Mike Brown/DeSoto Appeal
Fire injures firefighter, guts 3 units
One worker collapsed, stopped breathing

By Chris Conley
June 27, 2005

One firefighter was felled, possibly by the heat, as she and other firefighters battled an intense blaze Sunday in a Whitehaven apartment complex that gutted three units.

The firefighter, whose name was not released, stopped breathing for a time and had to be revived, Memphis Fire Department division chief Henry Posey said. She was taken by ambulance to Methodist South Hospital where she was listed as stable.

One resident of the Mill Creek Apartments, which are at Millbranch and Shelby Drive, suffered minor smoke inhalation, Posey said.
Firefighters arrived at about 1:45 p.m. at the three-story building and were initially told two elderly residents, at least one in a wheelchair, were trapped on the third floor. But the two were already out of the building, Posey said.

The injured firefighter was leaving the third-floor apartment after about 10 minutes inside when she collapsed on the landing. Members of the Rapid Intervention Team revived her and carried her off on a stretcher.
Firefighters arrived to heavy flames shooting from the first two floors but quelled the blaze within about 20 minutes.

Fire was able to crawl up to the third floor from the lower floors through a mansard roof that hangs down outside the building, Posey said. They had to cut through walls in each apartment to get to the blaze under the roof.
The heat posed a serious health threat to firefighters, Posey said.

"This time of year is hard on us," he said. "You go 100 percent, and after five or 10 minutes, you're whipped."

The fire gutted all three apartments.

"I smelled something weird, and I saw the smoke," said Nicole Black, who was inside the second-floor apartment with friend Juanita Lyons when the fire struck.

"It burned so fast," said Lyons. "I just had time to run to fill a personal bag with my Social Security card and other identification. It's all gone."

Posey said the fire appears to have started on the first floor. Fire investigators were called to find the origin and cause.

-- Chris Conley: 529-2595
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