VIDEO: The New Haven Fire Department addressed the safety measures they have taken since the line-of-duty death of city firefighter Ricardo Torres Jr. in 2021. “The life of Ricardo Torres is not a lesson, itโs a legacy,” said New Haven Fire Chief John Alston, who was emotional when talking about Torres’ death. In 2021, Torres died from asphyxiation due to a lack of breathing gas. In a press conference spearheaded by Mayor Justin Elicker and Alston, both shared the safety measures made since then.
“Part of honoring firefighter Torresโ death is learning from the tragedy and seeing if there are things that we can do better to work hard to make sure that something like this never happens again,” Elicker said. A 30-page report released by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health focused on factors that they believe contributed to Torresโ death and nine safety recommendations for risk management.
“The challenges were disoriented crews, rapid fire changing conditions, difficult egress and entry on the initial alarm and delayed mayday communications,” Alston said. Alston addressed all the recommendations from NIOSH, but focused primarily on crew integrity, air management, firefighter survival and the rapid intervention crew, which is a team that assists in removing downed firefighters.
