Retired UFC fighter touts value of smoke alarms after almost-deadly blaze
About a month after he nearly died in a house fire, retired mixed martial arts fighter and professional wrestler Mark Coleman met with Columbus Division of Fire Chief Jeffery Happ to discuss the importance of working smoke detectors.
Coleman and Happ met as opposing high school wrestlers at the Ohio state wrestling championships in 1983. The pair were both undefeated; Coleman won the match, and the two have remained friends ever since.
Earlier this year, on March 12, Coleman was at his parents’ house in Fremont in northwest Ohio when his dog jolted him awake as he slept in his childhood bedroom. It was hot in the house, but Coleman brushed it off until he went to the kitchen to find clouds of smoke. When he grabbed the doorknob to open the back door to look outside, it was so hot it caused seconddegree burns on his hand.
Coleman rushed to wake his parents and left the house, but returned inside after his mother failed to get out on her own. He led her to safety and returned to the house to try to rescue his dog, Hammer, from under the bed.
The smoke wasn’t as bad down on the floor as Coleman felt for Hammer under the bed, giving him a false sense of security.
“I had been in there probably five, 10 minutes, I don’t know. It seemed like forever, but I sat up and the smoke hit me hard,” Coleman said. “I realized that I gotta go now.”
Coleman nearly collapsed when he stood up, but he made it out the door. He initially declined medical assistance before smoke inhalation overtook him and he was taken by medical helicopter to a Toledo hospital. He spent five days in the hospital, three of those days unconscious on a ventilator.
“What a great moment that was, to wake up,” Coleman said. “Everybody did a good job with me.”
Coleman’s parents were unharmed. Hammer, who likely saved his family’s life when he woke Coleman, was found dead from smoke inhalation under the bed.
Coleman is lucky to survive
Happ said Coleman was lucky to survive. A smoke alarm could’ve alerted him to the fire much earlier, allowing his family to exit safely before the smoke reached dangerous levels.
“He probably could’ve put the fire out if he had that early warning,” Happ said.
Three out of five fire deaths occur in homes without working fire detectors, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
Happ said the superheated smoke that results from house fires can be more dangerous than the flames.
“I can’t imagine what he was feeling with the intensity of the fire,” Happ said. “Most of our victims are (suffering from) smoke inhalation. That’s what knocks you down first.”
How to get free smoke detectors from Columbus Division of Fire
The Columbus Division of Fire provides free smoke detectors and installation through its hotline at 614-724-0935. bagallion@dispatch.com