Firefighters use power saws to rescue a man from his basement window while his house is on fire in the 300 block of K Street, Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Extrication from crashed vehicles is a common occurrence for most firefighter/paramedics, but Idaho Falls firefighter paramedics were assigned to extricate a man trapped while trying to escape from his burning house through a small basement window — right next to a gas meter.
Idaho Falls firefighters responded about 2:30 p.m. Saturday, July 21, 2012 to a house fire with a man trapped in his basement window. While one crew went to work on an interior attack of the house fire through a back door, another crew went to work on extrication. Using power saws and a protective cover for the victim’s head, firefighters cut away the frame of the window and part of the wall above the window.
The victim was able to stand up on his own. As he walked away from the window, he put his arms around two of the firefighters with gratitude. The man had minor injuries. The fire in a laundry room was extinguished in less than ten minutes.