AARON LEO
ConnPost: 04/28/2008 11:52:36 PM EDT
BRIDGEPORT — A man rescued his bedridden 76-year-old neighbor after a fire broke out in her Cottage Street apartment bathroom Monday evening.
Assistant Fire Chief Bruce Porzelt said Jose Santa saw smoke coming from 147 Cottage St., where his neighbor, Beretha Huff, lives.
"He entered the house. He got the woman. He brought her down," Porzelt said.
The outcome could have been tragic if the fire happened early in the morning while everyone slept, he added.
The woman used a walker and couldn't have made it out by herself, according to Porzelt.
The fire started with an electrical short caused by a bathroom fan/light at 6:22 p.m., he said.
It spread into the attic, where firefighters had to move items around to fight the blaze, Porzelt said.
Firefighters also ripped out part of the woman's apartment ceiling and the attic ceiling.
"We didn't lose the house," he said.
He called it a "really quick knock down."
"The guys got right up in there," Porzelt said, getting the fire under control in 17 minutes.
The house is a two-and-a-half-story wood-frame built in 1887, according to city land records listed online.
It's owned by Huff and Hykeem Peterson, 31, one of her 18 children, Porzelt said. Several more of her children arrived a short time after the fire, the assistant chief said.
Both power and gas were disconnected and the building was boarded up Monday night, he said.
The rest of Huff's apartment had water damage, he added.