The Trenton Time published the following article on April 30, 2013. To read the full article, click here.
Four people rescued from roof of burning Trenton home
By Alex Zdan/The Times
on April 30, 2013 at 1:41 PMTRENTON — Firefighters rescued four people clinging to the third-floor roof of a burning apartment house last night, using a series of ladders to get the residents to safety, Fire Director Qareeb Bashir said today.
The four residents were taken to the hospital with minor injuries after their rescue from the two-alarm fire on Prospect Street, Bashir said. He praised fire crews, who arrived at about 9:45 p.m. to find flames blowing out of the other side of the third floor, for saving the residents from serious injury.
“Our guys did a fabulous job in terms of the speed they executed the rescue,” Bashir said.
The blaze began inside the third floor of the home on the first block of Prospect. Residents climbed out the third-floor windows and onto the roof and dormers to get away from the side of the building with heavy flames, Bashir said.
Though the worst fire was on the other side of the roof, the common cockloft of the building meant the flames could easily spread to the entire top of the residence, he said.
Firefighters, seeing the precarious positions of the four residents’ positions, put up the ladders and quickly brought them down. Three of them complained of shortness of breath and all four were taken to Capital Health Regional Medical Center.
Two other people at the scene suffered leg and lower back injuries, Bashir said. It was not immediately clear if they had jumped from the building.
Firefighters were able to bring the flames under control in part thanks to an early attack by the first unit on the scene, Bashir said. The building was heavily damaged.