Flaws found in firefighters’ last line of defense

‘We don't deem it a safety issue’
"No sound, no lights ... nothing," testified Duane Decker, the former Survivair mechanical engineer in charge of fixing the leaks. "It was determined that if water got in, sometimes they would not work."

Decker described making a series of changes: the cover was redesigned, to reduce the number of places where water could enter; a sealant was added to the cover gasket during assembly; then designers tried only the sealant with no gasket; as well as extending the coating on the circuit board to provide more protection. The company also began dunking every PASS device in water, not just a sample of them as before. But it did not call back the ones in the field for a dunking.

The St. Louis Fire Department, which bought its Survivair PASS devices in 1999, received no warning of the problem.

From the testimony of James Beckstead, the Western regional sales manager:

            Q. You've said there was no recall. You've also said that there was no calling the PASS devices in for testing that were out there in the field. Was there any kind of a warning sent, a warning letter or call made, to fire departments that had the devices that were not water tested — about, "Hey," along the lines, "we've found a leakage problem, and be on the lookout," or anything like that?

            A. Not that I recall.

            Q. Any particular reason why not?

            A. The only reason we would not do that is we don't deem it a safety issue.

            Q. This is a life-saving device, isn't it?

            A. It's a component of a life-saving device.

Executive: ‘The word was out there’
Survivair's senior executive, Jack Bell, testified there was no need for a warning, because firefighters knew about the water problem: "The word was out there, whether we formally told everyone — rumors or some way."

The lawyers disagreed on whether the CDC tested Morrison's PASS device, and what that test showed. The company said that the CDC tested Morrison's PASS device more than 100 times, and it worked perfectly. The CDC report on Morrison’s and Martin's death says that both PASS devices worked in a simple test, but that they were not subjected to more rigorous tests to determine if they met the national standard — again, because the CDC does not certify that equipment. Even in the simple test, the lawyer for the Morrison family argued, the video shows 3 minutes when the device failed to alarm.

And when an independent lab dunked Morrison's PASS device in water during testing to determine if it met the national standard, and then opened it in front of lawyers and a video camera, water spilled out of the electronics compartment.

CAUSE FOR ALARM Documents with this series You can read these documents (in PDF files) on PASS devices used by firefighters: Excerpts from depositions by executives and engineers of Survivair Respirators in the Morrison case in St. Louis Survivair statement distributed after the first St. Louis lawsuit was settled Survivair press statement replying to the St. Louis plaintiff's attorney A service advisory on a PASS device problem from Mine Safety Appliances, Nov. 30, 2001 And follow this link to watch excerpts of the interview with Laura Morrison, a timeline, photos of the 15 firefighters who died, and more.

"There isn't strong enough language to condemn how they handled this," the lawyer for the Morrison family, Daniel Finney Jr., of St. Louis, told MSNBC.com. "They were selling their products as lifesaving devices when they knew they were fatally flawed. They were selling them as a firefighter's lifeline, and they knew they could very well fail him in that situation, and they didn't tell anyone. It would be like selling parachutes when you know that they don't open one out of five times, and not telling anyone."

The company's vice president and general manager, Jack Bell, sent a statement to MSNBC.com in response to Finney's statement: "Survivair completely and unequivocally denies his false, factually unsupported and reckless charges. The evidence supporting Survivair’s position in this litigation is compelling. … Survivair’s equipment was not at fault."

A secret 11th-hour settlement
The jury never reached a conclusion. It was deliberating when Survivair and the Morrison family agreed to a settlement. The company admitted no fault and did not agree to make any changes or send out a warning, but it did pay an undisclosed amount to the Morrison family. A separate lawsuit by Derek Martin's family is headed to trial in April.

Meanwhile, St. Louis firefighters are still wearing the same model PASS device that Morrison wore.

Armed with the oven tests, and with testimony from the widows of Martin and Morrison, the National Fire Protection Association approved a tougher standard for PASS alarms in December. The standard, which is scheduled to be published on the association’s Web site on Friday, requires a series of tests showing the PASS alarm can withstand being heated, dunked in water, and tumbled in a dryer, according to a summary provided by the association.

The maximum temperatures the devices are required to withstand in the new test are no higher than in the old test: 500 degrees Fahrenheit for five minutes, then 1,500 to 2,100 degrees for 10 seconds in the flashover test. But it does require that the PASS device produce a sound after some of the torture tests; the old standard just required it not to melt or catch on fire.

The new standard also adds a "muffle test." The alarm will have to be more powerful so it can be heard if a firefighter falls on it.

Some manufacturers told the association that the new heat standard can't be met.

But the largest manufacturer of PASS alarms, Scott, says it will have a device to meet the new standard by this summer, when old inventory can no longer be sold.

Who will pay for replacements?
As for the more than one million U.S. firefighters with the old devices, their fire departments may have to pay for  new ones, which cost about $200 apiece. It's not clear that any agency has authority to order a recall of the old ones:

• The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says it doesn't have a role, because a firefighter's equipment isn't considered a consumer product.
• The National Fire Protection Association says that its standards are voluntary, that responsibility to enforce those standards rests with the Safety Equipment Institute, or SEI, another nonprofit, which certifies devices as meeting the standard.
• And SEI says that only the manufacturers can decide whether or not to recall the old devices.

"From what I understand, the manufacturer is the only one who can pull the trigger on a recall," said Stephen R. Sanders, the institute’s technical director. "We can influence whether or not a manufacturer does a recall. But they might look at us and say, ‘You're crazy.’"

St. Louis firefighter Rob Morrison, who died in 2002.

The institute raised concerns several times about Survivair PASS alarms failing its random tests, but accepted the company's assurances that it was an isolated problem, or had been fixed, documents introduced in the Morrison trial show.

For Rob Morrison's widow, who comes from a firefighting family in St. Louis, the lack of accountability is baffling.

"I just couldn't figure that out," Laura Morrison said, "when firemen are giving their lives everyday to help the community and save people — and companies knew about this and never told anybody what the problem was, and let them, still today, go into a burning building not knowing if their PASS device is going to work or not."

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