By Laura French
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Md. — An off-duty Maryland firefighter stopped at a house fire and pulled a 72-year-old man from the basement of his burning home on Monday.
The Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal said in a media release that the elderly homeowner and his wife escaped the home after being alerted by a smoke alarm, but the man reentered the home through a basement door in an apparent attempt to extinguish the blaze.
The man came out of the basement when a neighbor shouted for him but went back again to try to fight the fire. The off-duty firefighter, who was not named in the release, then arrived, entered the basement and brought the man outside the house. The man was treated by EMS and then transported to a burn center.
Investigators said the fire started in the basement, and the cause remains under investigation.
“GET OUT, STAY OUT!!” the fire marshal’s office wrote in a Facebook post. “The owner is in critical condition after he attempted to control the blaze himself.”