Hazmat situation at Comfort Suites in Duluth, MN after private pool contractor accidentally mixed hydrochloric acid and sodium hypochlorite (bleach) while servicing the hotel pool

Duluth Fire Department Responds to Chemical Leak
A possible chemical leak at Comfort Suites hotel in Canal Park

Melissa Lentz, Web Content & Social Media Producer
UPDATED: 08:37 PM CDT Jul 18, 2016

Comfort Suites Canal Park pool
DULUTH, Minn. -

Early Monday afternoon, the Duluth Fire Department responded to a report of a possible chemical leak at Comfort Suites hotel at 408 Canal Park Drive.



Crews arrived to find that a private pool contractor had accidentally mixed hydrochloric acid and sodium hypochlorite (bleach) while servicing the hotel pool. The reaction causes the release of chlorine gas.

Chlorine gas poisoning can cause symptoms such as difficulty breathing, fluid in the lungs, burning in the mouth, swelling of the throat, throat pain, stomach pain, vomiting, and blood in stool. Chlorine exposures can damage your circulatory system by changing the pH balance of your blood.

Crews immediately evacuated the building and secured the scene. On employee at the hotel, was treated for possible exposure and was transported to a local hospital. No other injuries were reported.

The mixture was contained and neutralized by fire department crews. The entire building was ventilated and monitor by crews for approximately three hours before allowing individuals to return to the building.

A pick-up truck crashed into a fire truck that was parked to protect first responders in Pickens County, SC

FIRE APPARATUS STRUCK WHILE BLOCKING IN SOUTH CAROLINA 

PICKENS COUNTY, SC
July 18, 2016


When first responders are called to a car crash, the victim’s life isn’t the only one they’re worried about.

Firefighters and other first responders have to worry about themselves too.

This weekend, firefighters in Pickens County were on scene, responding to a fire, when a pick-up truck crashed into the fire truck yesterday.

The way they parked that fire truck helped prevent serious injuries.

Firefighters park their trucks in what’s called the “defensive parking position” to help protect the first responders and the rest of the scene.

Defensive parking means the truck is parked at a diagonal to shut down a lane, or on smaller roads, block the roadway all together.

Firefighters say often times drivers try to take pictures or videos of a crash, and this distracted driving leads to other chain reaction crashes.

The best thing people can do is put the phone down and drive slowly. This way, crews won’t have to work another crash at the same spot. Officials say you can be cited if you try to drive through the scene of an accident, or if you try to go around the crash in an unsafe way.

North Vancouver firefighters rescue woman and her dog from fatal apartment fire

North Van firefighters rescue woman and her dog from fatal apartment fire
  Jeff Lee
  Published on: July 19, 2016 | Last Updated: July 19, 2016 3:45 PM PDT
North Vancouver firefighter recalls heroic rescue of woman and her dog Firefighters pull a woman from the an upper unit of a North Vancouver apartment on Monday. Several people were forced to flee their home after flames and smoke engulfed the complex at St. Patrick’s Avenue and East 2nd Street. [PNG Merlin Archive] Ryan Stelting/special for PNG / PNG

At first, Capt. Kit Little and another firefighter tried to reach the elderly woman and her dog trapped in a third-floor North Vancouver apartment by crawling down a hallway.

Smoke and fire billowed out of several apartments in the 43-year-old building early Monday morning, and elsewhere firefighters from the City of North Vancouver and District of North Vancouver fire departments were pulling residents off balconies or guiding them to safety down other darkened hallways.


But as soon as Little and his colleague breached the hallway fire doors near the woman’s apartment, they were hit with a blast of gases so hot they could feel them through their fire-retardant clothing. They knew within moments the hall would flash over, turning into an inferno which would consume everything.

Beaten back, and with the fire advancing toward the woman, Little and other firefighters raced down the stairs to the back where they hoped to set up a ladder rescue. But there were problems.

Challenged by a building almost too tall for their three-storey ladders, with live high-voltage transformers and lines beside them and with a recalcitrant senior unwilling to abandon her dog even as the smoke shot out of her apartment, Little and his colleagues knew they had to break a few safety rules to save her life. As flaming debris and ash rained down on them, they carried out what would become one of the riskiest balcony rescues in recent Metro Vancouver history.

“It’s not the best thing to do but it is a kind of life-over-limb thing. We needed to save this lady,” Little, a 22-year veteran, recounted later. “She didn’t have any time left in the suite and she couldn’t go back in.”

Despite the heroics, one person perished in the blaze.

Firefighters did not discover the body of the deceased until Monday afternoon because of the extensive damage wrought by the flames, said City of North Vancouver fire chief Dan Pistilli.

“There was a lot of debris, and the roof had collapsed into the suite, and we were unable to get in there earlier,” he said.

The body was found in a third-floor suite firefighters originally thought was vacant. Pistilli believes the fire originated from this unit although the cause is still undetermined.

RCMP and the B.C. Coroner’s Service are working to identify the victim.

The old four-storey building at 357 East Second St. in Lower Lonsdale has about 30 units atop a parkade, with rear views looking south over Vancouver Harbour. Firefighters were able to get most residents out the front of the ground-level third floor or out the back down four flights of stairs.

But at one end several residents were trapped on the top floor, including a woman in her 70s. Two doors down, the fire consumed one suite and started to move toward her. Cut off from the stairwell and with heavy smoke boiling out, she was forced on to her balcony. One floor down her daughter, also trapped on a balcony, screamed for help.

As the fire quickly developed into a two-alarm blaze, it became a major operation involving mutual aid from the District of North Vancouver and West Vancouver. The city’s Ladder 10 and Engines 9 and 10 raced in. Dispatchers called in the nearby district’s Engines 1 and 3 and Quint 5, a pumper. West Vancouver’s Tower 1, a high-angle ladder truck was also tasked. And for good measure, Little’s Engine 6 from the Lynnmour Fire Station with its four-man crew was pulled in.

It was a fortuitous call, given that Little’s 6-4 frame was all that stood between life and death in a rescue where inches, not feet, mattered.

Unable to manoeuvre their ladder trucks close enough to the building because of the live wires, the firefighters stood a ground ladder against the wall. Extended to its fullest reach and nearly vertical, it still only reached the bottom of the balcony.

“We knew it was going to be a difficult assent because the ladder was at its absolute maximum reach. We looked up and decided rather than try to get this lady all the way down this ladder, let’s get her down just one floor into the second floor,” said Little. “We knew we could access the suite from there and get her out by the regular stairwell.”

By this point the woman’s daughter had been rescued, and six firefighters took her place as they tried to figure out how to rescue the senior just above them.

With four RCMP officers steadying the ladder at the bottom, North Vancouver City firefighter Tyler Lentsch scrambled up, but even standing on the top rung he still couldn’t reach her. He cajoled her to climb over the high wooden railings but she was too scared. And she insisted she wouldn’t leave her dog.

“(Tyler) wasn’t quite tall enough to get to her. The ladder was fully extended and couldn’t go up any higher. He couldn’t get the leverage necessary to safely get her into his arms so I said I’m taller, let’s switch places,” Little explained.

But even then, Little had to make some sacrifices. He took off his helmet and stripped off his gloves. Lastly, he removed his air pack, a vital piece of safety equipment.

“I took off my helmet because I couldn’t fit on to the ladder through the opening on the balcony. I took my pack off because I didn’t want a counterweight pulling on me,” he said. “I couldn’t trust having gloves on. I wanted to have the feel of everything with my hands because I knew I was in a precarious position.”

Standing on the top rung, Little reached for the woman. But even then she wouldn’t leave her dog. It was only when he gave a fireman’s promise that that she inched forward.

“I said to her ‘we need to get you off of here.’ She was very reluctant to leave her dog, so I guaranteed I would come back and get him. I got her into my arms and I held her against my body and used the ladder as a crush mechanism to hold her. I just slowly worked her down a floor towards my team of people on the second floor.”

Little added “I worked her around so the guys could reach her legs and then I passed an arm over. Eventually we had somebody holding on to every appendage of this lady and I gave her a bump with my knee into the waiting arms of the crew.”

He then went back up to retrieve Charmaine, the dog, by the scruff of the neck.

Little said he could not have made the rescue without the entire team, including the police officers. “We were really lucky. That rescue probably took a dozen people.”

The woman, who Little said never told him her name, was among several people taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

Despite the fatality, Chief Pistilli said he was proud of the firefighters for rescuing the woman and at least four other residents, especially under the difficult conditions. “Today was definitely one of those career moments for some of these firefighters,” he said. “It was an amazing rescue.”

The building, which was built in 1973 and did not have sprinklers, had recently undergone a critical alarm upgrade, which the chief credited with giving firefighters an early warning.

The improvements were part of a program the city started five years ago to upgrade 350 older apartment and condominium buildings in the neighbourhood.

In an era when workplace safety rules trump improvisation or running into burning buildings, Little said he knows the shortcuts he and his colleagues took may raise eyebrows. But the outcome justified their actions.

“I feel I can defend all my actions. It was not like I was going carefree,” he said. “So I did everything with thought. It wasn’t just a random act.”

The alternative was unthinkable, he said.

“It was a very risky rescue, but it was a good rescue. It took an entire group of people to do that, but there was no alternative. We’ve seen things go the other way. In this case, we saved a woman’s life. That is kind of what we have to do.”

Metropolitan Engineering, Consulting, Forensics, and Environmental Remediation Services. Construction, Investigation, Remediation and Forensic Expert Engineers

Construction Defects, Construction Claims, Engineering, Property & Casualty Investigations, Assessment, Site Investigation, Remediation, Litigation and Indoor-Air Expert Engineers

Bill Stephan, PhD, PE, CIH, CHMM, JD, MBA

Principal Engineer

P.O. Box 520

Tenafly, New Jersey 07670-0520

Phone: (973) 897-8162

Fax: (973) 810-0440

E-mail: metroforensics@gmail.com

__________________________________________________

Firm Overview

The engineering and forensic firm of Metropolitan Forensics and Consulting Engineering and Environmental Services was established for the purpose of providing a high value service to the insurance industry and to the insured companies or individuals. Our founding principal (Bill Stephan) is a licensed professional engineer in several states, including, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

We specialize in the in-situ remediation of petroleum and chlorinated spills, the defense of liability claims, the investigation and defense of first or third party insurance claims and the handling of subrogation claims.  We are also experts on oil and gas energy sector issues (design, investigations, construction oversight), renewable energy sector (wind turbines, solar panels, biofuels, etc), vapor intrusion evaluation, vapor phase and transport and in design on vapor mitigation systems.  Additionally, we offer forensic engineering services, including age-dating of contaminant releases, construction defects, oversight, evaluation of remedial alternatives, sub-slab ventilation system design and installation.  The list of our core services is:

• Cause and Origin Investigations
• Construction Failure Analysis (Residential, Industrial and Commercial)
• Structural Integrity Evaluation
  
• Site Investigation
• Tank removals and tank installations; licensed and insured to perform entire UST work
  
• In-Situ Remediation of Soil and Groundwater
  
• Vapor intrusion, indoor air evaluation and mitigation
  
• Causation
• Forensic Investigations (age-dating)
• Oversight
• Review of Remedial Action Work Plans
• Reserve Estimation
• Cost Allocation
• RAWP Preparation
• Site Remediation
• Cleanup Level Development and Negotiation
• Subrogation
• Expert Witness/Litigation Support
• Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) Services
• Construction Claims (Delay, Differing Site Conditions, Loss of Productivity, Acceleration, and others)
  

 





















Additional Specialty Service Areas

Age Dating
Boilers & Burners
Bridges
Building Codes
Building Inspections

Construction Accident
   Reconstruction
Construction Defects
Construction Delay Claims
Construction Surety Claims
Construction Disputes
Construction Differing Condition Claims
Construction Oversight
Construction Management
Construction Acceleration Claims

Construction Failures
Construction Injuries
Contractor Performance Issues
Corrosion

Defective Designs
Defective Roadway Design
   Evaluations

Earthquake
Electrical Accidents/Injuries
Electrical Equipment Failures
Electrical Fires
Elevators, Escalators
   & Conveyors
Embedded Software Hazards
   & Analysis
Equipment Failures
Errors and Omissions
Explosions
Failure Analysis
Fire
Fire Codes
Fire Protection Systems
Fire Suppression Systems
Flood Damage Assessment

Foundation Systems

Gas Systems
Hailstorm damage

Heating & Ventilation Systems
Heavy Construction
Highway/Roadway Design
Human Factors

Indoor Air Quality
Laboratory Services
Ladders, Scaffolding Falls
   & Failures
Lightning

Mechanical Defect Evaluations
Metallurgical Age Dating
Mold Causation
Natural Disasters/Weather
   Related Issues
Nuclear Energy
Occupational Hazards
   & Illness
Piping
Playground Equipment Injuries
Plumbing
Product Failures
Roofing Problems & Failures
Safety Codes
Safety & Human Factors
   Engineering
Scalding
Scene Mapping and Photographs
Sick Building Syndrome
Sports Equipment Injuries
Standardized Codes
Steam Systems
Subrogation Issues

Transportation Issues
Trips, Slips & Falls
Underground Storage Tanks
Utilities Expertise
Vibration
Water Damage
Windstorm

Mission Statement

Our mission is to work as an extension of our clients to expeditiously achieve the most economically favorable resolution of claims on their behalf and on behalf of their insured. We have developed and will continue to create new solutions to the technical problems and issues which are facing the insurance industry and the insureds today.  

Metropolitan provides forensic engineering work (age-dating or fingerprinting), site remediation, auditing, cost control and litigation support services to insurance carriers, their insureds and to private or public companies.  In its risk management role, examines, manages and audits environmental claims to ensure that assessment and remediation services provided to both carriers and policy holders are reasonable and necessary, properly rendered and appropriately charged. 

In its litigation support role, Metropolitan assists carriers and their counsel to ensure that litigious disputes are resolved fairly and reimbursement benefits are provided when appropriate.  The corporations service area includes the entire United States, with our corporate office located in Northern New Jersey.  The Firm's professional staff also travels regularly throughout the United States on assignment.

Forensics at Metropolitan

There are many issues associated with disputes over responsibility for cleanup. Who, what, when, where, and how chemicals were released can be investigated. The tools of forensic investigation include mathematical models, statistical models, fate and transport calculations, chromatography, lead isotope analyses, time of travel assessments, library search site characterization, tracer additives, and recently developed software applications.

Effective forensic project management should include an evaluation of multiple forensic tools based on site specific circumstances. The process of evaluation and the ultimate selection of the forensic tool are critical to a successful outcome. When project budgets allow, combining forensic methods for corroborative evidence can substantially strengthen your client’s position in an effort to prevent or support litigation. The effective forensic consultant must be well acquainted with an ever expanding list of analytical methods, environmental regulations, assessment procedures and remedial technologies.

The forensic field is one that utilizes a wide range of scientific tools to identify and characterize complex adverse environmental events. Some of the scientific disciplines involved in forensics include engineering principles (biological, physical and chemical), hydrology, lithology, geology, site history, site practices, mathematics, and statistics. These areas may be combined with technologies such as respiratory analyses, chromatography/mass spectrometry and chemical fingerprinting methods to answer complex questions with the ultimate goal of establishing responsibility for a particular event. Accurate, defensible forensic analyses are an essential component of any strategy that attempts to resolve the extent of the insurer or insured client responsibilities in the cleanup of contaminants.

Contact us online or call 973-897-8162 to learn more about our forensic services.

Property Damage Services at Metropolitan

Metropolitan assists property owners, claims professionals, businesses, and attorneys in   the assessment of the cause & origin (C&O), extent of damage and required restoration after pipe bursts, settlements, manufacturing and construction failures, fire, flood, earthquake, or storm damage.  Our teams of engineers have extensive experience in the many systems that make up a building including structural, mechanical and electrical systems.   We also have the necessary background to evaluate property damage to items such as communications towers or solar panels. We can help determine alternative, appropriate, and cost effective solutions for repair or restoration of any damaged property, both commercial and residential. 

Providing Competent, Expert and Objective Investigative Engineering and Consulting Services.

Our experts are multi-skilled, competent, and objective professionals who apply their analytical and common sense skills to reconstruct, determine the root cause, and document the events that give rise to property, casualty, and liability claims.  Thorough investigations and detailed measurements/research help us distinguish between pre-existing conditions and sudden and accidental losses.

 






























Our investigations are:

·         Comprehensive & Accurate

·         Legible & Easy to Understand

·         Timely Performed

·         Delivered Quickly

·         Cost Effective

·         Clear & Concise

·         Developed by Professionals

·         Dependable

·         Our own uniform reporting system saves time and money.

Our Fast Track Investigation and Uniform Format Reporting systems allow us to conduct and deliver a comprehensive response to the assigned claim.  In most cases, we will obtain findings based on a site visit, visual observations, photographs, interviews, and field measurements.  Further investigations and testing will be provided upon request and approval by the client.

Forensic Investigation of Property Damage Claims

Metropolitan Consulting, Engineering & Forensics understands your need to complete a claim investigation accurately and efficiently as possible.  Whether it is accident reconstruction, damage due to environmental forces such as wind, water, hail, snow, tornado, etc.; fire origin & cause investigation or any other claim, the engineers at Metropolitan understand both you and your client want to resolve the claim.  The analysis you receive from Metropolitan will be accurate and complete, giving you the information needed in the claim adjustment and analysis.

Our services have extended beyond the forensic analysis phase into the remediation and repair phase of many large loss claims.  Upon the completion of the cause and origin (C&O) investigation, Metropolitan can provide our clients with complete working drawings and specifications needed to repair or rebuilt damaged buildings or other structures.  Metropolitan Consulting & Engineering’ staff possesses many-many years of experience in rehabilitation design, construction management, and project oversight to ensure the loss is restored in a timely and cost-effective manner without sacrificing quality.  Building code knowledge allows us to identify possible code upgrades as needed.  Metropolitan understands constructability and realizes making an insured whole goes beyond forensic investigation and design. We pride ourselves in providing practical solutions contractors can understand and follow.

At the forefront of available technology, we provide professionals and staff capable of handling a variety of engineering evaluations.  Our reports are clear, concise, complete and efficiently produced.  Our engineering objectives are achieved in an ethical manner consistent with the traditions and character of engineering professionals.

Contact us online or call 973-897-8162 to learn more about our property damage services.

Extensive Experience helping Sureties

Metropolitan also has extensive experience helping sureties fulfill their bond obligations resolve disputes after a contractor has defaulted.  This work includes the evaluation of contractor bid pricing, evaluation of the contractor’s ability to perform work, risk assessment, evaluation of termination, construction completion services, claim and litigation support services, loss recovery services, evaluation of payment bond claims, negotiation and settlement of payment bond claims, and construction defects investigation services.  Metropolitan has provided these services for commercial, development, educational, and assisted living projects.

Construction is a business fraught with risk.  Disputes over even the smallest of issues can quickly escalate, with crippling consequences to the project and the parties.  Over the years, the construction industry has developed various methods of contractually allocating the risk of project delay and disruption.  Some of these methods include liquidated damages provisions, "no damages for delay" clauses, mutual waivers of consequential damages, provisions that limit liability, claims notice provisions, and provisions addressing responsibility for the adequacy of the construction plans and specifications.  Parties frequently litigate the sufficiency of these risk-shifting efforts in conjunction with the underlying merits of delay and disruption disputes.

Construction Claims & Disputes

The most frequently encountered claims include:

1.            Construction Delay Claims

2.            Disruption and Loss of Labor Productivity Claims

3.            Design and Construction Defect Claims

4.            Force Majeure Claims

5.            Acceleration or Compression of the Schedule Claims

6.            Suspension, Termination and Default Claims

7.            Differing Site Conditions Claims

8.            Change Order and Extra Work Claims

9.            Cost Overrun Claims

10.         Unacceptable Workmanship or Substituted Material Claims

11.         Non-payment Claims (stop notice (or Notice to Withhold) claims, mechanics’ lien (only for private construction projects) and payment bond claims)

Forensic Engineering Experience Case Studies

Metropolitan staff has developed and utilized scientific methods to assist clients in a variety of ways related to their claim issues. The following is a partial list of such projects:

• Provided expert witness services for plaintiff seeking remediation of contaminated groundwater that caused indoor air inhalation problems;
• Testified that engineering and scientific evidence was improperly collected and analyzed and was inadequate to show the age of the release;
• Origin and cause of retaining wall failures.  
• Lightning damage to structures or electrical systems and equipment
• Roof failure or collapse as a result of accumulated load, additional weight and snow drift at hundreds of commercial and residential properties.
• Demonstrated that solvents in groundwater at client's property originated from off-site dry-cleaner and that client's site actually provided remediation for the off-site release of dry cleaning solvent;
• Expert witness for property owner impacted by industrial waste disposal from industrial manufacturer;
• Demonstrated that environmental analysis by a previous consultant for a manufacturing site was inadequate; as a result, the lender's concerns were alleviated and financing proceeded;
• Chemical "age-dating" and contaminant transport analyses of petroleum in groundwater at a gas station showed that contaminants originated from other parties;
• Age-dated petroleum release at a former gas station to show that the previous owner of the gas station caused groundwater contamination;
• Age-dated petroleum releases at an industrial facility to show that the on-site plume was the result of an off-site source;
• Prepared age-dating reports for over one-hundred residential fuel oil spills;
• Assisted insurance companies attorneys in defending subrogation claims; was able to demonstrate that the forensic data collected by the first party consultant were collected and analyzed using invalid methods;
• Demonstrated that structural damage to a residence was from a source other than the alleged high lake level
• Collected evidence (for the primary responsible party) that identified other responsible parties to share in the cost of a Superfund cleanup;
• Review of the site data at a bulk petroleum facility indicated that the site releases were not the result of regular oil transfer operations and that they were caused by the negligent actions of the insured’s agents; the case was settled in favor of the insurance company;
• Was able to demonstrate that the majority of the removal actions at petroleum release sites were neither reasonable nor necessary; as a result of our opinion, the insurance client settled the claim in favorable terms;
• At several drycleaner sites we were able to demonstrate that the age of the release was much earlier than the parties originally believed; as a result, the insurance client settled the claim at a fraction of the alleged liability;
• We performed numerous flood and wind damage assessments at commercial and residential properties.

Contact us online or call 973-897-8162 to learn more about our forensic engineering services.

Site Remediation Services

 Characterizing and remediating contaminated sites involve some of the most complex and difficult issues for environmental lawyers and their clients. Problem areas include responding to regulators; negotiating enforcement settlements; negotiating or litigating cost allocation and recovery claims; working with the insured or insurer client, lawyers and regulators to develop efficient, cost-effective remediation approaches; and selling, buying, or developing contaminated properties.

Metropolitan staff has developed and applied an innovative approach to the use of sodium persulfate for the sequential in-situ treatment of subsurface contaminants through chemical oxidation followed by enhanced biological degradation through sulfate reduction. This approach has broad applicability to a wide range of contaminants, and shows strong cost-saving benefits through reducing the initial volume of chemical oxidant necessary and enhancing the in-situ biological degradation of contaminants.

Through proper subsurface geochemical characterization and chemical dosing design, the approach focuses on utilizing the oxidant for immediate mass reduction at the source area, followed by degradation or polishing of the residual contamination using sulfate reducing bacteria.  Depending upon the oxidant activation method, this approach is applicable to petroleum hydrocarbons including both volatiles and PAHs, chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) including chlorinated ethene, ethane and methane groups, as well as PCBs.

Contact us online or call 973-897-8162 to learn more about our Site Remediation Services.

Vapor Intrusion and Indoor-Air Studies

Vapor intrusion has received increased attention over the last few years near contaminated sites because some contaminants have the potential to migrate into nearby buildings and negatively affect indoor air quality. The accumulation of these volatile vapors in buildings can result in significant safety and health concerns.
To properly evaluate vapor intrusion a thorough evaluation of the building's ventilation system and subsurface conditions needs to be conducted by a knowledgeable professional in accordance with state and federal established procedures. 
The evaluation process typically includes a thorough building chemical inventory, the advancement of soil gas probes and the collection of soil gas samples. When indoor air quality problems are identified they can normally be resolved through the modification/installation of a properly designed ventilation system.
Metropolitan is well experienced with U.S. EPA and State vapor intrusion investigation techniques. We have completed numerous vapor intrusion and indoor air quality studies at commercial and residential properties. We have the experience to identify and resolve indoor vapor intrusion problems and the practical know-how to resolve indoor quality issues in an efficient and cost effective manner.
Contact us online or call 973-897-8162 to learn more about our Vapor Intrusion and Indoor Air Studies.

Metropolitan Engineering, Consulting, Forensics, and Environmental Remediation Services.

Construction, Investigation, Remediation and Forensic Expert  Engineers

P.O. Box 520

Tenafly, New Jersey 07670-0520

Ph.: (973) 897-8162

Fax: (973) 810-0440

metroforensics@gmail.com

Contact: Dr. Bill N. Stephan, PhD, PE, JD, CIH, MBA, CHMM

Insurance claim examiners, insureds, insurers, insurance adjusters and risk managers use Metropolitan for determining cause, evaluating the extent of damage, determining the age of the release, separating unrelated damage, analyzing loss scopes and managing restoration data, determining costs to repair, restore or replace, and preparing for insurance appraisals.

Attorneys call on Metropolitan for help when preparing for Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution such as arbitration and mediation

Forest firefighter dies battling fire near Chibougamau in Quebec, Canada

Laura Marchand, Montreal Gazette
More from Laura Marchand, Montreal Gazette
 Last Updated: July 18, 2016 5:10 PM EDT



A forest firefighter based in Roberval died while fighting a blaze in the Chibougamau region Sunday afternoon.

Régis Tremblay, 61, was at the scene of a blaze when he said he wasn’t feeling well and collapsed, said Gérard Lacasse, prevention and information co-ordinator for the provincial firefighting agency, the Société de protection des forêts contre le feu (SOPFEU). Resuscitation attempts took place before he was rushed to a hospital in Roberval, where he was pronounced dead.

It was Tremblay’s 30th season with SOPFEU.

Lacasse said it was too early to tell what caused the death, but said the fire was not “intense” and was already under control. Tremblay was working on the fire for about an hour and a half before the incident.

“We are saddened. It’s something that’s very difficult,” said Lacasse. “It’s very rare that a member of our team dies in the line of duty. Our thoughts are with the family, and with the other firefighters, notably those who offered first aid (to Tremblay).”