Excerpts from FireRescue1.com
Firefighters bear witness to tragedy. It is part of the job. Solace is often found in the idea that others might learn from our very worst moment and prevent a future tragedy from happening.
The recent death of Medora (Ill.) Volunteer Fire Chief Kenneth Lehr was such a tragedy. A seemingly inexplicable and senseless incident, it provoked emotion and strong reactions from many.
As often happens with such incidents, the immediate reaction by some was to find someone to blame. In the case of Chief Lehr’s death, that person was Firefighter/Engineer Patrick Cullum, who drove the truck that killed his chief.
On the afternoon of Feb. 5, a landing zone (LZ) was set-up to a fly a patient with a significant injury to a trauma center. This LZ was deemed unsuitable and a second location was selected approximately one mile away. Cullum drove the fire engine from the first LZ to the second.
As Cullum, 47, pulled the fire engine off the highway in the area being established as the second LZ, he visually located nearby personnel and took note that they were 10 to 15 yards away. Chief Kenneth Lehr is believed to have ridden the engine’s tailboard, unknown to Cullum, between the two landing zones. In the seconds between stopping and the putting the fire engine in reverse, Lehr either fell or stepped off the engine’s tailboard. He was run over by the reversing truck, and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Cullum says he will regret for the rest of his life not taking 10 more seconds to find a spotter before reversing the fire engine.
“Someone notified me that Chief Lehr had been on the back of the truck and fallen under before I could stop,” said Cullum. “It was not an accident. It was my responsibility to ensure a safe truck. In an accident there is nothing that could have been done to change the outcome. An incident, even when the outcome is tragic, could have been prevented.”
The preliminary state police report and early news reports of the incident were thin on specific details about the patient’s injuries, the request for an ambulance, the departments that responded, and where the landing zones were located. Those details will likely be clear in the final OSHA report.
Cullum is not the first and he will not be the last emergency responder to reverse a fire engine or an ambulance without a spotter. Backing without a spotter is an example of normalization of deviance by emergency responders, similar to failing to wear a seatbelt or being distracted while driving an emergency vehicle.
Medora is small community. Members of Lehr’s family asked Cullum not to participate in the funeral and also asked him to resign from the department a few days after the incident. He honored both wishes.
