ALAMEDA (CBS SF) — Firefighters rescued a resident who was later taken into custody from the balcony of a burning apartment building in Alameda Wednesday morning, according to a fire chief.
The fire had been burning for over an hour at a four-unit two-story apartment building located in the 3200 block of Briggs Avenue near Lincoln Park, Alameda fire Chief D’Orazi said.
The man rescued from his second-story balcony was in custody and being questioned by police.
Some tenants said the man intentionally set the fire after several days of odd behavior–including at 24-hour at the county psychiatric ward on Sunday and flooding his apartment on Friday.
“I just woke up to smoke and then I heard the window break out and that’s when I knew the house was on fire,” Twila Kennedy, who lost everything she owns and lives next door to the man, said.
“I suspected that he would do something like this after the flood.”
One firefighter was taken to the hospital for heat exhaustion.
Firefighters are continuing to put out the fire but the four-unit building is already considered a total loss.
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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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