Fire Chief Jason Todd Rowe, 30, of Elkhorn (Ky.) Fire Department was killed on Thursday, Dec. 23, during a training exercise to place snow chains on a fire truck, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer (www.cincinnati.com)

Rowe and other firefighters were using air lift bags on the rear of the fire truck, when one of the bags shifted and was propelled at Rowe, according to the Enquirer. He was pronounced dead at Pikesville Medical Center.

FIRE CHIEF legal issues columnist Larry Bennett is seeking information from other departments who have experienced similar accidents. Bennet said the news article reminded him of a terrible accident in which a firefighter’s skull was crushed in a training incident at his former fire department.

”We were practicing lifting the rear axle on a fire truck in the station on a snowy winter drill night, using air lift bags and securing the rear axle with wooden blocks. I was the ‘first to go’ and was lying face down under the truck, helmet off, verbally directing the lift. Thank God all went well. During the second evolution, however, as the truck was being lifted, the truck rolled forward (the metal wheel chocks on the concrete floor shifted), and the axle struck the firefighter in his head.”

The firefighter survived and is still a part-time firefighter, Bennett said, thanks to prompt surgery at University Hospital in Cincinnati.

“While we don’t yet have the details of the Kentucky death,” Bennett said, “it raises the following question: Is lifting a fire truck on a smooth concrete floor a particularly hazardous activity? Have other fire departments experienced similar incidents?”

If you have pertinent information, contact Bennett by e-mail to bennett@katzmanlaw.com or by phone at (office) 513-793-4400 or (home) 513-561-0555.