Senior Firefighter Dan Peterson and Firefighter Chad Williams spoke with reporters about the October 7th house fire at which they and another Chattanooga (TN) firefighter were injured.
A report on chattanoogan.com (http://bit.ly/19YiVR6) indicated that the men had burns clearly visible on their necks and ears, and their hands and arms were covered in bandages.
Peterson and Williams were with more than a dozen firefighters who responded to the fire, but they were among the first to go in. As they searched the house for victims, they made their way toward the rear of the structure. The thick, black smoke reduced the visibility to zero.
When they entered a hallway in the back of the house, Peterson said it “got real hot, real fast.”
Williams said he knew he was in trouble when his hands and arms began stinging intensely from the extreme heat. They decided to back out as quickly as they could, assisted by other firefighters who had entered the building.
A third firefighter, Captain Dean Rogers, who was right behind the pair when they got burned, also suffered burns, though not as badly as Peterson and Williams.
The two will be off duty for weeks to recover from their burns, making regular visits to a Nashville burn clinic.
Read further details about the incident at http://bit.ly/19YiVR6.
For more on firefighter survival, consider How We Got Burned : Lessons Learned from a Wind-Driven Dwelling Fire and SURVIVAL TRAINING IN THE FLASHOVER SIMULATOR.
