Last Updated: 9:46 am | Friday, April 4, 2008
'Loss felt across the nation'
BY CLIFF RADEL
COLERAIN TWP. – One by one, the soot-blackened firefighters trudged up the
rain-slicked driveway.
Heads down. Eyes tearing. Hearts broken.
“We tried to save them,” sobbed Colerain Township Capt. Steve Fortunski as
he fell into the arms of Dan Meloy, the township’s police chief. “We
tried.
We tried.”
But their best efforts were in vain. Two of their own, 37-year-old Capt.
Robin Broxterman and 29-year-old Firefighter Brian Schira, died in a
Friday
morning house fire. Investigators attributed their deaths to “a
catastrophic
structural failure” that trapped them inside the house.
Word of the firefighters’ deaths echoed up and down Squirrelsnest Lane,
where the fire took place in the township’s Dunlap neighborhood and
reverberated throughout the community and across the nation.
“This is not just a sad day for our street,” said Janice Figgins, a
neighbor
of Matt and Sharyn Cones, the owners who safely escaped their
fire-stricken
house before fire crews arrived. “This touches our entire township.”
Even before the firefighters’ deaths were officially announced just after
11
a.m. Friday, flags were lowered to half-staff throughout the close-knit
community, from the township’s administration building to the top of Mount
Rumpke in the Rumpke Sanitary Landfill, the highest spot in Hamilton
County.
Broxterman, a 17-year veteran whose mom, Arlene Zang, once served as a
firefighter, was the township’s first female captain.
Always helping her fellow firefighters like a substitute mom, the mother
of
two children was engaged to be married to Don Patterson, a Green Township
firefighter who responded to the scene of the fire.
Colleagues led him away in tears when he learned of Broxterman’s death.
Schira was hired as a part-time firefighter last November. He also served
in
that capacity with the Delhi Township Fire Department while working a
full-time job at Home Depot.
Both firefighters were members of Colerain Township Engine Company 102.
Their bodies were found in the basement of the two-story, four-bedroom
house
built in 1991 and valued at $224,500. Fire officials think the floor
collapsed upon the firefighters after they arrived in the basement, said
Capt. Steve Conn.
The fire – which drew firefighters from at least 10 area departments – was
first reported coming from the 5700 block of Squirrelsnest Lane at 6:10
a.m.
Smoke and fire and carbon monoxide detectors had set off an automatic
alarm,
immediately dispatching firefighters.
The response was so swift, Sharyn Cones expressed surprise to a 911
operator
that she could already hear the sirens of the fire trucks as she called to
report a fire in her basement.
Matt Cones tried to fight the blaze with a fire extinguisher, Conn said.
No
luck. The Cones ran from their house and sought shelter with a neighbor,
Marsha Ferguson.
They were “pretty shaken up,” Ferguson said, “but not injured.”
A four-person fire unit, including Broxterman and Schira, responded from
Dunlap’s Station 102. The firehouse is less than a half-mile away. While
the
firefighters were en route, the county dispatcher notified them it was a
“working structure fire.” This was not a false alarm. More units were
dispatched.
First to arrive at the scene, at 6:24 a.m., Broxterman and Schira went
inside. The other two firefighters remained outside.
“Making entry into the basement,” Broxterman said on a radio transmission.
“Heavy smoke.”
Firefighters spent at least a minute discussing the need to send water
through the hose and into the basement.
The discussion ended with: “Engine 102 is ready for water!”
Seconds later, firefighters told a commander to order Broxterman and
Schira
out of the house, because “conditions are changing.”
The order was given at about 6:37 a.m. No response.
Two minutes later, the commander on the scene sent out a “Mayday” call.
A rapid assistance team of firefighters responded in minutes to the Mayday
call. The team is trained to rescue downed firefighters.
The team members battled their way into the house. They found Broxterman
and
Schira in the basement at 7:10 a.m.
The last Colerain Township firefighter to die in the line of duty was
Charles Palm in 1977. He suffered a massive heart attack at the scene of a
house fire.
His son, Chuck Palm, was among the firefighters responding to Friday’s
blaze.
The deaths are the year’s first among line-of-duty firefighters in Ohio,
said Shane Cartmill, spokesman for the State Fire Marshal.
In 2007, five Ohio firefighters died on the job.
Since 1990, a total of 2,248 firefighters have died while on duty in the
United States. Of these, 2,184 were men and 64 (counting Broxterman) were
women, said Molly McPherson, spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency
Management Agency.
Broxterman is the first female fire captain to die in the line of duty
since
statistics were first compiled in 1990.
The deaths of Schira and Broxterman rocked Colerain’s 180-member fire
department. At the Dunlap firehouse, dozens of people gathered in the
hours
after the tragedy.
“This is a nightmare we’re living through,” said Firefighter Kevin Kelsey.
The 15-year Colerain veteran and member of Station 102 held a dozen
freshly
cut yellow daffodils someone had placed at the base of the firehouse’s
sign.
“Everybody knew Robin, she helped everybody. Brian was a new guy,” Kelsey
added as he returned to the flowers to the base of the sign Broxterman and
Schira passed on their final run.
“Both of them were professionals. They knew exactly what they were
supposed
to do at that fire.”
Just Thursday morning, Conn worked with the crew that responded to
Friday’s
fire.
“The last thing we said to each other,” Conn recalled, “was: ‘Be careful.’
”
Dr. William Kramer, director of the Fire Science Education program at the
University of Cincinnati, had Broxterman in his classes. He went to join
firefighters at Station 102 on Friday morning.
He praised the Colerain Township Fire Department as professional and
progressive.
“Despite the fact that you do everything right and follow all the safety
precautions,” Kramer said, “on some days, things can go bad.”
The state’s top fire investigator arrived Friday afternoon. State Fire
Marshal Michael P. Bell said about 10 people from his office were
assisting
local officials in the investigation.
Officials said the investigation was still in its early stages. Several
days
could pass before they know what happened. Speculation centers on a floor
or
stairwell collapsing.
Scores of people have posted messages on The Enquirer’s Web site praising
Schira and Broxterman as heroes and consoling their families, friends and
fellow firefighters.
“Just wanted you to know our love, thoughts and prayers are with all the
families and friends of the lost firemen,” wrote Gary and Debbie Kramer of
Colerain Township. “Our son belongs to the Colerain Township Fire
Department
and we are so proud of him and all the firemen who put their lives on the
line for all of us in our community every day.”
People from different parts of the country sent e-mails. A member of the
fire department in New Madrid, Mo., expressed his condolences.
“Your loss is felt all across the nation among all firefighters,” Jim
Russell wrote. “They are our Brother and Sister and will be missed.”
Tentative plans call for services for the firefighters to be held at
Spring
Grove Cemetery. Conn said the day and time have not been set.
Tyrone Patrick rushed to the Colerain Township Fire Department’s
headquarters when he learned of the tragedy. He serves as a chaplain for
the
Cincinnati Fire Department.
Patrick spent several hours counseling the dead firefighters’ colleagues.
“I was just there for support,” said the pastor of North Fairmount’s
Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church.
Some of the firefighters wanted to talk. Others didn’t.
“It was like a grieving family,” Patrick said. “When someone you love
perishes, you’re in a state of shock and disbelief.”
He encouraged the distraught firefighters to avoid digesting “the whole
thing at once because it’s overwhelming.
“I told them God will get them through it.”
After the firefighters’ bodies were found, members of Engine Company 102
knelt in the street. They bowed their heads in silent prayer.
Two ambulances sat at the bottom of a driveway. Broxterman’s body was
gently
placed in one. Schira’s was placed in the other.
During this solemn process, neighbor Janice Figgins ushered a group of
students wearing high school sweatshirts and backpacks to their bus stop.
Threading their way up the street, they stepped over a yellow fire hose
and
past grieving firefighters.
The students’ fresh, youthful faces contrasted with the pained, forlorn
looks on the faces the firefighters sitting on the wet street and leaning
on
their fire trucks.
After the students passed, the ambulances’ sad journey began.
As the vehicles moved up the driveway, firefighters removed their helmets
and bowed their heads. Some patted the sides of the ambulances.
“Crew! Attention!” an officer shouted with a shaky voice.
Members of Engine Company 102 rose to their feet.
The firefighters formed a straight line and stood even straighter. And
they
gave their sister and brother the day’s final salute.
Staff writers Jennifer Baker, Steve Kemme, William A. Weathers, Kimball
Perry, Eileen Kelley, Lori Kurtzman and Jane Prendergast contributed.
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