CFD chief: Special high-rise firefighting tool would not have been not practical in Kenwood fire
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Fire Department is responding to critics who say the department could have and should have used a specific pipe designed for high-rise fires to battle a blaze in Kenwood last month.
As CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey reported, the CFD responded to our first story on this subject only with a statement. But on Friday, they wanted to show us on camera why they believe they took all the right steps to stop the massive blaze at the south tower of the Harper Square Cooperative, 4850 S. Lake Park Ave.
The tool at the center of the controversy is the HERO (Highrise Emergency Response Offensive) pipe. It is a remote-control operated device that was invented by a recently-retired CFD battalion chief.
The HERO pipe was designed for fires in high rises — like the one at the Harper Square Cooperative on Wednesday, Jan 25. One woman died in that fire, and nine others were injured.
CFD 1st District Chief Jim McDonough supervises the downtown area and six battalions, and was in charge that day.
"Once we stepped into the building, we didn't lose one life. Not one life, we lost," McDonough said. "So we should be proud of that."
McDonough also confirmed the Fire Department did not use the HERO pipe.
Chicago has had the $50,000 pipe for more than a decade thanks to a grant. But critics, like recently-retired CFD Battalion Chief Jerry Hughes, told us they should have used the pipe in Kenwood.
"Their lives are put at risk because we're not using the equipment that we purchased," Hughes said.
The inventor of the HERO pipe even created this simulation showing how it should have been deployed at the Kenwood building.
But District Chief McDonough says you had to be there really to understand.
"It's not a lack of training going on here - believe me. That's not the issue," McDonough said. "We've just got to have the right application to deploy this pipe - and that wasn't it."
McDonough said the lack of working elevators, plus the weight of the device and the conditions inside the building, made it impractical. But said that firefighters still train on the HERO pipe, and it is a useful tool.
He said admittedly, they don't use the device a lot. But there's a lot of expensive equipment on the truck that's there just in case.
"I know how it was used. I know when we use it," McDonough said. "That's all that matters to me."
In the end, the CBS 2 Investigators wanted to know what fire crews can learn from last month's tragedy. McDonough says they have been looking into that for weeks.
"Every fire, you want to improve on," McDonough said. "That's something we're working through internally, and we'll figure it out. But there's not a lot of things we would do different here at this fire."
The CFD says the Kenwood high-rise fire was caused by the "careless use of smoking materials." A smoke detector was in the residence, but was not working.
