Rescue in Chicago

Chicago firefighters dragged an unconscious man to safety from a burning home in the North Side’s Andersonville neighborhood early this morning.

Firefighters responded to the fire in the 1600 block of West Foster Avenue shortly before 2 a.m. and were told someone trapped on the first floor, officials said.

Two of the first firefighters on the scene crawled through smoke to a first-floor bedroom, where they found a man unconscious, Battalion Chief James O’Donnell said. The firefighters pulled the man to a front porch and performed CPR, O’Donnell said.

The man regained consciousness on the way to an ambulance and was taken Weiss Memorial Hospital in fair-to-serious condition.

Residents of another unit in the building said the man’s screams were the first indication something was wrong. Madison Graham, who like her two roommates had been asleep when the fire started, praised the firefighters’ prompt response.

“I walked back to the front, trying to figure it out and was five seconds away from calling 9-1-1 when I heard the sirens and smelled the smoke,” said Graham, 26. “They showed up right on time. I just started to smell smoke and they were there.”

Graham and both her roommates left the building immediately and were not injured.

Before giving a brief interview across Foster from the fire, O’Donnell radioed Truck 12 and summoned the two firefighters who had brought the man to safety, asking them to stand next to him.

“They did an excellent job,” O’Donnell said. “As they always do.”

countyfiretactics

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.

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