UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Inspection Detail

Note: The following inspection has not been indicated as closed. Please be aware that the information shown may change, e.g. violations may be added or deleted. For open cases, in which a citation has been issued, the citation information may not be available for 5 days following receipt by the employer for Federal inspections or for 30 days following receipt by the employer for State inspections.

Inspection: 1496416.015 - San Francisco Fire Dept

Inspection Information - Office: Ca San Francisco

Investigation Summary

At 11:00 a.m. on October 7, 2020, a local fire department employee was participa ting in a standpipe drill at the department local training center. The employee was on the 3rd floor turning on a water valve near the fire escape. The standpip e outlet was approximately a foot away beyond the fire escape railing. The Y-out let itself had two outlets to accommodate the attachment of 2 hoses. It is a pol icy that the outer outlet that is furthest away from the fire escape be connecte d and it was so connected. Partway through the drill, for reasons unknown, the e mployee went from the floor onto the fire escape and turned on the lever for the 2nd outlet of the Y-valve (which had no hose attached). This caused water to fl ow out the valve at 100 psi, hitting the employee and pushing him off balance an d backwards over the railing. He fell approximately 27 feet to the ground, suffe ring blunt force head trauma and was killed.

Keywords:blunt force, blunt force trauma, fall, fall protection, fire brigade/department, fire escape, fire ext system, fire fighter, head, high pressure, high pressure pipe, pressure piping, pressure release, skull, traini