4/19/2006

An elderly woman was critically injured this afternoon when fire broke out in her North Chattanooga home. The Chattanooga Fire Department received the alarm at 2:33 p.m. and responded with six fire companies to 1115 Valentine Circle. Captain Mark Shook said smoke and flames were shooting out the kitchen window when the first firefighters arrived on the scene. As firefighters forced their way through the front door to attack the fire with hand-held hoselines, Captain Shook was informed by a neighbor that the resident of the house was most likely still in the house. Captain Shook immediately contacted the firefighters inside the house and instructed them to switch operations from fire suppression to search and rescue.

As Captain David Thompson Jr. with Quint 2 and Senior Firefighter Bobby Morgan with Squad 1 searched the smoke-filled house, using a thermal imaging camera, the ceiling collapsed on top of them. They were injured and continued their search, eventually spotting one of the victim's feet. The rest of the victim was covered by the fallen sheet rock. The two firefighters carried the victim out of the house and immediately inserted a Combi-Tube (used to establish an airway) and administered CPR. Captain Thompson said they "got a pulse back" before turning the patient over to paramedics with Hamilton County EMS. The victim, described as an 82-year-old woman, was transported by EMS to Erlanger Medical Center, where she is being treated for smoke inhalation. At the time of this release, the victim was listed in critical condition.

The fire appears to have started in the kitchen and caused considerable damage to the house before firefighters could get the blaze under control. What sparked the blaze remains undetermined and under investigation. The Major Crimes Division with the Chattanooga Police Department is assisting with the investigation, which is standard protocol when fatalities or life-threatening injuries are involved.

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