UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

On April 7, 2008, Employee #1 was working for the San Francisco Fire Department as a battalion chief at a fire station in San Francisco, CA. The employer was the local city fire department. He was a member of a firefighting crew that had responded to a fire in an apartment building. After the fire was put out, the crew was exploring and searching for any extensions of the fire. Employee #1 was directing the operation. He told the crew to pull down the ceiling to check for hot spots, and the crew went about its task. At approximately 5:00 p.m., the ceiling came down, but some of it dropped. When it did, it struck Employee #1 on his left shoulder and left ankle. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital, where he stayed seven days. He was treated for his sprained and bruised shoulder and a sprained ankle. He was being monitored and evaluated to see if surgery would be necessary for the damage to his ankle. During the course of the investigation, Employee #1 was interviewed. There was no serious accident-related violation. The Division did not have any standard requiring one to expect the unexpected. Employee #1 was directing the operation and could not have realized that more ceiling would be dropping than anticipated. The incident was not reported in a timely manner, however, and the department was cited. No other violations were observed.