photo by Bruce Garner
For the second time in less than 24 hours, a woman has been pulled from a house fire. Shortly before 5 a.m. on Sunday, Chattanooga firefighters were dispatched to a reported house fire with entrapment at 2117 Windsor Street.
Several Chattanooga police officers were first on the scene. One resident was already outside, but he told the police officers that a woman was still inside.
The officers went in through the front door and searched a bedroom, but found no one. The smoke forced the officers to exit the building.
Chattanooga Fire companies began arriving on the scene, with Engine 4 getting there first. Captain David Brooks, the incident commander, said they entered the smoke-filled house through the front door to conduct a search for the woman. Using a thermal imaging camera, Firefighter George Johnson found an unconscious woman on the floor, about eight feet from a side exit door. Firefighter Johnson was assisted by several others in carrying the woman out of the house. The firefighters immediately began administering CPR on the woman and then handed her off to paramedics with Hamilton County EMS, who then rushed her to Erlanger Medical Center. The woman was expected to be transported later Sunday morning to the burn unit at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville.
As additional fire companies arrived on the scene, the fire was located in the kitchen and quickly extinguished. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
On Saturday afternoon, several Chattanooga police officers pulled a woman from a house fire at 2001 Hardy Street. Battalion Chief Chris Willmore said the 79-year-old woman did not appear to be seriously injured, but she was transported to Memorial Hospital as a precaution.