EL MIRAGE, AZ – A Valley firefighter was battling an apartment fire Tuesday when the balcony on the second story collapsed.
In a quick second, a charred railing on the second story of the El Mirage complex breaks, causing the Sun City West battalion chief to fall backwards, his legs just catching on the ledge.
Thankfully, several firefighters below were able to use a ladder to get the chief down safely.
A Sun City West Fire Department spokesperson said he is back at work as of Wednesday and suffered no injuries in the incident.
Officials said two families were displaced due to the blaze, but no one was injured.
The fire apparently started on the first floor and spread to the second.
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.
