Atlanta firefighters pulled a man from the window of a burning boarding house early Friday just moments before the victim’s room was consumed by flames.
The blaze broke out before 6:30 a.m. at a boarding house in the 1400 block of Jonesboro Road in the Lakewood Heights area of southeast Atlanta.
“As our companies arrived, they started getting reports from the residents who had already escaped that we had people still trapped in the residence,” Atlanta fire Battalion Chief Todd Edwards told the AJC.
Atlanta fire Capt. James Dycus said that as he did an initial walk around the house, he heard cries for help coming from a window.
“He was behind the air conditioner unit, hollering, ‘I need help, I need help,’” Dycus said. “We knew we could get him out the window if we went to him right then.”
Firefighters Rusty Glenn and Thomas Young grabbed a ladder and headed to rescue the man.
“I got the ladder in place, got in there, broke the glass, pulled the A/C unit out and he was right there,” said Glenn. “He was waiting. He was clawing and scratching and I told him to hold on and stand still.”
Glenn said the man weighed about 240 pounds, but at 6 foot, 6 inches tall and 282 pounds himself, Glenn was able to pull the man from the window and carry him down the ladder.
“This is my first real, live save,” said Glenn, who has been with the department for nearly 12 years.
The victim, whose name has not been released, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation and other minor injuries.
“I told the guy, you did the smart thing, going to the window,” said Young, who helped Glenn get the man out of the burning building. “Even if there wasn’t a ladder there, you can still get out, one way or the other. It’s better than going through the fire.”
Edwards said his crew reached the man just in the nick of time.
“The fire had made it to that room, so we got him out just in time before the fire consumed that room,” Edwards said.
He said that the rest of the six to eight people living in the boarding house were able to make it out safely before fire crews arrived.
Edwards said the blaze, which was possibly a cooking fire that got out of hand, damaged about 80 percent of the structure.
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