Federal Safety Board Gathering Info From Blaze That Killed 2 Firefighters
By Michelle Durham
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Federal officials are in Philadelphia, looking into the the Kensington fire earlier this month in which two firefighters died.
Philadelphia fire commissioner Lloyd Ayers says representatives from NIOSH -- the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health -- are here as part of an ongoing evaluation of dangers that firefighters face.
"They are doing their normal review," the fire commissioner told KYW Newsradio today. "They create a report that goes all over the country -- all over the world, actually. They'll identify all the factors that led to the firefighters' deaths. We learn from that; we do case studies. And we use those in the fire service to better train our members and to put processes and procedures in place where we can be be much, much safer."
Ayers says it's important to honor the work of the two men who were killed in the blaze (see related stories):
"They gave their lives. They wanted to just be professionals and retire, like everybody else. But it doesn't happen that way all the time, so that is going to be a positive out of their deaths, that we'll learn how to be safe."
