| All, The Cincinnati Enquirer printed a nice piece this morning about the events surrounding the tragic Line of Duty Death of beloved CFD Apparatus Operator/Firefighter Daryl Gordon, a man well known throughout the greater Cincinnati area and it's fire services. BELOW you will also find a link to the edited radio traffic from the scene. Here is the piece from the Enquirer with links below: The radio call went out before dawn Thursday from inside the burning apartment building on Dahlgren Street. The fire was almost out, but something had gone wrong.
"Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! We have a firefighter down!"
Moments later, dozens of firefighters converged around an elevator on the building's second floor, where Daryl Gordon, a bear of a man known for his big smile and big laugh, had fallen down an elevator shaft. He'd tumbled from the fourth floor and was wedged between the elevator and the wall. He wasn't breathing when they pulled him out, so firefighters strapped him onto a stretcher and raced outside in the rain to an ambulance.
No one spoke. The only sound was from the stretcher's wheels rolling and clanging over the pavement.
Word came from the hospital more than an hour later: "A Cincinnati firefighter died in the line of duty this morning. Rest in peace, sir."
Gordon's death in the Madisonville fire is the first line-of-duty fatality involving a Greater Cincinnati firefighter in almost seven years. The loss devastated Gordon's friends and family, moved fellow firefighters to tears, and set in motion an investigation into how a veteran with almost 30 years on the job fell into an open elevator shaft.
"You hear the word 'hero' thrown around, but if there was truly a hero, he was it," said Matt Alter, president of the city firefighters' union. "What it was to be a firefighter, what it was to be a man, was Daryl Gordon.
"He was a firefighter through and through."
Gordon arrived at the scene with dozens of other firefighters around 6 a.m. The building at 6020 Dahlgren, known as Kings Tower, has 38 apartments and all of them were occupied. The place is more than 50 years old and building inspectors have been chronicling problems there for at least a decade, from broken windows and doors to animals chewing through holes in ceilings.
Gordon, 54, was a fire apparatus operator, which means he drove a truck and ran the water pumps. But on this morning, he joined the team of firefighters that fanned out inside the burning building to do what's known as a "primary search" for victims - the dangerous job of going floor-by-floor, room-by-room looking for someone to rescue.
They found plenty of people who needed help. The smoke was thick and many residents had fled to their balconies to escape it.
"I heard someone hollering, 'Fire! Fire!," said Arrick Reeves, who lives in the building. "I opened up my door and it was smoke-filled all in the hallway."
According to radio calls from the scene, firefighters moved quickly but methodically from door to door, evacuating residents. Within minutes, they reported the fire had been "knocked down," but heavy smoke remained throughout the building.
That's when the mayday call went out, cutting off the routine radio chatter and launching a frantic search for Gordon. One firefighter reported he'd fallen from the fourth floor. Others said they'd opened the elevator door in the first floor lobby and spotted him stuck, on the second floor, between the elevator car and the wall.
"I need rescue units ASAP!" shouted one of the firefighters. "We have located the firefighter. He is not responsive."
For the next several minutes, they worked frantically to free Gordon. After rushing him to the ambulance, many firefighters lingered in the parking lot in silence. The fire was out by then and all of the residents were safe. Five people, including another firefighter, suffered minor injuries.
Most heard the bad news before official word came around 9 a.m. from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center's emergency room. Gordon was dead.
"Today our firefighters did their jobs," Mayor John Cranley said a few hours later. "Women and children were carried out of the building to safety. When it was over, God delivered all our civilians to safety, but he kept a firefighter back. We know God is holding him tightly."
Investigators went to work immediately. They offered up little information Thursday, other than that Gordon died from the fall.
"He was searching to see if there were more victims," said Fire Chief Richard Braun. "The elevator wasn't there and he fell down the elevator shaft."
Why the elevator door was open is one of the big questions investigators must answer. Residents described the elevator as unreliable and said some refused to use it because it was "iffy." One said the outer door to the elevator looked like a regular apartment door and, in the smoke and darkness, could have been confusing for someone unfamiliar with it.
It's also possible Gordon or other firefighters forced open the interior sliding door to the elevator while searching for possible fire victims.
The building's Boston-based owner, The Community Builders Inc., said the elevator was inspected and serviced in February and the building had passed recent safety inspections. The Enquirer has requested fire inspection reports, but those were unavailable Thursday. The most recent building inspection violation came in October 2013, when water in the building had been cut off for at least four days.
City officials promised more details Friday. For most of Thursday, though, they grieved the loss of a friend. Gordon left a wife and two daughters, and plenty of admirers in the Cincinnati Fire Department.
"He was a giant teddy bear," Alter said. "He always had a big smile. He had a burly laugh. He was good people."
Braun said Gordon was popular with veteran firefighters and an example to rookies. "He will be sorely missed," the chief said.
In the hours after Gordon was rushed to the hospital, residents gathered in the parking lot of the building. None had ever met Gordon, but they grieved for him, too. He was a stranger who rushed into a burning building to save their lives.
Someone who does that should be remembered, they said. And honored.
"I send my prayers out to him and the family," Reeves said. "That's a heck of a thing, to lose your life like that, trying to save others."
HERE IS THE ENTIRE ARTICLE:
http://tinyurl.com/p7zos79 HERE IS THE EDITED RADIO TRAFFIC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21_3UzmMOY4
Take Care. Be Careful. Pass It On. BillyG The Secret List www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com On Twitter @billygoldfeder
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