METHUEN — A two-alarm fire on Spruce Street early yesterday morning sent a woman and her baby to the hospital and left their family of three homeless.
Fire officials said the woman and her 13-month-old baby were taken to Holy Family Hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation after they and the woman’s husband were rescued from a porch roof at 20 Spruce St. just after 1 a.m. yesterday. The man was not treated.
“It looks like it started outside on the porch,” he said. “It went up the wall and to the roof.”
The heaviest damage happened to the exterior wall around the side porch and to the roof. The interior had smoke and water damage as well, Hamel said.
Firefighters spotted the family on the roof of one of the porches, nearly hidden by the heavy smoke, Hamel and Deputy Fire Chief Dennis Fragala said.
“They had come out of a window. The crew threw up a ladder and brought them down. They were pretty much invisible in the smoke,” Hamel said.
Curt Isakson is a 35 year veteran of the fire service. Curt is currently a Battalion Chief for Escambia County Fire Rescue. Previously worked 9 years with the Pensacola Fire Department where he was assigned as the Company Officer on Rescue 31. Curt’s fire service experiences started at a young age as a Junior firefighter with the Midway Fire Protection District and rose through the ranks to Captain. He has worked in volunteer, career, and combination departments.
Curt has held all ranks up to Battalion Chief and been assigned to operations, training, inspections, and was Chief of Special Operations for 7 years. Curt owns and operates County Fire Tactics that covers a very diverse range of fire service topics, as well as Firefighter Rescues, a site that documents rescues made by firefighters around the country.
He has annual contracts with numerous departments to provide standardized monthly training for these departments that respond daily together under an automatic aid agreement. Curt teaches nationally to include; FDIC, Firehouse Expo, Firehouse World, Orlando Fire Conference, Atlanta Fire Conference, Bowling Green State University, and owns/operates the annual HROC, COBC, WOTF, CFT ODP on Pensacola Beach. He is a Florida Certified Fire Officer, Instructor, Inspector, Arson, and FLUSAR.
