ST. LOUIS — This weekend, St. Louis firefighters will hold a safety “blitz,” to collect information about various vacant buildings in the city. The information will go in the database fire officials are creating to help keep firefighters safe.
The computer database was in the works before the death of St. Louis firefighter Benjamin Polson, 33, in January. But his death put a spotlight on the dangers faced by firefighters when they battle a blaze in a deteriorating building.
Polson was killed Jan. 13 when the roof collapsed in the vacant building where he was fighting a fire. Another firefighter was injured in that incident.
There are thousands of vacant buildings, city wide. This new computer database will contain details for each one of those properties.
This weekend, the fire department will be out in the Hamilton Heights and Wells-Goodfellow neighborhoods collecting information to be included in the database. Firefighters will be able to access the database on their way to a fire scene, so they know – literally - what they're getting themselves into.
St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said, “We'll do a review on what type of conditions are around the building. Are all the walls standing? Is there a missing wall? Is the roof in place? Are the floors missing in a multi-story building? Do we have lentils that are not in place? Are the walls bulging out? Are the chimneys leaning? There's all kinds of indicators that are going to cause us pause, if you will.”
Jenkerson said fire officials hope to launch that database in April.