Monroe, CT - Working Fire (Fatal) on 12/8/13

[DaJollyVolley 6]

I was on the first in engine, on the nozzle for this incident yesterday. Unfortunately the occupant didn't make it, but there were no serious injuries to firefighters, no firefighters were hospitalized. The structure was near flashover conditions when evac tones were sounded.

Below from the Connecticut Post

"MONROE -- Smoke billowing from an Osborn Lane house fire Sunday morning was so intense that it drove firefighters back, at first.

Crawling under the soupy blackness, they eventually reached the homeowner, 72-year-old Frederick Rice, in a rear bedroom. Rice was temporarily revived outside the burning building, but died later in the day at Bridgeport Hospital.

Five others, a female occupant and four firefighters, were injured in the fire, which a neighbor said sounded like "a freight train" plowing through her nearby home.

What had begun as a kitchen grease fire "spread rapidly through the house," Fire Chief William Davinsaid. "The first firefighters in had to retreat because of the smoke, regroup and then go back before they could pull (Rice) out."

Three of the injured firefighters suffered minor burns in the rescue attempt, which was made more difficult when a ceiling collapsed over them. A fourth was hurt trying to enter the house through a rear window, when the deck he was on collapsed. Davin said none of the firefighters required hospitalization.

The woman was taken to St. Vincent's Medical Center, where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Officials said the fire began around 8:37 a.m. in the kitchen of the single-story, three-bedroom ranch home at 43 Osborn Lane, about a half-mile from theWhitney Farms Golf Course. The blaze quickly consumed everything in its path.

"It's a total loss," said Deputy Fire Marshal Chris Doyle. "It's gutted."

He estimated at least a $275,000 loss, and said, "The family's boarding it up. It's going to have to be demolished."

Doyle said a backyard propane tank did not explode, but did vent from a relief valve, causing the train-like noise.

Davin said he called the State Police for assistance in determining the cause. A member of the Bridgeport State's Attorney's Office also came to the scene.

At the height of the fire, 40 volunteer firefighters from the town's Monroe, Stephenson and Stepney departments, as well as White Hills in Shelton, were at the scene, according to Monroe firefighter Kevin Catalano. They arrived in five engines, two ladder trucks, a tanker and a rescue truck.

Newtown's Sandy Hook department and Trumbull's Long Hill firefighters covered for Monroe while the town's departments were battling the blaze.

"The first crew that got here took a beating," Catalano said. "They saw heavy, heavy smoke coming out of every window with a heavy volume of fire."

Beating the department to the scene was a local police officer, who made multiple attempts to get inside but, was driven back by the flames, smoke and heat, according to Doyle.

"He has to be commended for his efforts, " Doyle said.

Andrew Belotti, who lives across the street, said he ran to Rice's home to try to help a police officer who "knocked out" window air conditioners from two side rooms in an attempt to get in. When firefighters arrived, Belotti said, they entered through the front door "down low with the hoses. It must have been like an oven in there."

Natalie Somley, who lives two houses away, said Rice lived in the home with a longtime tenant and three dogs. Within the past six months, the tenant's parents arrived from Hawaii and moved in, Somley said.

Neighbors said the tenant wasn't home at the time of the fire, but his parents, along with the dogs, made it out safely. It was the tenant's mother who was taken to the St. Vincent's, neighbors said.

Somley said she welcomed the couple, along with two dogs and an elderly woman who lives next to Rice, into her home while firefighters battled the blaze.

"I gave the gentleman some of my husband's clothes," Somley said. "Now I'm trying to call theRed Cross to get them some help. They have nothing. They lost everything."

She remembered Rice as "a true neighbor."

"I lived on this street all my life, and he would do anything for anyone," Somley said.

Neighbors said Rice's wife died very young and he raised his children. More recently, they saw him walking with a cane."

Edited December 9, 2013 by DaJollyVolley