6 FIREFIGHTERS INJURED IN COVINGTON

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 11, 1993                   TAG: 9304110138
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: COVINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
6 FIREFIGHTERS INJURED IN COVINGTON
Six firefighters were injured Friday night while battling a blaze at a Covington office building that the city's fire chief described as "something like you'd see in a movie."
The two most seriously injured firefighters suffered second-degree burns; others suffered lesser burns and smoke inhalation. All were treated at a local hospital and soon released, said Fire Chief Roscoe Humphries.
The three-story R.C. Woods Professional Building was gutted in the blaze, which investigators say probably started in the wiring. Humphries put the loss at about $225,000.
About six small businesses were located in the building, Humphries said.
Most of the injuries occurred when firefighters were taking a firehose down a hallway inside the building. The men were 15 feet down the hallway, Humphries said, when flames inside the false ceiling overhead broke through.
Finding a fresh source of oxygen in the hallway, the flames "basically exploded," Humphries said, in what firefighters term a "flashover."
Three firefighters in the hallway were burned; a fourth suffered smoke inhalation. The other two firefighters injured suffered smoke inhalation while fighting other parts of the blaze.
"We were very, very lucky it wasn't worse than it was," Humphries said. When the fire broke through the ceiling, "it just took off. Stuff like that you see in the movies, but you think will never happen."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB