PHOENIX — Firefighters believed a knocked-over candle started a fire that put a man in the hospital and killed a dog early Friday morning.
It happened at a home in the area of 13th Avenue and Sherman Street, which is north of Buckeye Road. Crews said it started in a makeshift shed behind the house. The room did not have any electricity.
Firefighters said there was quite a bit of stuff in the house to fuel the fire.
Four people, one of them in a wheelchair, were home when the fire started. A woman rescued the man in the wheelchair, pulling him from the burning home. He was taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
A second man reportedly fled the scene right after the fire started.
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.
