Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 4, 1994 TAG: 9402040196
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Firefighters Allen Austin and Barry Simmons were among the first to arrive at the 1 a.m. blaze at Caru Apartments on Bennett Drive Northwest.
Flames were shooting from the doorway of the apartment where Hubert Wayne Haynes Sr. was sleeping. Other residents, including a pregnant woman, were jumping from the second story to escape the fire.
Haynes' wife jumped out a second-story window, too.
According to fire officials, Haynes, 54, had fallen asleep with a cigarette in his mouth and awoke to find his couch smoldering. He tried to push the couch out the front door, but it got lodged in the doorway.
The couch burst into flames, trapping him inside.
Simmons said he and Austin were riding on the back of Engine No. 9 when it pulled up in front of the apartments.
"There was more fire than there was smoke," Simmons said. "It had burned the door plumb out. The whole hall was on fire."
Simmons pulled a hose from the truck and headed toward the blaze. As he and Austin started up the steps, flames blocked them.
"It was as far as we could go without water," he said.
As they started dousing the flames, people hollered that some residents were still in the building. Haynes' wife told firefighters that her husband was still inside their apartment.
Simmons and Austin beat back the flames that had engulfed the door of the Hayneses' apartment and charred the doors of adjacent apartments. As the water hit the flames, heavy steam impeded their ability to see.
The two men crawled through the apartment on their hands and knees to search for Haynes. They felt around the couch to see if he was sitting there. They looked underneath the couch, but did not find him.
Austin finally found the burned man lying near the end of a bed and hollered for help to carry Haynes to safety.
Simmons said Austin and another firefighter grabbed Haynes and carried him toward the door, as Simmons doused the men with water to keep the flames away from their bodies.
While Austin and the other firefighter, whose name was not available, carried Haynes outside, Simmons finished extinguishing the blaze.
With a chill in the air, steam rose from Haynes' burns as he was lying on the ground. He was taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where he was diagnosed with third-degree burns on his face and second-degree burns on his hands.
He was in stable condition Thursday afternoon.
Simmons, a firefighter for six years, said it was the third time he has been involved in a rescue. He said the feeling is always the same.
"At the time, you don't think about it," he said. "You think about it later."
by CNB