STATE FIREFIGHTERS MOURN DEATH OF COMRADE FROM WEST PLAINS

Firefighters don't die as often anymore, which made the death of a Howell County firefighter last week near West Plains significant.

From Lee's Summit to St. Louis to Springfield and Cape Girardeau, firefighters gathered in West Plains on Friday for the funeral of 20-year-old Jeff Thompson. He was electrocuted while crossing a metal fence to fight a grass fire last Monday.

More than 50 fire departments were represented at the funeral, said John Sachen, training officer with the Delta Fire District and a state fire instructor.

"The number of deaths is coming down every year," Sachen said. "That's what makes this one so significant."

For the past six years, firefighter deaths nationally have stayed at fewer than 100, with 91 reported last year, says the National Fire Protection Association in Quincy, Mass.

Firefighters generally attribute this to better safety training.

Thompson, a volunteer firefighter with the Howell County Fire District, was climbing over the fence, which had been electrified by a fallen power line almost a half mile away. Two other firefighters who attempted to assist him were seriously injured.

Under the circumstances, it's difficult to say whether safety precautions would have made a difference, Sachen said.

"You really need to treat all these situations with metal as if it's energized," he said, "but with no tingle of electricity or smell in the air, you can get into these situations quite innocently."

Only two deaths last year resulted from electrocution, reported the Fire Protection Association. Two firefighters were raising a metal ladder to paint a church when they struck an overhead power line.

No firefighters in Cape Girardeau have died within the last 50 years, said Max Jauch, assistant fire chief.

"This is just mainly due to observing safety rules," Jauch said. "We tell our firefighters that when they're out there, they take care of themselves first."

The last serious injury that Jauch recalls was in 1994. A wall collapsed on firefighter Randol Morris during a fire at Plaza Tire that damaged several buildings near Kingshighway and William Street. Morris' leg was broken in three places and he was off work for more than half a year, Jauch said.

After the accident, the fire department re-examined the distance firefighters should stand from a building during a fire. It was changed from one times the wall's height to 1 1/2 times, Jauch said.

Safety has to be on a firefighter's mind from the beginning to the end of every call, he said.

"There have been a number of times that I've pulled guys out of a burning house until the utility people came to cut the wires," Jauch said. "You could have someone squirt a breaker box with a hose and cause all sorts of problems."

The grounding affect of firefighter's rubber boots has probably saved Jauch several times, he said.

Death by electrocution is very rare among those who work around it, said Michael Cleary, a spokesman for AmerenUE. An employee of the utility company died three years ago in Franklin County when he walked into a fallen power line that was hidden from view in some bushes at night, Cleary said.

Electrical injuries are no more prevalent in rural areas than urban, he said.

"Many times you'll have someone cleaning a pool with a long, metal pole and he doesn't see the power line just above him until it's too late," Cleary said.

The voltage of power lines vary. The closer they are to a household connection, the lower the voltage. Lines above residential neighborhoods typically carry 12,000 volts, Cleary said. Large steel towers support power lines of 345,000 volts because it's less expensive for the utility to send more volts over the same line.

AmerenUE regularly provides training on request to fire departments and other emergency workers on how to handle gas and electricity.

"We'll go from departments in St. Louis to the smallest of rural fire districts," Cleary said.

A general rule in checking to see if an object is electrified or hot is to touch it with the back of the hand, Sachen said. Touching with the palm side of the hand could cause the fingers to close around the object as a protective, reflex action.

If heat or electricity is touched with the back of the hand, the reflexive response will be to draw the hand away.

"It's not even something that you need to think about," Sachen said, "and if you have a fence, metal building or whatever that's hot, any injury you might get will be less serious."

But for those who aren't firefighters, Cleary said the best advice is not to touch anything that might be electrified.