Captain Jeff Bowen was among one of the first firefighters to arrive on scene of the fire at the medical office building on Biltmore Avenue in Asheville, NC on July 28, 2011 when things went horrifically wrong.

The Structure

It was a 122,862-square foot, six story commercial structure, containing numerous medical offices and built in 1982. It consisted of six floors - a ground floor with five upper floors and a basement. The exterior was cast concrete panels reinforced by steel columns and I-beams and large glass window panes throughout. The roof construction was a flat roof of corrugated steel decking finished with a rubber membrane, asphalt and about an inch thick layer of gravel on top. The parapet wall was approximately 3 feet high off the roof with a mechanical room made of concrete housing the utilities in the center of the roof.

Interior of the structure was drywall over metal studs - numerous rooms and long hallways throughout and poured concrete floors covered in carpet and some tiled. The ceilings were suspended acoustic tiles supported by a metal grid (drop ceiling) with a 3 foot void space between the drop ceiling and the steel decking of the floor above. This was where the heat and cooling ductwork along with other utilities were located.

The structure was equipped with an automatic fire alarm system however the system had false alarms five times within the last 30 days. The only sprinklered room was on the second floor (Division 2) which contained a hyperbaric chamber.

The Incident

At 1228 hours, four companies were dispatched to an automatic fire alarm of a multistory medical building - 2 engines, 1 truck and a squad company. Upon arrival, Engine 2 reported a working fire with heavy smoke and fire showing on the top floor rear of the structure and dispatched a second alarm.

Rather than a second alarm being dispatched, a Division Chief, Battalion Chief, Safety Officer, Engine Company, Rescue Company and Fire Marshall were dispatched as an additional first alarm.

Firefighters from Engine 2 connected 100 feet of 2 ½-inch hoseline to the standpipe in the stairwell of the top floor of the medical building. Shortly after flowing water Engine 2 exited the structure after low air alarms began to go off and fire suppression was picked up by Rescue 3 however issues with getting water to flow came into play. At this time, heavy smoke began to flow through the top two floors and north of the stairwell and by this time low air alarms began to go off on firefighters of Rescue 3 causing them to begin exiting the structure. There was no sprinkler system to help calm the heavy fire situation on the top floor.

It was at this time that Captain Jeff Bowen of Rescue 3 went down the hallway followed by 2 of the firefighters while the remaining 2 firefighters exited the structure. When the two firefighters and Captain Bowen reached the hallway connected to the fire rooms, their low air alarms began to sound and it was at this moment one of them noticed Captain Bowen acting confused and started heading back into the stairwell where one firefighter grabbed Captain Bowen. They were then separated in heavy smoke and began making their way towards the fire room. One of the firefighters made it to a window where Ladder 1 had their aerial device set up just before running out of air.

Captain Bowen ran out of air and notified his partner they would need to begin buddy breathing off their SCBAs and transmitted a Mayday and activated his PASS device. The firefighter also transmitted several Maydays and attempted to activate his PASS before removing his facepiece to look for an escape route. Bowen also removed his facepiece due to vomiting in it. The firefighter began looking for a new escape route by crawling down a hallway attempting to open several doors until he found the south stairwell, placing his tool in the door and heading back to Captain Bowen. He pulled Captain Bowen into the south stairwell where he then collapsed and both firefighters fell down a flight of stairs. They were located by another firefighter who was exiting the building and heard their PASS alarms going off. Both firefighters were transported to the hospital where Captain Bowen passed away due to his injuries.

It was determined during the fire investigation that this was an arson fire.

Contributing Factors as per NIOSH

• Arson

• Lack of an automatic fire suppression system

• Multistory/high-rise standard operating procedures not followed

• Air management doctrine not followed

• Reverse stack effect in stairwell

• Inadequate strategy and tactics

• Task saturation of the incident commander

We Remember…

Captain Jeff Bowen, 37, a 13-year veteran of the fire service - Asheville Fire Dept., Rescue 3

NFFF IC-to-IC Discussion – Medical Office Building Fire - YouTube