Hydro Fire Chief Nolan Schmidt died and four firefighters including two of Schmidt’s brothers were injured, authorities said. The injured men were identified as Hydro Assistant Chief Warren Schmidt and Capt. Paul Schmidt, Hydro volunteer Allen Entz and Weatherford firefighter Kyle Nonast.
About 11:30 a.m. the call about a fire at Hydro Cooperative went out and Hydro volunteers were there first, said Mike Karlin, Weatherford assistant fire chief. Karlin took over as incident commander after the tragedy.
Karlin said work was being done on the grain elevator that was half full of soybeans when the fire started.
Jim Murray, Hydro police chief, said there are about 10 Hydro volunteer firefighters but he did not know how many went to the scene.
Caddo County Sheriff Gene Cain said the fatality and injuries were likely from smoke inhalation.
Karlin said firefighters had to cut a hole in the side of the building to ventilate it.
“We’re trying to finish the job our brothers started,” said Karlin, visibly upset.
Luke Tallant, an agent for the state fire marshal’s office, said investigators are interviewing eyewitnesses and trying to determine a cause.
Story by NewsOK
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I do not have all of the details on this tradgedy yet. But I do have some questions. The fire fighters may have been wearing SCBA, but the reports do not say that. I can not see any reasonable explaination for them being in the grain elevator when it was already on fire. They could have stirred up the dust and caused an explosion ….. any fire fighter should know about the hazard of oxygen shortage in this type of fire.
I am a retire fire fighter and have fought many grain elevator fires and trained thousands of fire fighters. I never had a fire fighter injured in an emergency and never would have put myself or my coworkers in that situation.
I am certain that they are good people, but that was an error no fire fighter should ever make. What could they gain by entering the elevator during the fire: It increased the possibilty of a dust explosion, exposed them to a low oxygen stmosphere …. it appears that at least 40% of the department was in harm’s way. The grain was already smoke damaged …. the hazard was clearly life threateneing. My crew would have opened up the side of the elevator and cleaned the grain out …. no crew of mine would have been inside in this case.
This is a clear example for the need for training for all fire departments (paid or volunteer). If you are going to put your life on the line …. you need to know what you are doing and why it is being done. Trading yourself for beans or a rescue attempt is not part of the job.
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