We repost this every year on the anniversary of Mark Falkenhan’s death because we feel very strongly that we don’t want to lose the lesson about closing the door while searching. Mark’s death is a very graphic example of how much more tenable rooms can be by simply closing the door.
If you’ve not read about this LODD, please take a minute to read some of our thoughts on it as well as the NIOSH report. There are also several fire models done by the ATF that show how the fire progressed. One interesting note: A sharp eyed reader of this website noticed a PPV fan in one of the pictures while the fire was still going on. He had asked if that had any bearing on the rapid fire spread. After reaching out to the ATF agent who did the modeling, he replied that the fan was never turned on and thus had no bearing on the fire spread.
We want to thank you, the readers, for picking up on stuff like this as well as the ATF for responding so quickly and candidly.
A link to our original article:
NIOSH report: