By Bill Montgomery
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As the smoke and vapors choked a vacant one-story frame house in Atlanta’s Vine City on Thanksgiving night, firefighters pulled out. It was safe to let the structure burn.
Then they did a head count. A firefighter was missing.
The crew from Atlanta’s Station 16 on Simpson Road went back into the small structure at 260 Elm St., just north of Martin Luther King Drive, and began their search.
They brought out firefighter Steven Solomon, a 33-year-old married father of four who had joined the department just four months earlier.
Taken by ambulance to Grady Memorial Hospital’s burn unit, Solomon remained in critical condition Friday afternoon, with third-degree burns to his torso and legs, about 30 percent of his body.
No other firefighters were hurt in the blaze, and the cause is under investigation, Fire Capt. Byron Kennedy said.
Fire officials think the vapors inside the house flared. The temperature inside was around 1,100 degrees, Kennedy said.
“When vapors get to temperatures above 1,000 degrees, they can ignite, and instead of flames, it produces super-hot smoke. Our protective gear can withstand temperatures in excess of 1,000 degrees, but only for a few seconds,” Kennedy said. “I don’t know for how long he was exposed, but it was more than a few seconds.”
Solomon was a firefighter for six years with the Macon/Bibb County Fire Department before joining the Atlanta department.