Sprinklers limit Sheldon damage
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A Rutland City firefighter removes burned bedding from the Sheldon Towers fire. Below, Rutland City Fire Chief Robert Schlachter lets residents back into the Sheldon Towers after the fire on Saturday night. VYTO STARINSKAS / RUTLAND HERALD |
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By Josh O'Gorman Herald Staff - Published: November 24, 2008
A woman escaped serious injury in a fire at Sheldon Towers in Rutland that started when a cigarette she was smoking in bed came in contact with an oxygen tube she uses to breathe, according to fire officials.
Rutland Fire Department responded Saturday night to a bedroom fire at Sheldon Towers. Firefighters received the call at 9:39 p.m. and within two minutes responded to the 10-story tower, said Chief Robert Schlachter.
When firefighters arrived, they could see smoke pouring out of a seventh-story window, and because the elevators were not functioning, firefighters climbed the stairs to apartment 708, the source of the smoke.
Schlachter said firefighters forced the door open and found that while the room was filled with smoke, the building's sprinkler system had extinguished most of the fire. Schlachter said because the fire was mostly extinguished, he did not issue a mutual aid call to departments from other towns.
Schlachter said the tenant from 708 was not in the apartment when firefighters arrived, but they later located her in the hallway. Schlachter said she had suffered light burns and some singed hair, but she declined medical treatment Saturday night and again declined treatment Sunday.
Schlachter said the victim uses oxygen to breathe, and while lying in bed she removed her oxygen tube and left it resting on her chest because she wanted to smoke a cigarette. Schlachter said the lit cigarette came in contact with the oxygen tube, igniting it, the woman's dress and her bed.
The woman was able to remove her burning dress without inhaling the flames and exited the apartment, Schlachter said.
Firefighters threw the woman's bedding, including her mattress and box spring, out the seventh-story window as they extinguished the remaining blaze, then performed a room-by-room search of the building looking for anyone suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, Schlachter said.
While firefighters searched the apartments, a few of the tenants watched from outside while others waited in the ground-floor lobby. By 1 a.m., with the fire extinguished and everyone accounted for, the tenants were allowed to return to their apartments.
"She's the luckiest person around," Schlachter said of the victim. While it is unlikely the oxygen tank itself would explode — oxygen itself is not combustible, but does enhance combustion — the injuries and the damage to the building could have been much worse, he said. "Oxygen and smoking are not good things to have happening at the same time."
The fire has rendered two of the apartments temporarily uninhabitable, said George Sykes, emergency services director for the Central Vermont/New Hampshire Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Sykes said Red Cross caseworkers have found temporary shelter for two individuals from two different apartments. Sykes said it was his understanding that thanks to the building's sprinkler system, the damage was minimal and the tenants would be able to return to their apartments soon.
Schlachter agreed that the sprinkler system definitely minimized what could have been a far more dangerous and damaging event.
"This is a success story for the sprinkler system, the alarm system and the design of the building," he said. "This could have been much worse."
Contact Josh O'Gorman at josh.ogorman@rutlandherald.com.
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