On November 23, 1993, Cadet Firefighter Steven McNamee of the Chicago Fire Department died in the line of duty during a training accident at the Chicago Fire Academy. Candidates had been taught the proper method for jumping from a building into an inflatable Life Cube and were practicing the technique by dropping thirteen feet into the device. McNamee was performing a training exercise in which he jumped from an 18-foot-high platform onto a 5-foot-high air bag used for fire rescue operations, according to Span. He said that 21 students completed the jump before McNamee. The accident occurred at about 9 a.m. Tuesday morning at the academy, 558 W. DeKoven St., Fire Department spokesman Stanley Span said.

Span said this was the first fatal accident at the academy that he could recall in his 32 years with the department.