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A teenager woke up to neighbors screaming for help at approximately 8 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 24 while attempting to escape from a second-floor window on Puritan Road after a fire broke out.
Fairfield Fire Platoon Commander Erik Kalapir said that the husband and wife “had to make a life-threatening exit due to toxic smoke and fire on the first floor.” The two were able to scurry down a fine next to the home and were ultimately unharmed.
The Fairfield Emergency Communications Center received the first phone call from the teenage girl across the street at 7:56 a.m. and fire crews were on the scene within four minutes.
Kalapir said that firefighters were able to quickly use a hose line to contain and extinguish the flames. One firefighter suffered a second-degree burn to his face while conducting a search on the second floor while the fire raged. He has since been treated and released by the Bridgeport Hospital Burn Unit.
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation by the Fairfield Fire Prevention Division and the State of Connecticut's Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit.
"Unfortunately, this is now the third fire where residents were trapped on the second floor in recent history," Kalapir said. “Last year, a fire on Morehouse Lane occurred on Christmas Night and in September 2017 a fire occurred on Old Post Road; both fast-moving fires forced occupants to jump from second-floor windows.
"Fires are burning hotter and faster due to modern day residential furnishing, and residents have limited time to get out. Early response times by firefighting forces are essential, and families need to practice emergency exit fire drills in the home."
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