NHFD
Firefighters spotted two elderly people trying to crawl out from amid a pile of rubble — and therefore were able to pull them away from life-threatening flames.
That rescue took place Thursday at 50 Salem St. in the Hill.
Firefighters received a call about a fire at the property at 9:54 a.m. They arrived to find flames spreading from the porch to the top stories of the three-story duplex, according to Asst. Fire Chief Daniel Coughlin.
They received a report about two people trapped inside the left-side duplex. So firefighters entered that apartment. They found the place crammed with hoarded items. It was hard to see.
That happens often at fires, according to Coughlin. He estimated that 40 to 50 of the little over 100 annual building fires in New Haven involve hoarding conditions. That makes it harder for firefighters to put out the fire and find victims, he said: “You lose your maneuverability. The materials being hoarded can collapse on the firefighters, pinning them down. It’s a big problem for us.” In some cases the firefighters can’t distinguish objects from human beings amid the smoke and flames.
In the case of Salem Street, the firefighters got lucky: They noticed movement on the ground. The movement came from the two trapped people, an “elderly” man and woman, trying to crawl to safety. The firefighters were able to reach the pair, lift them, bring them outside to safety. (Their exact ages were not available.)
It took about an hour and ten minutes to get the fire under control, Coughlin said. The two rescued people were transported to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries. No one had been inside the building’s other unit.
Three firefighters went to the hospital as well, one because of a shoulder injury, one for a hand injury, one for dehydration. Coughlin said at 12:30 p.m. that two had already been released, with the third expected to be discharged shortly.
An NHFD investigator is looking into the cause of the fire, which at this point is unknown.
