Ladder Rescue in Pittsburgh, PA

PITTSBURGH —When firefighters arrived at a burning home Wednesday in Pittsburgh’s West End, they found a woman trapped on the roof of a porch.

“Days like this, it makes you proud to be a firefighter,” Acting Chief Dino Abbott said.

The fire started around 8:30 a.m. at Carol Dobrowolski’s home. She said her alarm company called her, and she tried but was unable to reach her daughter by phone.

When Dobrowolski arrived at the scene, her daughter had already been taken to a hospital with smoke inhalation and firefighters were treating Molly, her 15-year-old Chihuahua.

“They gave her oxygen and everything, and as soon as she (the dog) saw me, she knew me,” Dobrowolski said.

Firefighters rescued Dobrowolski’s daughter by using ladders to climb to the porch roof when the woman couldn’t make it down on her own.

“It seems like everybody just steps it up a little faster because you know those precious minutes matter,” Abbott said.

Firefighters found the dog not moving on the second floor of the house.

“Seems like she followed the owner’s daughter, and the firefighters were able to get the dog out,” Abbott said. “They put it on oxygen, and the medics think it’ll make a full recovery.”

Dobrowolski said she can’t thank firefighters, medics and police enough.

“They’re great, they are great. They saved both my babies,” she said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

About Author

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.

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