Firefighters had to battle through piles of clutter to rescue an elderly man from a fire at this Bronx home Wednesday, officials said.
The Bravest were finally able to pull Theodore Washington, 86, from his third-floor apartment on E. 162nd St. about 6 a.m., neighbors said.
Emergency responders rushed to perform CPR on Washington as he lay unconscious in the street, witnesses said. He was rushed to Lincoln Medical Center in critical condition.
Servon Vonnie Green, 25, who lives above Washington, said the victim had been living alone after his wife broke her hip and moved into an assisted-living facility six months ago.
“I woke up and I smelled smoke. People were knocking on doors, buzzing the alarm and yelling ‘Fire!'” said Green, who has lived in the 10-unit co-op her entire life. “I ran downstairs, right by Mr. Washington’s apartment. I saw firefighters trying to break down his door. But they were having trouble. There were like four or five locks … They were also trying to go through the window. They finally got him through the window and put him in the bucket.
“It took like 20 minutes for them to get him. He was a hoarder. I think all of the stuff made it harder.”
“I didn’t know what to do. I grabbed the baby, covered my mouth with my shirt and ran downstairs,” he said, referring to his 2-year-old granddaughter, Mariah Jean-Francois.
“My wife couldn’t get down the stairs because her knees were bad. She went into the bathroom,” Jean-Francois said. “When I got outside, firefighters were already there. I said, ‘There’s someone upstairs.’ They ran up and got her.”
Assistant Fire Chief Joseph Pfiefer said the fire started on the first floor of the four-unit building, but its cause was not immediately clear. The rescued woman, Elise Mathadore, and two firefighters suffered minor injuries in the blaze.
“I was worried, but I was okay,” Mathadore said, recounting her wait for help in the burning building. “The firefighters came to get me.”
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.
