On September 27, we honored Officer Jose Torres and his family at the annual Westfield Day at the Big E. As mayor, I know firsthand the job our men and women of our police force perform everyday to keep Westfield a safe community and for that I am very thankful. Behind each member of the force is their family and we don’t always see the commitment and sacrifice their families make so that they can do their jobs for us. Thank you to the police department families.
And in keeping with being thankful, I want to thank Mr. Ed Melo and his Medical Reserve Corps volunteers. The brand new MRC Utility Kitchen and the Mobile Animal Shelter were on display at Colonial Harvest Days (and thank you Westfield On Weekends for organizing such a great event.) The MRC unit was staffed and providing meals to the visitors. It has an incredible ability to serve an enormous amount of food in a short amount of time. A lot of work went into the unit and our community needs to know that. So, as I was inspecting the unit with Ed and Representative Humason and Senator Knapik, I mentioned to Ed how thankful I was for his and the MRC volunteers service to our community. And, like I always do with our emergency management team members, I finish with, “thank you but I hope for our city’s sake we won’t need to actually deploy in an emergency.” After the year that was 2011, we have learned a lot about our strengths and weaknesses and have worked hard in shoring up where we found weaknesses.
Well, I must have jinxed it, because late Monday night the Westfield Housing Authority’s Washington Street residence had a 3-alarm fire. And once again I am incredibly thankful for the outstanding performance of the Westfield Fire and Police Departments, the Medical Reserve Corps, the Red Cross, our Building, Health and Council on Aging Departments and the staff of the Westfield Housing Authority, the Central Baptist Church for providing our shelter and Lecrenski Bus Company for providing transportation. On Tuesday I was able to view the damage and it was disturbing. I think human beings have a natural fear of fire, and in my professional life before I was mayor, I spent years working with companies to prevent accidents and prepare for emergencies including fire, weather-related and hazardous chemicals spill responses.
I can tell you first hand from this experience the difference between life and death are deliberate actions taken by human beings against their natural instinct to flee or to not get involved. Over the years I had opportunities to speak with employees after a serious workplace accident resulting in serious injuries or death and I was always struck by what I heard. The co-workers typically were fully aware of the danger they faced, and the danger faced by their fellow workers, but chose to look the other way. As a professional in the occupational safety and health field for over 20 years, my mission everyday was to make sure the employees understood what was at stake with inaction and indifference to workplace regulations. I’ve never believed that accidents were not unavoidable. Accidents can and do happen, but injury or death can almost always be avoided when accidents happen. The difference is when management is committed to doing the job right, and employees share in that commitment, work events are planned and when an accident does occur, it occurs in an environment that is controlled.
This following link is to a poem that for safety professionals serves as a reminder to us what’s at stake everyday… http://edp-uk.net/poems/I%20Chose%20to%20Look%20The%20Other%20Way.pdf
I mention this because, on Monday night, all this was played out at the Washington House fire. After viewing the damage to the apartments, I couldn’t believe that we escaped that night without a serious injury or fatality. I thought that the environment that many of the residents, the police and fire department personnel encountered was horrifying. Intense heat, thick black smoke, darkness, narrow hallways, the shriek of alarms and the potential for panic as over 100 people of varying physical abilities, our most vulnerable residents, were trying to escape. So what made the difference? Well, I got to speak with a lot of people on Tuesday and here’s what I heard:
First off, at the scene Tuesday morning the high praise for the housing authority staff , our first arriving police units who began the evacuations under difficult circumstances and a patrolman who provided interpretive services for non English speaking residents was huge. Upon the arrival of our fire department, led by Deputy Fire Chief Jim Kane, his captains and the firefighters, they quickly sprung into action to don their life saving breathing apparatus and in force stepped up the evacuation while firefighting duties were undertaken. Chief Regan assumed command of the scene and orchestrated by all accounts what was reported to be a tremendous response. Units from neighboring communities came to our aid and joined in the fight.
Then on Tuesday night, when I stopped in at the shelter, I had the opportunity to speak with a resident who chose not to look the other way and by his deliberate action, in a life-threatening environment, faced danger head on and made a difference. Here’s what he told me… He had heard some shouting followed by smoke alarms going off. He entered the hallway to see his neighbor on the ground in the hall outside his door with smoke pouring into the hall and flames whipping through the apartment. He ran to the man to get him to get up and evacuate with him, but the man couldn’t move. By this time smoke filled a third of the hallway from the ceiling to the floor. And, calmly, with great detail, he shared with me what he did next. He said there was no way he could ever lift the guy, so he dragged him to the staircase and together they slid on their backsides down the stairs from the third floor. All the time, the injured man in great pain was held by this man because if he had not done what he did, that man would have faced a certain and horrifying death.
And speaking of the Washington House Fire, when I first got the call that it was on fire, I immediately thought of my father’s super-8 movie of the Pilgrim Hotel Fire (at the same location on January 8, 1971.) My dad had heard the sounds of the fire trucks that night and jumped in the car to film the fire. Seeing the film of that ferocious fire as a child has seared that horrifying night in my memory. I thought, this can’t be happening again in a modern building. Built in 1874, the hotel was fully occupied as a rooming house the night it went up. It is reported in that fire, that one person was unaccounted for and assumed to have perished. Like last week, we received mutual aid from Holyoke and West Springfield that night.
From the fire department archives I read a report from the Springfield Daily News. With the exception of the date the account read almost the same as in the fire this past week. There was high praise for the fire and police departments by former Police Chief Malcolm Donald: “We think they’re all out. It is a tribute to the patrolmen and firemen who went through the building that so many got out so quickly.” That fire was reported at 3:10 a.m. and the first arriving units were met with evacuees pouring out of the building, some 82 in all. And, once again, the Red Cross was there to help in our time in need. If this most recent fire had occurred at 3 in the morning, the outcome may have been different…
In the business of occupational safety, we would often calculate the loss of life and injuries in value of dollars. So think about this… “The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that approximately 3.3 million serious work-related injuries and about 4,300 fatalities occurred in 2009. The human cost of preventable workplace injuries and deaths is incalculable. However, according to the 2010 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index, the direct cost of the most disabling workplace injuries and illnesses in 2008 amounted to $53.42 billion in U.S. workers compensation costs, more than one billion dollars per week..” – Dr. David Michaels Assistant Secretary of Labor.
For more information on occupational fatalities check out this link: http://www.osha.gov/dep/fatcat/dep_fatcat.html
However, loss of life and injuries are more likely to occur off the job. Annually, 14.4 million workers experience serious injuries and 58,800 are killed in incidents that occur of the job. (National Safety Council, Injury Facts-2011 edition)
“With every one of these fatalities, the lives of a worker’s family members were shattered and forever changed. We can’t forget that fact.” -Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor
Ironically, this week is National Fire Prevention Week in America…for some good information to protect you and your family from fire dangers check out the links below.
http://www.nsc.org/safety_home/SafetyObservances/Pages/FirePreventionWeek.aspx
http://www.nfpa.org/categoryList.asp?categoryID=2017&URL=Safety%20Information/Fire%20Prevention%20Week%202010
So for the city of Westfield, that event represented both a potential for a serious workplace injury or fatality and a home environment injury or fatality. What made the difference for the city, for our employees, and the residents of the complex was two things: incredibly well-trained and well-managed responders, who are trained to run towards the danger to make a difference while most of us would have a natural inclination to run the other way, and a regular guy who chose not to look the other way. That man stared down one of the most incredibly dangerous situations anyone could face, and he made the save. Well done everyone and thanks to you all.
As always if you have any questions call or email me at 413-572-6201 or [email protected].
Respectfully,
Dan Knapik, Mayor
