Thursday November 19th, 2009
At the general membership meeting of Boston Firefighters Local 718 a “vote of Confidence in the Leadership of Local 718” was made and passed unanimously by the membership.
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Hero jakes rescue teen from Dorchester fire
A 14-year-old girl is in a hospital oxygen chamber fighting for her life today after two courageous firefighters got under the smoke on their hands and knees and pulled her from a blazing Dorchester home yesterday.
“I’m concerned about my kid!” said the girl’s frantic mom moments after she left her Evans Street home on the way to the hospital.
Boston fire Deputy Chief Joseph Fleming said the victim and her brother were in the care of a babysitter when the two-alarm blaze sparked at about 4:30 p.m. The fire erupted in the home’s basement and the girl fell unconscious, fire officials said.
Boston Fire spokesman Steve MacDonald said the cause of the fire was an electrical short-circuit and that it was unrelated to a small leak in the street in front of the house that gas inspectors had scheduled for repairs.
Firefighters from Engine 16 were nearby and arrived soon after the blaze started. Fleming said two people near the entrance of the building told responding jakes a girl was trapped inside.
Lt. Michael Sameski and firefighter Michael Ahern put on their masks and dropped to their hands and knees to crawl through intense heat and thick black smoke.
Sameski said he couldn’t see, but he swept the floor in front of him with his outstretched hand until he touched the girl’s leg. He said she was passed out in the hallway.
“The girl was located closer to the rear of the building, down the hall,” Sameski said. “She was not conscious. She was not responding to anything.”
Sameski picked her up, put his respirator mask on her face as best it could fit and raced from the house to across the street. He and Ahern took turns performing CPR on the girl until her pulse and breathing returned.
The girl was taken to the Norman Knight Hyperbaric Medicine Center at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, where she is in critical condition.
Of the exterior gas leak, which fire officials said was unrelated, National Grid spokeswoman Jackie Barry said technicians were called to the address Nov. 9 and scheduled a repair. “It is a very minor leak. If there is any risk of any damage, we fix it immediately,” she said.
Watch news report...
http://wbztv.com/local/dorchester.fire.girl.2.1309268.html
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