Investigation Report Released on 2012 Va. LODD

The Alexandria, VA, Fire Department has released its investigation report into the 2012 line of duty death of 33-year-old Joshua Weissman.

According to the report, the intent of the investigation into Weissman's death was not to lay blame but to learn from the event and prevent similar occurrences from happening in the future during rescue attempts.

Weissman died from injuries sustained in a fall from a cement barrier along Interstate 395. He had been responding to a car fire near South Glebe Road in Shirlington when he fell into a rocky creek below the interstate. According to Virginia State Police reports at the time, the Alexandria Fire Department responded to the scene of the car fire. Their ambulance stopped in the northbound lanes of I-395 along the HOV lanes to get to the vehicle. Separating the I-395 lanes from the HOV lanes were two cement barriers with a three-foot gap in between. There was no pavement between the two barriers.

Authorities said Weissman, of Bristow, VA, was climbing over the cement barrier to get to the vehicle when he fell through the gap and into Four Mile Run Creek, approximately 30 feet below the interstate.

Weissman was extricated from the creek by Alexandria City and Arlington County firefighters and transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

Read the full investigation report at: www.alexandriava.gov/uploadedFiles/fire/info/Weissman%20LODD%20Report%20Final%20of%20Final%2012.22.2014.pdf.