More training, better gear highlighted in Columbia Fire Department review of county fire chief’s drowning

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

More powerful boats and more frequent training for the Columbia Fire Department are needed to keep firefighters safe in flash flood rescues, according to an internal CFD review done in light of a county fire chief's drowning last year.

The city fire department's facilitated learning review, obtained by ABC 17 News, laid out 16 recommendations CFD can take on for improvement. Those range from equipment purchases to policy adoption to changes in how and when it trains on swift-water operations.

CFD started the review after Assistant Boone County Fire Chief Matt Tobben drowned in July 2024. Tobben was helping CFD with a water rescue call at Bear Creek, where two people were stranded. The county's boat engine suddenly stopped working in the water.

Tobben, the two stranded people and a Columbia firefighter all went overboard, killing Tobben.

The review was a chance for subject matter experts at CFD to ask questions and learn about the circumstances around the call and its outcome, Columbia Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer told ABC 17 News in an interview. Schaeffer said a team of five people at CFD who were uninvolved in the call performed the review.

"This has been therapeutic for the CFD," Schaeffer said. "To have involvement in creating a solution to issues that they've recognized that needed to be changed, and having the ability to make those changes, being supported by city management, being supported by our legislators. That is awesome."

Schaeffer, who was not at CFD at the time Tobben died, said he hoped the Tobben family and Boone County would see that the fire department was working to improve itself after the drowning. The analysis, he said, could be used by departments across the country in their own reviews of operation.

"That's the commitment that I made to the family, that's the commitment that I made to the CFD," Schaeffer said.

The report calls for more swift-water and boat training exercises. CFD had last done a shift-wide water rescue training in 2023 and had not performed one between then and the Bear Creek rescue. Only one of the eight Columbia firefighters on scene on the department's Water Rescue Team had received swift-water rescue training outside of CFD, with the other receiving some sort of informal in-house water operation training.

"The legacy folks are retiring out that had this training, this institutional knowledge," Schaeffer said. "We need to step up and prepare the people that are in the pipeline that are able to replace them."

The report noted that CFD had the minimum staffing for that shift that morning. "Common practice" at CFD would call for "upstaffing," or calling more water rescue experts in, with forecast heavy rains. Schaeffer said that did not happen in this case due to the unforeseen amount of rain that fell that morning.

CFD got the call at 4:17 a.m. about two people stranded alongside the Bear Creek on Range Line Street. The first responding firefighter was an 11-year veteran who had just completed a water rescue earlier and was the shift's water rescue team training coordinator.

Firefighters placed a tension line across the creek, a common rope tool that stretches from bank to bank to catch people downstream who might end up in the water. A team tried to launch the boat upstream to rescue the two people, but the high currents were too powerful for the 30-horsepower boat engine.

The safety officer tried to call for more water rescue units, but the report says all CFD units were tied up at the time, including a structure fire call. The city called upon Boone County units to help them, which prompted Tobben, a veteran boat and water rescue responder, to the scene. The county boat, though, did not have safety gear like throw ropes or personal flotation devices on board. A Columbia firefighter provided them with a throw rope, the report said.

The report said the county boat "made slow but steady progress upstream," with Tobben and Columbia fire Captain Derek Abbott aboard. The crew picked up the two people standing in a shallow part near the rushing water and attempted to move further upstream to get out.

Suddenly, the report said, the motor shut off. The Columbia fire captain shouted "Mayday" and tried to use a paddle to stabilize the boat. Tobben tried unsuccessfully to restart the boat. A firefighter tried throwing a rescue rope to the boat, now drifting downstream. The report said the firefighter looked back and saw the boat hit the tension line stretched across the creek.

"The boat motor became entangled in the tensioned diagonal line causing the boat to become unstable, take on water, and eject all four occupants," the report said. "The rescuer on shore never saw who, if anyone, grabbed the throw rope."

Tobben and the other Columbia firefighter in the boat tried to each take one of the stranded people to shore. Three of them made it to the banks of the creek, but Tobben went underwater and never resurfaced. A Missouri State Highway Patrol investigation found that Tobben's left leg was tangled with a throw bag rope affixed to the boat. The current tightened the rope, stripping Tobben of his life vest and helmet.

A Missouri State Highway Patrol report obtained by ABC 17 News says the rope was attached to a D-ring on the boat itself. Abbott told the trooper he had not attached a rope to the boat.

The report calls on CFD to budget and purchase two boats "with motors possessing sufficient horsepower for swiftwater responses." Schaeffer said the city manager's office has already approved those purchases, and CFD is still figuring out which ones to buy.

The department also upgraded its communication capability. The report noted 500 radio transmissions in the first 90 minutes of the call, with some firefighters calling commanders on their cellphones due to communication problems.

The report also noted that a policy dictating expectations for the technical rescue team was never added to the rules for an unknown reason. A draft of the policy, the report said, was sent to chief officers in April 2021 with an "effective date" of June that year. The policy, though, was never added to the department's rules and regulations.

Assistant county fire chief Gale Blomenkamp told ABC 17 News that the county was close to completing its own internal review of the incident, including an analysis of what might have shut off the boat engine. He said county chief Scott Olsen and Schaeffer would meet next week about the city's analysis.