In Memoriam

Racheal M. Wilson Racheal Michelle Wilson, a fire cadet with the Baltimore Fire Department was killed during a training exercise on February 9, 2007. Wilson, who was 29 years old, had been fighting a training fire in a vacant 3-story rowhouse. Her crew was on the third floor of the structure attacking a fire, when another fire set on the second floor spread up the stairwell. Wilson made it to a window but became entangled in damaged floor or wall boards. Once instructors and fellow recruits managed to free her, she was transported to the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center. She was pronounced dead of thermal injuries and asphyxia. Two other recruits suffered minor burns in the fire but were not seriously hurt. More than 50 fire academy cadets were taking part in the exercise. Wilson leaves behind a son, 11, and a daughter, 8. According to an article in the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Fire Fighters' Local 734 officials said the recruits were not familiar with the layout of the building and were not told how many fires would be set. Union officials also said that one of the teams of recruits fighting the fire did not have a radio, and that the RIT team assigned to the training fire was made up of untrained recruits who did not have a charged hose line. Baltimore Fire Department officials have acknowledged that some protocols were violated in the training exercise. On February 22, Mayor Sheila Dixon fired the department's Division Chief of Training, Kenneth Hyde, and has issued 60-day suspensions to two lieutenants: the lead instructor, and the head of the RIT team. All three had previously been placed on leave without pay.