By Rosanna Ruiz
Houston Chronicle
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HOUSTON — Unable to make his way out of a burning building and with his oxygen tank empty, Houston fire Capt. Eric Abbt seemed to be out of options. If he was going to die, he would do it by the book.
The 40-year-old wanted to spare his family the added grief that he was somehow to blame for his own death. He lay prone on the fifth floor of the North Loop building near the two victims he had discovered. Firefighters would have a better chance of recovering all of them if they were together.
But moments later, and still conscious, Abbt realized he might be able to survive. He repeatedly beckoned on his radio for help between gasps for air. He told those listening, including his wife, Melinda Menchaca, who is also a Houston firefighter, that he was on the fifth floor near a window.
Firefighters on the ladder truck below began to break out the windows in their search for their fallen captain. When that proved too slow, they used the ladder as a battering ram.
Once the ladder was close, Abbt leaped from the window, his legs hanging precariously off the end of the ladder. He was saved.
Almost six months after the March 28 fire, Abbt suffers from flashbacks and has trouble sleeping. Locked doors and the dark of night sometimes send him into a tailspin. The 15-year Houston Fire Department veteran also can’t seem to shake the feeling that he gave the department a black eye.
The recent release of a 24-page HFD report faulted him for failing to maintain “crew integrity” after Abbt separated from the two firefighters with him and got lost in the pitch-black smoke inside the building.
“We try to keep crews together,” Abbt explained in an exclusive interview, “except in a life-or-death situation when you do what you have to do.”
Abbt, who was not disciplined, said he felt compelled to speak publicly because of the criticism. The message sent by the report seems to be that Houston firefighters should not act aggressively when it comes to trapped victims, he said.
Rick Flanagan, executive assistant fire chief, said neither he nor other department officials will comment until the conclusion of lawsuits filed on behalf of the three fire victims. The civil suits were filed against the building owner and the woman accused of setting the fire. The city of Houston is not named in those suits.
Jeanette Hargrove, 52, of Friendswood; Marvin Wells Sr., 46, and Shana Ellis, 38, both of Houston, died in the blaze. Misty Ann Weaver, who worked at the building for a cosmetic surgeon, admitted to setting the fire to delay the deadline on an audit, police said. Weaver is charged with three counts of felony murder and one case of arson.
Several factors have been cited by fire investigators as contributing to the ferocity of the fire that day, including inadequate sprinklers and alarms.
Those issues aside, Abbt and his firefighters had their own setbacks. They were hamstrung when their thermal imaging camera, which ordinarily helps them navigate through the darkness, shut down because of the extreme heat. After they made their way to the fifth floor, he found that the emergency water valve was bone dry.
Abbt, a Freeport native, began his career as a volunteer firefighter when he was just 15 in Oyster Creek. He spoke about the March fire during a break from his teaching duties at an isolated fire training facility in Richmond. Abbt owns an online fire academy which annually serves hundreds of students.
Assigned to Station 8 downtown, Abbt was called to the fire when the mid-rise became a two-alarm blaze at about 5:30 p.m. As their high-pressure pumper truck sped along the North Loop, the firefighters could see smoke billowing from the fifth and sixth floors.
“We could hear the dispatcher just before we pulled up saying that there were people calling on the telephone from the fifth floor,” Abbt said.
Abbt said he and his firefighters could see civilians being rescued from the south side of the building onto ladder trucks as they drove up to the scene. He approached the commander in charge who told him: “Eric, there are people trapped on the fifth floor, go get ‘em.”
The firefighters, loaded with about 100 pounds of equipment, made their way up the stairwell in the “stinging” heat and in zero visibility.
“I’m telling you it was pitch black,” Abbt said. “I couldn’t see my crew, I couldn’t see anybody. It was just unreal.”
Once on the fifth floor, Abbt could see a “glow” in the corner where the fire was burning, and the rails along the hallway were crimson red from the heat. Without water to fight the fire, it became apparent that he would have to send his men, Brad Ascenzi and Shane Horsted, to retrieve a hose two floors below.
“That’s what got me in trouble,” he said.
Another fire team could get only to the third floor with a hose before they ran out of air and had to retreat from the building.
The two firefighters were unable to make it back to Abbt. As they struggled to make their way out of the building, Abbt searched the rooms on the fifth floor. He found one lifeless victim and was able to pull her out into a hallway. Then he came across another.
“I called for help after I found the second victim,” he said.
Abbt was too “whipped” to summon the strength to bust out the window he collapsed beside.
In the fog created by the loss of oxygen, Abbt couldn’t think clearly enough to activate an emergency device that could have helped other firefighters pinpoint his exact location. He turned his body into a “target” with his arms and legs spread so that his rescuers would be more likely to stumble upon his body.
“That’s where I was going to die,” he said.
The Ladder 20 firefighters had other thoughts.
Abbt spent three days in the hospital and has recovered from his injuries. He returned to work after a two-week vacation. He insists he never has had second thoughts about his job and he vows that although he nearly lost his life he will continue to do whatever it takes to get to a trapped victim.
“I’d like the families of the victims to know we did everything we could,” Abbt said. “I’m thankful more people didn’t die.”