Hero Fireman Save Lives in Burning Apartment Building
Published: June 13, 2008
Four people, including two elderly women and a 4-year-old girl and her dad, were rescued from a burning apartment building Friday night in the Lincoln Square neighborhood by Fire Lt. Kevin Stiawarski.
Stawiarski frequently takes ribbing from pals about the daily demands — or seemingly lack thereof — of his job.
“My friends say, ‘You sit around the firehouse all day’,” Stawiarski said. “I never fight them on this. I tell them, ‘Yeah, I do. But when you call, I’ll be there in three minutes.’ ”
He proved that Friday night. As part of Truck Company No. 12 team, he was already in the midst of lifesaving efforts at 2916 West Foster before they even got the department’s call about a fire there.
They was leaving another call — a car had hit a bicyclist whom they were comforting while awaiting an ambulance — when a woman approached seeking help with a fire at her house.
“We couldn’t get an address out of her,” he said. But they moved in the direction in which she had pointed and called for a response to the California and Francisco area.
Fire Media Affairs Chief Joe Roccasalva said the fire was reported on the first floor of the building and had begun to spread to the second floor through the windows.
After crews made sure all first floor residents were out of the building, Lt. Stiawarski came around the corner to check a gangway when he saw a man hanging out of a second-floor window, along with his 4-year-old daughter, Roccasalva said.
Stiawarski grabbed a fire ladder and was able to rescue the man and his daughter, Roccasalva said.
Stawiarski, 47, immediately carried a 4-year-old boy down a ladder from a second-floor window, as the father followed.
Stiawarski also spotted two elderly women hanging out another window on the second floor. They were also rescued. The lieutenant saved all four people, Roccasalva said. As a result, no one was injured in the fire, Roccasalva said.
“I didn’t even know there was a child up there. When I got up to the window, he was handing me the child,” Stawiarski said of his rescue.
The father, he said, wanted to thank him, but Stawiarski praised him instead — for keeping a cool head.
“I didn’t really do anything special. I told him, ‘I was outside. You were the one under pressure,’” Stawiarski said. “He stayed calm. I told him he did a good job. He didn’t panic.”
The fire appears to have started in the kitchen, according to Roccasalva, who said investigators were on on the scene by 11:15 p.m. to probe the cause of the blaze.
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