LOGAN, Utah, Sept. 17, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — A bedridden, elderly woman in Logan was rescued by her daughter and a bystander Saturday afternoon after a kitchen fire filled her apartment with heavy smoke.
The call came in to the Logan City Fire Department at about 2:30 p.m., Assistant Chief Brady Hansen told Gephardt Daily. The elderly woman shared the apartment, at 769 Riverwalk Parkway, with her grown daughter.
When a grease fire began on the stove and spread to nearby cabinetry, the daughter tried to put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher.
Unable to stop the fire, the younger woman ran out of the apartment to look for help. The older woman was trapped in her bedroom, unable to get herself out, as the unit filled with dark smoke.
“I arrived first, as these two people were bringing an elderly female out of a window,” Hansen said. “They ran in to get the woman, but the smoke was very heavy, and they couldn’t get back out the same way.”
Four of the complex’s 12 apartments were evacuated. The apartment directly above the one where the fire originated had also filled with dark smoke.
“The resident in the apartment above was in a wheelchair, and could not evacuate herself,” Hansen said. “We were able to get her out, and we took both women to the hospital to get checked for smoke inhalation.
“We are so grateful to the good Samaritan who jumped in and was able to help to get the first woman out so we could focus on the second woman.”
Hansen said the daughter’s attempt to put out the kitchen fire with an extinguisher probably bought firefighters some time by slowing the fire’s progression. The fire was knocked down by firefighters pretty quickly, Hansen said.
Once the smoke cleared, the good Samaritan was nowhere to be found, Hansen said. But without the fire extinguisher and the help of a bystander, the outcome could have been far more tragic, he said.
