Friday just after midnight, fire crews began fighting a blaze on Childress Drive in Smith County, Texas. About 40 minutes into the fight, the home collapsed in the fire, trapping Joe Yeakley, a veteran firefighter with 30 years on the job and 14 in Lindale. He was critically injured with burns to the face and hands.

A Dixie firefighter, Caleb Snider, escaped the collapse but received minor burns on his arms. Other firefighters from Lindale and Dixie were fortunately able to escape the home’s sudden fall. Reports of the incident said that the home was about 3,000 sq. ft. in size. And the homeowner, who escaped unharmed, lacked a phone and had to run to a neighbor’s house to report the fire. The house reportedly had caught fire previously, and Friday’s blaze was being investigated. (Lane Luckie and Dia Wall, kltv.com, 1/17/14) The hearts and prayers of our building collapse injury attorneys are with the injured firefighters and their families.

Collapses of Burning Residential Buildings Present the Highest Risks to Firefighters

In an average year, more than 90 firefighters lose their lives on the job. Being trapped in a structural collapse inside a burning building presents the greatest risk to firefighters. And residential fires pose the greatest dangers of structural collapses.

Since the 1980s, the number of fatalities from residential fire structural collapses has tripled even as the overall number of firefighter deaths has decreased. Part of the reason for the increased number of structural collapses could be the prevalence of modern “light construction” methods, which generally decrease the amount of time a home will continue to stand during a fire. The reduced window of time prior to a structural collapse gives firefighters very little margin for escape once a building begins to fail.

The weight of the water used in fighting a fire adds to the load stress on a building. Operations to ventilate the structure might mean cutting critical structural support members. Poor materials or construction methods, inadequate spacing of joists, trusses, and support members, weak connections between structural members, and illegal, non-permitted, or “do-it-yourself” renovations can also add to the residential building collapse dangers faced by firefighters during a blaze.

Click the link to learn about firefighter safety precautions against structural collapse in burning buildings.

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