Firefighter, two residents hurt in east-side house fire

One of the firefighters who dove through a bedroom window received an injury to his foot that later required surgery, fire officials said.

The unconscious man found collapsed in a hallway, near the area with the most intense flames, was transported with serious injuries to Harborview Burn Center in Seattle. The woman pulled from the bedroom on the brink of unconsciousness was taken to Alaska Regional Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, according to firefighters.

A third person at the home when the fire broke out escape unharmed.

None of those involved, including the firefighter, was named. Fire officials said the firefighter suffered a severed tendon.

The fire was reported at about 4:40 a.m., when a woman called 911 to say that the family had been awakened by smoke and flame and she was trapped in the house at 3434 E. 17th Ave. She wasn't sure where her father and grandmother were, and said she was in a back bedroom but couldn't open the door because of the smoke, police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker said.

Firefighters from Station 3 rushed to the scene to find the living room and kitchen of the single-story home fully engulfed in flames, with smoke turning from pure white to pitch black as the fire swelled, devouring the front end of the home.

"When we get told on the radio that people are trapped inside, and then when they come on and say the caller is on the phone screaming with our dispatch, I cannot describe to anybody how that feeling is for us responding to a fire," said Capt. Kevin Keene, who was one of the first on scene. "We had to react quick. ... With that much fire, it was just minutes away from having two people dead."

Keene and another fireman, whom officials would not name, followed the trapped woman's screams to a broken bedroom window. They dove through it and found her disoriented, pinned beneath a layer of hot, toxic smoke in a rear bedroom, he said. By Keene's estimation, she had mere minutes before the fire would sweep through the hall and light up the area.

Meanwhile, firefighters began battling the blaze from the interior, trying to stem its growth while victims and crew mates were still inside.

"The attack crews had to be very careful not to push that fire down the hall and onto us and onto the person in the bedroom," Keene said. "That has to be a very well- coordinated attack."

The firefighters pulled the woman out through the window and transported her to Alaska Regional Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. A test of the carbon monoxide in her system revealed she would have lost consciousness after about two more minutes inside, Keene said.

At some point in the woman's rescue, the other fireman cut the top of his foot on broken glass as he slid through a window, according to firefighters. He was released from the hospital later Tuesday after surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.

Firefighters found the second victim about seven feet inside the open front door, near the porch, where another occupant and the family dog were waiting safely after their escape. The spot he was in was near the area of the home that was fully engulfed, firefighters said.

It wasn't clear if he had been on his way out of the home or had headed in to get the other victim when he was overcome.

The man was taken to the hospital and later flown to the burn center in Seattle.

With everyone out, the attack crews could begin hitting the blaze aggressively from inside the home, Keene said. They snuffed it out in less than five minutes.

Deputy Fire Chief Michelle Weston described the home as uninhabitable after the blaze. The cause of the fire remained under investigation.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call 257-4589.