Pennie
July 24th, 2010, 10:09 PM
:clap2:
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/9640/59816apartmentfire724.jpg (http://img689.imageshack.us/i/59816apartmentfire724.jpg/)
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/jul/24/241648/crews-battle-west-tampa-apartment-fire/news-metro/
Child rescued from West Tampa apartment fire
Somewhere in the burning apartment, a 2-year-old girl was trapped.
With masks over their faces, Firefighter Eric Stokes and his colleagues tried the first floor of the apartment at North Boulevard Homes, a West Tampa apartment complex, but found no one.
They climbed the stairs to the second floor and split up, with firefighters checking two rooms with no success. As they came out, they heard screaming from behind a third door.
Stokes opened it. Parts of the roof had collapsed into the room. Firefighters outside were still streaming water into the apartment, and Stokes radioed them to stop. Visibility was zero.
He "took a couple of steps in and she ran, she ran into me, and kind of grabbed my leg," said Stokes, a veteran of 4 1/2 years with Tampa Fire Rescue.
This is how Stokes described his and his colleagues' valiant rescue of the girl this afternoon, moments after the blaze broke out at the complex at 1129 Main St.
The fire was reported shortly before 4 p.m., said Capt. Bill Wade. It broke out somewhere in a 10-unit building at the complex, and quickly spread through the roof to both ends of the structure. Its cause remains under investigation.
Once the girl ran into him on the second story of Apt. 1512, Stokes wasn't sure what had happened. With his bulky gloves, it's often difficult to determine what he is touching in the dark, but he thought he could feel the child's head when he reached down.
"I just kind of scooped her, and I wasn't really even sure if I had somebody at that point," said Stokes. "I thought I did. Once I got into the hallway I could see more clearly that, you know, I did."
"On the way down the stair, I was talking to her and she was looking up at me. She looked like she was trying to figure out what was happening and what I was," he said.
He handed her off to a lieutenant, then returned to the apartment to make sure no one else was inside. The girl was taken to an area hospital. Her condition was unavailable.
It was the first time Stokes had rescued anyone. "It being a child makes it a little bit more special."
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/9640/59816apartmentfire724.jpg (http://img689.imageshack.us/i/59816apartmentfire724.jpg/)
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/jul/24/241648/crews-battle-west-tampa-apartment-fire/news-metro/
Child rescued from West Tampa apartment fire
Somewhere in the burning apartment, a 2-year-old girl was trapped.
With masks over their faces, Firefighter Eric Stokes and his colleagues tried the first floor of the apartment at North Boulevard Homes, a West Tampa apartment complex, but found no one.
They climbed the stairs to the second floor and split up, with firefighters checking two rooms with no success. As they came out, they heard screaming from behind a third door.
Stokes opened it. Parts of the roof had collapsed into the room. Firefighters outside were still streaming water into the apartment, and Stokes radioed them to stop. Visibility was zero.
He "took a couple of steps in and she ran, she ran into me, and kind of grabbed my leg," said Stokes, a veteran of 4 1/2 years with Tampa Fire Rescue.
This is how Stokes described his and his colleagues' valiant rescue of the girl this afternoon, moments after the blaze broke out at the complex at 1129 Main St.
The fire was reported shortly before 4 p.m., said Capt. Bill Wade. It broke out somewhere in a 10-unit building at the complex, and quickly spread through the roof to both ends of the structure. Its cause remains under investigation.
Once the girl ran into him on the second story of Apt. 1512, Stokes wasn't sure what had happened. With his bulky gloves, it's often difficult to determine what he is touching in the dark, but he thought he could feel the child's head when he reached down.
"I just kind of scooped her, and I wasn't really even sure if I had somebody at that point," said Stokes. "I thought I did. Once I got into the hallway I could see more clearly that, you know, I did."
"On the way down the stair, I was talking to her and she was looking up at me. She looked like she was trying to figure out what was happening and what I was," he said.
He handed her off to a lieutenant, then returned to the apartment to make sure no one else was inside. The girl was taken to an area hospital. Her condition was unavailable.
It was the first time Stokes had rescued anyone. "It being a child makes it a little bit more special."