St. Louis crews rescued a firefighter from under three feet of roofing debris, snow and ice during a blaze in an abandoned house with hoarder conditions

By Kim Bell
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Crews rescued a firefighter Thursday who was trapped when an icy roof collapsed in a burning home in south St. Louis.

The firefighter, who was rescued after about 14 minutes, was evaluated by medics at the scene. He was shaken but will be fine, authorities said. He was not taken to a hospital.

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The fire was reported about 3:45 a.m. Thursday in a vacant home in the 2600 block of Ohio Avenue, near Sidney Street. The one-story brick home is near Fox Park. It had what fire officials called “hoarding conditions.”

After the roof collapse, one firefighter was trapped on the first floor. He had a limited air supply. His automatic stress signal, or PASS device, sounded an alert. He was also able to communicate over the radio that he thought he was on the first floor.

St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson lauded the efforts of firefighters who rescued their colleague. He told reporters the department just finished a month-long training session on mayday procedures with trapped firefighters. Jenkerson said the rescue on Thursday was textbook.

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