Mich. firefighters recall 'haunting' balcony rescue

By Lynn Turner
Kalamazoo Gazette (Michigan)

OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The glow and smoke in a still-dark sky forewarned Oshtemo Township firefighters Matt Carlson and Grant Gelling that the second-floor fire early Saturday at Nottingham Place Apartments was going to be big.

Bryin Cooper, 22, an emergency-medical technician with Life EMS, was already at the scene, directing two men out of a second-floor apartment. Flames were shooting through the roof.

"You could hear the screams of people trapped on the (third-floor) balcony," said Gelling, 20, as he and Carlson rolled up in the fire engine to the burning building, which comprised 12 apartments. "It was haunting."

Recognizing Cooper, who is also a firefighter for the South Kalamazoo County Fire Authority and Pavilion Township, Carlson yelled for him to help them set up a 28-foot extension ladder to reach the people on the balcony.

"The No. 1 priority is rescue," said Carlson, 28, who has been with the township fire department for three years. "Your training just kicks in."

Gelling climbed up. He had seen two adults on the balcony. He was surprised to also see two small children.

The mother handed him a little girl, maybe 3 or 4 years old. He took her down the steps and handed her off to Cooper, who passed her to his partner. Then Gelling retrieved a young boy, about the same age.

"They were screaming and crying," he said of the children. "Luckily, they just let me carry them down. They didn't fight me."

Fire and smoke from the other side of the building rolled over to the side where the people stood on the balcony. Flames began to lap at the windows near them.

Carlson ran back to the fire truck and turned on the hose called the deck gun. He directed the spray at the flames to create a barrier between the people and flame "to buy them some time," he said.

The truck, however, carries only 750 gallons of water and the deck gun sprays 500 gallons a minute. It quickly ran out.

Gelling headed up the ladder for the third time. The woman carried a small dog with her.

The fourth person on the balcony, a man, scrambled to retrieve a second dog. Gelling told him to drop the pet to Cooper, who caught it.

All were shaken but fine.

"Heroes? They should be recognized as such, I think," interim Oshtemo Fire Chief Paul "Tobey" Karnemaat said. "There shouldn't be a firefighter who looks for recognition — that's not why we do this job. But every once in a while they need to be recognized that they did the right thing at a critical time, and because of it there are four people alive today."

The three men, sitting in the department's break room on Tuesday afternoon, demurred when asked if they thought they were heroes.

"It was a team effort," said Gelling, who became a firefighter in July and is studying fire science at Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

Cooper agreed.

"This is stuff we like to do. Want to do," he said. "It's not for the money."

Cooper was wearing an EMT uniform that night instead of protective gear, but he's been a firefighter for three years and is also studying fire science at KVCC.

"It was a risk, but one I was willing to take," he said. "Even if I had been injured, it would have been worth it to save four people."

The Greater Kalamazoo Area Chapter of the Red Cross helped 35 residents that night who were burned out of their homes, spokeswoman Vicki Eichstaedt said. Three were away at the time of the fire.

All have been offered new apartments within Nottingham, she said.

Eight-foot-tall fencing surrounds the burned-out building. Parts of the roof sit in third-floor living rooms. An orange T-shirt hanging in a closet can be viewed from a hole in the building's brick front.

A representative of the complex said officials there had no comment.

"They did the right thing at a critical time, and because of it there are four people alive today."