Rock Hill firefighters save man in wheelchair from burning house

Three Rock Hill firefighters are credited with pulling a man in a wheelchair from a burning building Wednesday.

The blaze broke out about 10 p.m. at 427 N. Confederate Ave., according to Deputy Chief Mark Simmons of the Rock Hill Fire Department. Crews saw heavy smoke and fire coming from the two-story building when they arrived.

The house, which is across the street from Confederate Park, had been converted to five individual apartments, three of which were occupied, Simmons said. One occupant, who uses a wheelchair and lives on the second floor, was trapped and notifed dispatchers of his situation. Firefighters said they could hear him yelling when they arrived.

“We had to do some maneuvering because we had a power line very close to where we had to put the ladder up,” firefighter Chad Doster recalled.

After getting the ladder positioned, Capt. Eddie Maxie and firefighter Don Roddey went up to the window, where they pulled the disabled man out, Doster said, adding that he followed them up. After getting him over the window frame and onto the ladder, Doster carried him down to the ground, where Piedmont EMS took him.

The man was taken to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, where his condition was unknown Thursday. No other injuries were reported.

The man had two cats, neither of which is believed to have survived.

“As soon as I brought him down, he said, ‘Could you please go get my cats?’” Doster said. “But it was bad.”

Such rescues are practiced regularly during training, but Doster – a Rock Hill firefighter for more than two years – said he never expected to have to put those skills to use.

“You never do know,” he said, “and that’s why you should take training seriously.”

Roddey has been with the department for 11 years and said Thursday afternoon that the rescue was “still hitting” him.

“I’m still soaking it all in,” he said. “We’ve done plenty of car extrications and things of that nature, but we’re on the ground, we’re safe, you know what’s going on around you. But in a burning house, you don’t know what’s happening.”

Such rescues become instinctive through training, Roddey said.

“You just kind of look around you to make sure you’re safe,” he said, “and then you go get them and bring them down.”

B-Shift Battalion Chief Ben Funderburk said such rescues are team efforts, and more than 30 firefighters responded Wednesday night.

“It takes a lot of people to make that rescue,” he said. “Sometimes, you feel helpless until you get the right people and equipment there to make that rescue attempt.”

The building is a total loss, officials said. Three of the apartments in the building were occupied, and officials say the occupants are being assisted by the American Red Cross.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, but Simmons said they determined it started on a porch on the left side of the building toward the back.

A man who lives in a first-floor unit was salvaging clothes and other items from his damaged home Thursday. He declined to speak with a reporter.

Barbara Johnson lives next door to the house and said her granddaughter walked outside Wednesday night and found their backyard full of water and smoke.

Though her home wasn’t damaged by the blaze, Johnson was concerned by the size of the fire. She expressed gratitude for the firefighters and other first responders who filled North Confederate Avenue on Wednesday night.

“I declare, those poor guys, they did a really good job,” she said. “I don’t know what we’d do without them boys.”

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 10:02 AM with the headline "Rock Hill firefighters save man in wheelchair from burning house."