The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
911 calls describe possible origin of Meriden house fire that critically injured teen
MERIDEN — A weekend fire that injured four firefighters, heavily damaged a house and left a teenaged boy in critical condition appears to have been an accident, the lead investigator said Monday.
Dennis Campbell, Meriden’s deputy fire marshal, said the Saturday afternoon fire appears to have started on a back porch. Investigators are still trying to determine the exact cause.
“At this point, we do not believe any criminal activity is involved,” Meriden Fire Marshal John Yacovino said Monday afternoon.
Several passersby reported the fire in the 1000 block of Broad Street about 4 p.m. Saturday. Four 911 calls, which Meriden released on Monday, indicate the cause may have been an untended grill.
In the first call, the caller told a dispatcher, “There’s a grill on the side of the house that’s on fire.”
“The building’s on fire,” she added. “Flames, black smoke, it’s coming off of the garage, it looks like.”
The second caller also mentioned a grill that appeared to be on fire.
The injured teen remained in critical condition at the Jacobi Medical Center in Bronx, N.Y., Campbell said.
Two people watching television on the second floor did not realize their house was on fire until two plumbers busted the locked front door with a pipe wrench, climbed the stairs and told them to get out, one of the workers said.
Describing the fourth 911
“It’s blazing.”
“They’re trying to kick down the house door now to see if people are coming out,” she said before reporting, “two young kids” have exited the home.
“But I think there might be people still in the house,” she said.
The plumbers learned a teenager was on the third floor. One of the men went upstairs and tried to get the boy, but the flames were spreading too quickly the scene, caller said, and he had to get out of the house, the plumber said.
“That’s what alerted the people in the house,” Campbell said. “There were several bystanders who not only called 911, but also took action that mostly likely resulted in saving lives.”
The firefighters also did “a phenomenal job,” Campbell said. They had to use a ground ladder to rescue the semi-conscious teen, Campbell said, because conditions inside the burning house were “untenable.”
The house is old and the flames traveled fast. The boy being on the third floor made the rescue that much harder, he said. Fire blocked the stairs and sent smoke straight up. Smoke also “was banking down very heavily on the side of the house.”
“The firefighters also made tremendous efforts to get in there quickly and to make a very difficult rescue,” Campbell said.
Four firefighters had to be taken to the hospital for issues ranging from burns to smoke inhalation, he said. They were treated and released, and the amount of time on the job they missed was “minimal.”
Smoke detectors in the house were working, he said, but they may not have been triggered as soon as the fire started because the blaze seems to have started outside.
The state police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit is helping with the investigation, Campbell said.