By Cathryn Stout
The Commercial Appeal
ROSSVILLE, Tenn. — Christopher Rounsefell keeps his fire department turnout uniform in his car so he can respond quickly during emergencies.
Sunday night, that preparedness and a fearless resolve helped the Rossville volunteer firefighter rescue two elderly women trapped in a house fire. No one was injured, but a 97-year-old woman was transported to Methodist Fayette Hospital for observation.
Around 10:30, Rounsefell was driving through downtown Rossville to visit his girlfriend when he noticed flames darting from the second floor of a house.
The 21-year-old jumped into his turnout gear and rushed inside the burning house at 250 Main. Cowering in a smoke-filled first floor den were Rosa Anderson, 97, on a hospital bed with her daughter, Jenny Anderson, 64, by her side.
The daughter was able to walk out safely once Rounsefell arrived. But the elder Anderson, a stroke survivor who usually uses a walker, needed assistance.
The three-year firefighting veteran said he knelt down and calmly commanded, “OK, I’m going to have to get you out of the house, but I need your help. You’re going to have to hold on to my neck.”
Rounsefell, who is about 5-foot- 9 and 170 pounds, described Rosa Anderson as a petite woman of about “95 to 100 pounds.” In addition to carrying her fragile frame, the conditions inside the burning house made the rescue difficult, he said.
“Smoke is starting to burn my eyes. I’m tearing up. I have smoke all in my face,” he recalled. “It was my first time actually carrying somebody out of a house.”
Rounsefell was determined to save the elderly woman, said neighbor Brian Baird.
Baird rushed from his home across the street after seeing the commotion.
“The fact that he was able to get all of his stuff on and get in that house and rescue the woman, that’s a miracle,” said Baird.
“It kind of harkens back to what some people have in their minds of the communities of yesteryear. We watch out for each other,” added Baird.
Just after Baird dashed out to help, backup arrived.
Ten trucks and 29 volunteers from the Rossville, Moscow and Piperton fire departments responded, said Rossville Fire Chief Sammy DeVore.
Crews worked until 7 a.m. Monday morning dousing lingering hotspots.
They were able to contain the fire to one house, said DeVore, but the wooden balloon-frame structure was unsalvageable.
At her mother’s bedside in a Somerville hospital Monday afternoon, Jenny Anderson inventoried the loss. “All the Christmas presents under the tree, that’s gone. All the crystal and the china, Mother’s wedding pictures ...,” she said.
Early Sunday night, the daughter recalled a space heater “hot, smelling like gas” triggering the smoke detector. However, when she didn’t see a fire and the alarm kepteep beeping, Anderson said she removed the batteries from the detector.
Fayette County commissioners recently passed an ordinance requiring builders to install automatic fire-safety sprinklers in homes constructed in the rural county. But the measure is not retroactive and has little bearing on existing neighborhoods like Rossville’s historic district.
Anderson said her mother lived in the white house on Main Street for 92 years. It was originally built as a one-story boarding house for school teachers, said Anderson, but her family expanded it to two stories decades ago.
Anderson doubts they will rebuild.
The duo were looking forward to soon hosting a festive family dinner at the historic Rossville home. Now they will probably celebrate that special occasion with relatives in nearby Moscow, Tenn.
It seems Rosa Anderson, who also survived a stroke five years ago, turns 98 the day after Christmas.
Copyright 2007 The Commercial Appeal, Inc.