A mother and her four children, including an infant, survived a basement fire in the Bronx Monday, authorities and witnesses said.
The family was trapped behind window bars and chicken wires inside their flat in a five-story building on Tiebout Ave. when the blaze started just after 5:15 p.m.
Sam Costanza/for New York Daily News
Firefighters (l-r) Jay Prete and Scott Doody of Truck 58 removed the family from the burning apartment.
A 4-month-old boy had to be rescued by firefighters and was listed in stable condition at St. Barnabas Hospital along with his three siblings and mom, firefighters said.
“People were screaming that there are people trapped in the basement,” recalled firefighter Jay Prete of Ladder 56. “I went inside and saw two people with a kid pressed up against the window.”
Firefighters used a saw to cut the bars and pry out the baby.
“We were just doing our job,” Prete said as some neighbors hailed the rescuers as heroes.
The family’s patriarch works as the building’s super and wasn’t in the apartment during the fire, a relative 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.
Sam Costanza/for New York Daily News
