Fatal training accident investigated

KISSIMMEE -- Investigators were still working on a theory Wednesday about how two Osceola County firefighters were fatally burned in a training accident.

Dallas Begg, 20, and Lt. John Mickel, 32, died Tuesday at separate hospitals after the exercise at the defunct Florida Bible College west of Kissimmee.

Fellow firefighter trainees pulled Begg -- on the job just eight days -- and Mickel from a flaming back bedroom of the vacant concrete-block house, but efforts to save them failed. A preliminary autopsy report showed that the men died of smoke inhalation and burns.

Firefighters on the scene said they assume that whatever happened came so quickly that the 11-year veteran and the trainee didn't have time to run or call for help.

A flashover, in which smoke and gases get so hot that the air burns in an instant, was thought to be a possibility.

Officials gave few details, but an Osceola County firefighter said Mickel and Begg went in first during the morning exercise, after instructors set a fire in the corner of the back bedroom, using hay and wood pallets as fuel.

Seventeen firefighters from Osceola and Orlando were taking part in the training, which began about 9 a.m.

Their mission, as is typical in such exercises, was to find and rescue a mannequin simulating a trapped person.

The smoke was so heavy in the three-bedroom house that firefighters could not see one another but communicated via radio, said the firefighter.

It's unclear, firefighters said, why Mickel and Begg failed to push red panic buttons on their radios or otherwise signal that they were in trouble.

State Fire Marshal's Office investigator Juan Bailey said his agency would confer with other departments and speak with the Medical Examiner's Office before disclosing events that led to the deaths.

"It's a difficult situation for the fire service," Orlando firefighter Steve Clelland said. "To train firefighters, you have to put them in a fire. No matter how safe you try to make it, there's potential for injury.

"It's like police officers practicing for a shootout with live rounds."

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