There’s a new piece of equipment that Montgomery County Fire and Rescue has recently acquired to buy firefighters more time during a rescue.
Melanie Diaz was 25 when she died in a high-rise fire in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 2023. The building didn’t have sprinklers.
On Saturday, her family and Montgomery County Fire Chief Corey Smedley announced an additional piece of equipment to give firefighters more time during a rescue.
“Today is about people, progress and legacy that permanently change how we protect lives,” Smedley said. “Melanie Diaz’s story reshaped fire safety, not just through remembrance, but through action.”
The Diaz family donated new smoke hoods to the fire department — and they hope to eventually be able to expand it to the rest of the state and eventually nationwide.
The hoods provide respiratory protection for people in smoke-filled environments and give them more time to rescue people inside of buildings without harming and risking their respiratory systems.
Smedley says the hoods are widely used in Europe and the United Kingdom but are relatively rare in the United States.
Hoods give 15 minutes of escape time
The fire department said that the hoods will soon be on every county fire truck and will provide 15 minutes of escape time, reducing the toxic byproducts of combustion to survivable levels.
“We are learning, we are adapting, and we are applying those lessons in real time,” Smedley said. “Melanie Diaz’s story reshaped fire safety, not just through remembrance, but through action. Because of her legacy, leaders asked harder questions. Communities demanded change, and fire departments like ours adapted in ways that save lives.”
The Melanie Diaz Act was unanimously passed by the Council last year and strengthens tenant protections and requires landlords to notify tenants of fire safety, insurance and building maintenance issues.
The bill requires residential leases to clearly state whether the building has automatic sprinkler systems, inform tenants of emergency plans, and whether the lease insures tenant possessions in event of loss or damage due to instances such as fire, smoke or water. It also requires 24-hour availability of a building representative, and notification to tenants of any disruption of essential services and emergency safety plans for each building.
“Montgomery County is a growing community, but we face serious reality. We here have over 75 high-rise residential buildings without automatic sprinkler systems. This is not just a statistic. It is a hazard to our residents, families and firefighters,” Smedley said.
He said that the hoods will help protect firefighters and save more lives.
“Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of the Diaz family, every fire engine, every ladder truck and every heavy rescue squad in Montgomery County will now be equipped with an evacuation smoke hood,” Smedley said.
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