Firefighters rescued two unconscious young children from a house choked by smoke and flames and an adult was forced to leap from the second story shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday.
In all, six people were injured in the fire in the 1600 block of S. 22nd St.
The injured included the two rescued children and the adult, two other children who escaped on their own and a firefighter. All were taken to area hospitals. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
“They were rescued from one of the absolute worst areas they could have been in,” Deputy Chief Aaron Lipski said, referring to the two unconscious children. “They both suffered severe smoke inhalation.”
Lipski said firefighters had to train a hose on the flames while their colleagues rushed inside to save the two children. Both children were described as being in critical condition at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.
“I can’t describe how blistering hot that was,” Lipski said.
Names of the injured has not been released.
The fire, which was on the home’s first floor, caused an estimated $250,000 in damage
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.
