WORTHINGTON -- Thanks to the efforts of some people visiting next door, a tenant in an apartment on Humiston Avenue escaped a fire with only some effects from smoke inhalation.
The blaze was reported at 6:20 p.m. Friday at 813 Humiston Ave., and was actually in the back apartment, 813 ½, according to Worthington Fire Chief Rick von Holdt. Some visitors next door -- one may have been a firefighter, said von Holdt -- noted smoke coming from the residence and realized that the smoke was not coming from a grill, as was first thought.
“They actually went over and got the person out of the house” and then alerted a passerby to call 911, von Holdt explained. “It appears it was a cooking fire, and that person fell asleep. … Law enforcement personnel on the scene did page an ambulance for this person, and he did get treated for smoke inhalation, I believe.”
The fire caused extensive damage to the apartment kitchen, but should be able to be fixed, according to von Holdt.
Initially, firefighters were on the scene for about an hour, but were dispatched again shortly after 8 p.m. when smoke was spotted coming out of the attic.
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“The second time we had to open up the roof, put a couple holes in there so we could get at it,” said von Holdt. “There was a ventilation for the dryer that went outside, and the fire followed that up for the air, and it went up the side of the two story house -- the front is a two-story, the back is a single story -- and so we opened that up and ventilated. … By the time we opened the ceiling up, there were some flames there. We were probably on scene again for half an hour.”
von Holdt credited the awareness of the people next door for getting the tenant out of the apartment safely.
“There were a couple of guys who were instrumental in this, who thought, ‘That doesn’t smell like someone grilling,’ and made them look closer,” he said.
