Quick response resulted in rescue of seven people, three of them unconscious
By Anthony Cardinale
Buffalo News
Copyright 2006 The Buffalo News
All Rights Reserved
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Keisha Croom, 18, walked into Engine 26 in Riverside on Monday evening and thanked the firefighters who rescued her family from their burning apartment in Shaffer Village last Tuesday.
“You’re looking a lot better than last time we saw you,” said 7th Battalion Chief Michael Swanekamp, as he offered chairs to her and her 23-month-old son, Antonio Watts Jr.
The toddler started to cry, but the firefighters brought out pizza, and his mother broke up a slice into little pieces for him to eat.
“It’s awesome to see them alive,” said Firefighter James Gatta of Ladder 13, who had arrived at the apartment on Ontario Street in time to take Antonio from the hands of Capt. Stephen Keohane of Engine 26 in the smoke-filled second-floor bedroom.
Monday night, Gatta picked up the toddler and walked around the fire hall with him.
Asked about her 10-month-old daughter, Lanaysia Watts, whom Keohane carried from the bed room, Croom said: “They took her off the respirator today. . . . She should come home this week.”
Both children were unresponsive and not breathing, and their mother was in severe respiratory distress when she was rescued by Lt. Daniel O’Leary of Ladder 13 and Firefighter Alex Funderburk of Engine 19.
Croom’s little brother, Ruben Smith, 4, escaped with their mother, Lynne Smith, while Croom’s two other siblings, Ashanti Smith, 12, and Donzhae Smith-Howard, 11, jumped from a second-story window to the grass below.
“I’m glad it worked out,” Smith said when she arrived at the fire station a few minutes later with Donzhae. “I didn’t know who was where, because they always sleep in each other’s rooms. The kitchen was on fire and there was smoke all over the place.”
Fire Investigator Kevin Lozano presented the family $750 that members of Firefighters Local 282 had donated over the past week.
Senior Investigator Edwin Ortiz said the cause of the fire, which began near a window in the kitchen, is still under investigation.
He did not rule out arson and asked that anyone with information on the fire call the Fire Marshal’s Office, 851-4515.
“God is great,” said Fire Commissioner Michael S. Lombardo, “but if it weren’t for these guys, they would be dead.
“Here we had seven people in a burning house, three of them unconscious. We got the call at 4:03 in the morning, and at 4:06 our first units were on the location. By 4:11 all three of the people who were unconscious were out of the building. That’s spectacular. Thirty firefighters were dispatched.”
“We’re a big, old wooden city, with houses close together,” he said. “Our guys really know what they’re doing.”