The roof collapsed on two firefighters in a house fire in St. Louis Thursday, killing one firefighter and gravely injuring a second firefighter.
The firefighters had entered a two-and-a-half story home on the 5900 Block of Cote Brilliante Avenue at about 12:45 with fire showing on both the first and second floors.
After a quick search, firefighters decided to exit the building because they were not able to knock down fire on the second floor. As they were backing out, the roof of the building collapsed and buried the two firefighters.
“We had one firefighter that was gravely injured when the building collapsed on him,” Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson told reporters about one of the firefighters who was killed. Chief Jenkerson said the firefighter “was trapped under a tremendous amount of debris until we dug him out.”
Chief Jenkerson said the second firefighter was injured from the initial collapse and while trying to rescue his colleague.
The two firefighters had to be extricated by a rapid intervention crew, which dug them out from under the debris from the collapse.
The fire is under investigation.
