Report: West Volunteer Fire Department Lacked Training
WEST (CBSDFW.COM) - Firefighters involved in the fertilizer explosion that killed 15 people last year in West, didn't fail to perform as they had been trained, a new report found.
However, the volunteer department lacked proper planning for the incident, according to an investigation from the State Fire Marshal's Office.
The 55-page report also says the cause of the initial fire is still considered undetermined. Forensic testing on evidence collected from a 37 block search is ongoing in a Maryland lab.
The report includes about a dozen findings and recommendations from the incident. They include better pre-fire training, incident command and enforcement of fire prevention codes. The report echoes one from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board released last month, that the situation could have been prevented if best practices were followed.
Much of the report focuses on the details of the firefighter response that night. It says that some of them knew ammonium nitrate was in the building, but stated "it could never get hot enough for it to go off."
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