Tenant rescues woman in fire
A tenant at a Butler apartment building is being credited with coming to the rescue of a neighbor whose clothes apparently caught fire Tuesday night, authorities said.
A 36-year-old woman, who lives alone at the two-story, four-unit building on Cecilia Street, was taken to a Pittsburgh hospital after the fire call shortly before 10 p.m.
Butler Fire Chief Chris Switala described the burns as “serious.”
The burns, he said, were to “her right side,” and “portions of her clothing on her right side were burned out.”
The fire, he said, was accidental and “caused by smoking materials,” either from careless cigarette smoking or the improper disposal of cigarettes.
Switala said it appeared that the woman was in the living room at her first-floor apartment when the fire accidentally ignited her clothes.
One of the upstairs tenants, 39-year-old Earl Maier, heard the woman yelling for help. He also heard her apartment's smoke detector going off.
“When (Maier) went down to check, he could see fire through the front window of the apartment,” Switala said. “He opened the front door, and the woman was just inside the front door on the floor.”
Maier also saw smoke down to the floor, and he pulled the woman out onto the front porch.
He returned to his own apartment, safely got his two teenage children out and called 911 to report the fire.
He then got a plastic tub container, filled it with water about four or five times, and poured it on the fire, putting it out.
“That person did a lot,” Switala said of Maier.
It was not immediately known if anyone was in the other two apartments at the time.
The woman's apartment was filled with smoke when firefighters arrived, but the fire was out. Butler police also responded.
“The actual materials on fire were minimal,” Switala said. “It burned some carpet, some trash — like a trash bag — and another plastic container.”
He said crews found “a lot of cigarette materials around” the apartment.
The woman was conscious and talking to emergency officials before she was taken from the scene by Butler Ambulance Service. Police said she was taken to an unknown Pittsburgh hospital. Her condition was not available.
Firefighters ventilated the building, and the tenants were later able to return to their homes. Damage was estimated at $2,500. Alpine Apartments owns the building.
The Butler Township Volunteer Fire District and the Butler VA Fire Department assisted at the scene.
Switala praised Maier's actions.
”He immediately jumped into action, and he did everything that we would recommend,” Switala said. “He was able to remove that person from the immediate danger without putting himself at risk.”
Maier also notified authorities, and he was able “to confine and extinguish the fire.”
The fire, Switala noted, should also serve as a reminder to others to make sure to have working smoke detectors in their homes.
