Two firefighters escaped without injury Wednesday morning after falling eight feet through a floor into a basement fire while responding to a residential structure fire.
Crews were dispatched at 6 a.m. Wednesday to a fire at Alcazar Street and Marquette Avenue, near Louisiana Boulevard. The building was a vacant structure that showed signs of human occupancy.
“There’s always a debate about searching vacant building . Even though there might be boarded-up structures, there’s always that risk and reward. If you take a look in any of those windows, people are staying in there. And so if we have a building that we can search, we’re going to do that every time. This is a reminder of what’s at stake when we do go inside these structures,” said Lt. Jason Fejer with Albuquerque Fire Rescue.
During the response, crews split up, with Engine 13 working on the first floor and Engine 5 operating in the basement. “There wasn’t much fire involvement here. The roof isn’t collapsed. This building is not burned through. It’s a small fire in the basement that got into the trusses and our guys fell through it,” Fejer said.
“We carry thermal imaging cameras and he could see the heat in the floor, which was about the time that the floor collapsed.”
The collapse triggered an immediate call: “Mayday, mayday, mayday, Engine 13 with a mayday, firefighters fell through the floor.”
KOAT-TV ABC 7 Albuquerque
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