Firefighter Saves Mother, Toddler

Smoke was pouring into the bedroom. A woman grabbed her toddler in her arms, went to the window and screamed for help.

That was the scene around 1:30 a.m. on West Hazel Street Sunday.

Firefighters arrived on the scene and saved the day.

Here’s what happened, according to Acting Battalion Chief Brian Jooss:

A one-alarm fire started in a storage room in the basement of a two-story single-family house. Firefighters from the Goffe Street and Whitney Avenue stations rushed to the scene.

Smoke was filling the house, including the bedroom where the mother yelled for help.

Lt. Karl Luschenat started to climb a ladder to rescue the woman.

Before he got there, Lt. Teo Baldwin had already rushed through the smoke, up the stairs, into the bedroom. He escorted the woman, who held the toddler along the way, back down the stairs and out to safety.

The fire could have been worse if not for a bit of luck: the flames melted a soldering joint on a copper water pipe. The pipe ​“let go” ​“like a sprinkler” and contained the flames by the time firefighters could put them out, Joost said.

He said he doesn’t yet know what caused the fire, but has ​“no reason to believe” it was suspicious.