People woke up to screams for help in Fountain Wednesday morning. A fire and heavy smoke trapped three people inside of an apartment complex.
They were rescued by Fountain firefighters and treated for smoke inhalation. It all started because of a heating pad.
“I kept hearing ‘help me, help me.’ I said, somebody is screaming for help so I came in here got the phone, called the police department,” said Shirley Archuleta, who was saved from the fire.
“The whole thing was in flames. It was pretty crazy,” said Alanea Vandivner, a neighbor who rushed outside to help.
Three people were trapped inside Fountain View Apartments.
If the Fountain Fire Station wasn’t just around the corner, it could have ended much differently.
“We had firefighter start rescuing people and another crew go and start knocking the fire down. Had this been in a different location in the city where we don’t have fire stations, the outcome could have been much worse,” said Fountain Fire Chief, Darin Anstine.
During the rescue the ceiling collapsed on a fire fighter. He was quickly pulled out and is doing okay.
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.
