FIRE GUTS 2nd FL OF LORAIN HOME

Lorain – A fire that broke out in the second floor of an East 36th Street home in Lorain caused approximately 35 to 40K dollars in damage Sunday night.

Emmanuel Detres was heading home from Church when he saw flames shooting from his neighbor’s second floor windows. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, there was so much fire coming out of the windows. I had my friends stop the car and I ran up to the house. I saw three cars in the driveway and no lights were on so I was thinking the worst – I thought there were still people inside so I started pounding on the front door yelling that the house was on fire.”

Detres then backed off when the smoke was getting too intense. It was then that he spotted the homeowner running towards the house. “I had to stop him because he was so upset and frantic, I was afraid of what he was going to do.”

The homeowner told Detres that he had just left the house a short time before to walk to the neighborhood grocery store to pick up a few things.

Assistant Chief Roy Cochran of the Lorain Fire Department said when Firefighters arrived they found heavy fire coming from the second floor – both sides. “Our crews went inside to do an interior attack but quickly found out that the stairwell leading up to the second floor had burned through and that they wouldn’t be able to continue that way so they backed out and we began a defensive attack. Then we were able to gain entry to the second floor through the upstairs windows and at that time we were able to knock down the fire.”

Cochran said that during the operation two Firefighters were injured. The first one was on the initial attack. “In that case he hit one of the first steps leading upstairs and it gave way and his foot went through the step. Then after the fire was knocked down and we were in overhaul mode, one of the guys was coming down from the second floor, stepped on steps that were further up, that they thought were good and fell through to the basement.”

The Firefighter was taken to Community Health Partners and Cochran said he believes that he will be fine.

Cochran said that between the second floor being destroyed and the damage to the roof, he estimates that the fire caused between 35 to 40K dollars in damages. He said that all of the contents were a total loss as well.

Art Mead Sr., Disaster Chairman of the American Red Cross, said that his agency would be assisting the family by putting up two adults in a motel and providing clothing and other essentials.

Standing and watching the Firefighters rolling up hoses and cleaning up, Detres said that he was just happy that nobody was injured. “This could have been so much worse, I am just glad that nobody was inside of the home at the time of the fire.”

PHOTO GALLERY