Seven young adults were inside a St. Paul home early Sunday when a fire started by a candle ripped through the second story, leaving one in critical condition, forcing two to crawl out a bedroom window and jump off the porch and four others to flee to safety.
Six people lived in the house at 1410 VanBuren Ave. in St. Paul, off of Snelling Avenue near I-94 and one friend was visiting to celebrate a housemate’s 21st birthday Saturday night, 22-year-old Jake Foster, one of the housemates, said Sunday morning.
Firefighers found a man, who housemates identified as Dan, unconscious inside the house as the fire was still raging. Dan is in critical condition at Regions Hospital, Fire Marshal Steve Zaccard said.
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.
