6; and Yaseen Shamam, 5. A relative of the victims said the whole family had gone out the night before to watch a movie, then came back to the Fremont home for a sleepover.
"There's no words you can say to comfort someone who's lost five members of their family," said family friend Finan Yohannes. "All you can do is be supportive and give them a shoulder to cry on. There's nothing you can say to bring their kids back or make them feel any better about the situation. All you can do is be there for them."
Dean has said the fire engine was working just hours before it malfunctioned. The fire chief has also said he believes firefighters did all they could in their response to the fatal fire, and he doesn't believe the engine's setbacks changed the outcome.
"We believe that by the time our crews arrived, it was hot enough that you were unable to sustain life," he said.
Podesta echoed a similar message at Thursday's news conference.
"I can't stress enough the procedures we have in place, the equipment we have in place and the preventative maintenance that occurred -- all those were followed," he said. "But we owe it to everybody involved in this situation to take what we learned from it and figure out how to do this better in the future."
In light of the tragic fire, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn decided not to propose any budget cuts to the fire department in his mid-year reductions. He initially told fire, police and human services that they needed to cut 1.5 percent.
McGinn's office said leaving the fire department's budget intact will give officials an opportunity to fully review the safety implications of any changes to the department's budget.
Anyone who'd like to help the victims' family can make a donation to the Problem Solvers fund.