Off-duty battalion chief credited with saving woman from burning Long Beach home

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Off-duty battalion chief credited with saving woman from burning Long Beach home

LONG BEACH - An off-duty fire battalion chief rescued a woman in her 70s from a burning home in Long Beach, his department reported Thursday.

The fire in the 800 block of Rancho Drive broke out just before 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to a Long Beach Fire Department statement, which gave this account of what happened next:

As firefighters were responding to the scene, the off-duty chief, having noticed smoke pouring from a neighbor's house, entered a back door as another neighbor used a hose to try to douse flames from outside.

As he found the kitchen on fire, the battalion chief heard a faint voice from deeper inside the house, followed it and found the woman slumped over a chair. He pulled her to safety, then went back in to check for more occupants; there were none.

Firefighters arrived and put out the blaze. The woman rescued by the chief was taken to a hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. The chief's name was not released.

Source: Press Telegram Long Beach - Link
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Thursday, April 19, 2012