Illinois labor officials are issuing a series of statewide recommendations to improve firefighter safety following a two-year investigation into the death of a Chicago firefighter.
Mashawn Plummer, 30, was critically injured the morning of Dec. 16, 2021, while battling an apartment building fire. Just six months after graduating from the Chicago Fire Academy, Plummer died five days after the fire. A civilian woman who was pulled out of the fire also died.
Investigators with the Illinois Department of Labor’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (IL OSHA) found the primary cause of Plummer’s death was a catastrophic malfunction of his self-contained breathing apparatus. The hose connecting Plummer’s mask to his air tank tore in two places, rapidly depleting his only source of breathable air in heavy smoke conditions.