LEONARDTOWN, Md. — The St. Mary’s County Fire Chiefs Council issued an update this week on operational changes underway across the county’s volunteer fire services, following the November 6, 2025, release of a comprehensive after-action report into the June 27, 2023, house fire that claimed the life of firefighter Brice Clayton Trossbach. The 145-page document, prepared by an external Safety Review Committee for the Leonardtown Volunteer Fire Department, pinpointed communication breakdowns, incomplete building assessments and inconsistent training as factors contributing to the incident at 20521 Deer Wood Park Drive.
Trossbach, a 25-year-old career firefighter at Naval Air Station Patuxent River and volunteer with the Leonardtown and Bay District fire departments, entered the single-family home with a backup attack line from Engine 132 shortly after the 911 call at 4:04 a.m. Heavy fire consumed the first and second floors, extending to the attic. Within a minute of his entry, the first-floor structure collapsed into the basement, trapping him amid debris. Rescue operations, involving multiple rapid intervention teams, extracted him after two hours, but he died from multiple traumatic injuries at MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital in Leonardtown. The event marked the county’s first line-of-duty death for a firefighter in decades, prompting a thorough external review that included analysis of radio logs, videos, photographs and interviews with 52 personnel.
The Chiefs Council, comprising leadership representatives from each of the county’s seven volunteer fire corporations, meets at least monthly to discuss and implement operational updates. In its letter to the community, the council outlined pre-report identifications of improvement areas, such as assigning a command officer to high-priority calls based on personnel availability and standardizing minimum training qualifications for all leadership roles. “Prior to the release of this report, the leadership in St. Mary’s County was able to identify multiple areas of improvement,” the council stated. Examples include programs to respond to pre-coordinated incidents and ensuring minimum training for personnel in leadership positions at each volunteer corporation.
The report expanded on these, revealing systemic gaps during the response. Chief 1 arrived 11 minutes after the initial call and conducted a 360-degree assessment, noting intense fire conditions but missing a physical inspection of the walkout basement on the structure’s Side Charlie, where flames had spread undetected from an exterior or interior source. This weakened supports led to the collapse. Engine 11 deployed a transitional attack line from the front yard, with Engine 132 advancing indoors through a window, but Engine 63’s water flow from Side Charlie opposed the primary lines, as captured on video. Crew integrity broke down when Engine 132’s acting captain joined another team on the porch, leaving two firefighters unsupervised inside, separated by 8 to 10 feet near the front door. A Mayday call came 23 minutes post-collapse on a separate radio channel, followed by evacuation orders, but personnel accountability reports lagged another 22 minutes. Rapid intervention rotations lasted only 20 minutes each in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with fatigue evident after 90 minutes and no formal tracking. Water supply in the non-hydrant area relied on tankers maintaining 500 to 1,000 gallons per minute via a humat valve, though a near-disconnection threatened flow.
Investigators drew parallels to a 2022 line-of-duty death in Frederick County, attributing errors to human factors under stress, such as time compression and cognitive overload, without relayed warnings like sagging floors or ineffective hose streams. “The majority of recommendations in any LODD report can be linked back to acts, omissions and violations of standing policy or procedure,” the report concluded.
Among 50 recommendations, the report called for a centralized governing body with enforcement over the independent corporations serving 115,000 residents across 373 square miles. This entity would standardize procedures on incident command, radio protocols and risk assessment while allowing autonomy in non-emergency matters, aligning with National Fire Protection Association standards like NFPA 1021 for officer qualifications. Volunteers would complete a 40-hour local development school covering fire behavior, building construction, tactics and incident command, plus annual evaluations and a 40-hour Blue Card Command module for chiefs. High-resolution simulations would target size-up skills for basements and heavy-fire scenarios.
Accountability protocols would mandate at least two personnel per entry in hazardous environments, equipped with radios and maintaining constant contact, entering and exiting as units. Self-dispatching in personal vehicles would cease, replaced by a Duty Chief program for automatic backups on structure fires via computer-aided dispatch, ensuring dual command. Incident management would require initial on-scene reports detailing address, structure type, fire conditions and operational mode before interior work, with full 360-degree walk-arounds including basement access, delegating if the commander cannot complete it. Pre-entry briefings must broadcast unit counts, entry points and objectives, followed by regular conditions-actions-needs updates.
For Maydays, the county’s February 2024 guideline needs refinement with dedicated channels, 15-minute emergency communications center timers, immediate accountability reports, multi-company drills and tactical worksheets. A senior officer group would oversee after-action reviews and training. Water supply guidelines for non-hydrant incidents — 40 percent of calls — would assign dedicated officers for dump-and-fill roles, using large-diameter hose and appliances, with drills on rural evolutions like drafting. Training would incorporate Underwriters Laboratories-Fire Safety Research Institute courses on basement fires, defining tactical supervisor roles for ongoing assessments, aided by command aides and mobile dispatch.
The Chiefs Council has formed a work group to review every recommendation, prioritizing and implementing changes for a “trusted and well-coordinated effort.” It committed to enhancing training, discipline and honoring Trossbach’s legacy. “As a group we have much work in front of us, however we remain committed to creating a better culture and a better system that will enhance training, discipline, and most importantly honoring the legacy of Brice by making the fire service better each and every day,” the council wrote. Fire Chief Christopher Bell dedicated the report to Trossbach’s family, stating, “This report and the countless hours of work by the Committee are dedicated to Brice and the entire Trossbach family, in hopes that the lessons learned in this report will prevent future tragedies like this in the future.”
St. Mary’s County volunteer fire service, operating 13 stations without paid personnel, faces rising call volumes amid population growth linked to Patuxent River Naval Air Station expansion and Washington-area commuting. The Emergency Services Board, now advisory, must gain enforcement powers, with implementation targeted through the Fire Board Association by 2026. The council has briefed Trossbach’s family, county administration and the Fire Chiefs Association, vowing continued updates. “On behalf of the entire Chief’s Council in St. Mary’s County we appreciate the support of our great community, and we will continue to keep everyone updated in our progress along the way,” it concluded. These reforms build on structure fire guidelines revised to emphasize checking all levels, including basements, for smoke and fire before entry, prioritizing firefighter safety alongside other active revisions.
In Southern Maryland, where rural stretches complicate responses, such standardized training and protocols align with broader efforts to equip volunteers for evolving demands. The county’s fire corporations, spanning from Leonardtown to Charlotte Hall, handle diverse incidents from structure fires to medical calls, with monthly Chiefs Council meetings fostering unified strategies. As the work group advances, focus remains on practical drills — like multi-company evolutions for water shuttling — to translate recommendations into daily operations, ensuring no repeat of overlooked basement threats or command overloads.