Rescue in San Jose

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) — A victim of a mobile home fire in North San Jose Thursday morning was transported unconscious to a hospital and a firefighter also suffered minor injuries battling the blaze, a fire captain said.

San Jose firefighters received a call at 11:01 a.m. about the fire at 417 Los Encinos Ave. in a mobile home park located east of North First Street, according to fire Capt. Cleo Doss.

Fire crews pulled the unidentified woman and a dog out of the burning residence and knocked the blaze down at 11:17 a.m., Doss said.

Emergency responders performed CPR on the woman, who was unconscious when taken by ambulance to a hospital, Doss said. She was reported to be in critical condition.

A firefighter suffered minor injuries and was also transported to a hospital, according to Doss.

Battalion Chief Ken McCarthy said two dogs went missing as a result of the fire. One of the dogs was found inside and had CPR performed on it before being transported to an emergency veterinary clinic.

When asked how firefighters perform CPR on a dog, McCarthy explained, “They issued a special mask about two years ago just for dogs. It’s a muzzle-shaped mask where we’re able to breathe for them and then just do normal CPR.”

The masks were a gift from a private donor for the fire department.

McCarthy said it’s fairly unusual that the masks get used. He’s only seen it in action a handful of times, but on the bright side, “The dog was breathing and staring to kick a little bit en route.”

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.

See author's posts