MV Firefighter slightly injured in afternoon blaze

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Firefighter slightly injured in afternoon blaze

By BILL HUGHES

whughes@lohud.com

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: March 29, 2006)

MOUNT VERNON — One firefighter suffered a minor injury and several tenants in a two-story house on Harrison Street were temporarily evacuated after a small fire ignited at the rear of the building yesterday afternoon.

The fire appeared to have started in a tangle of dried-up brush behind 12 Harrison St. about 1 p.m. and spread up the side of the building on the exterior, underneath the aluminum siding on the wood-frame house, city Fire Commissioner Nicholas Cicchetti said.

The injured firefighter was struck in the head by falling debris ,but not seriously hurt, Cicchetti said, and the fire was contained to the rear of the building and quickly brought under control.

Several tenants gathered in a large driveway adjacent to the building and watched firefighters as they tore off sections of the aluminum siding and doused the smoldering fire.

Mel Simmons, a retired postal worker who lives in the building, had taken a walk in the neighborhood, pulling a slender oxygen tank on wheels, and returned to find the building burning.

"I came down the street and saw the smoke, but I didn't think it was here," Simmons said. "I could smell it, but I couldn't see it, then my neighbor came out and told me to get back, the house was burning out by the backyard."

Cicchetti said the cause of the fire was under investigation, but that it appeared to be accidental.

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That firefighter is home and suffered only a minor concussion. He was treated and released from the hospital yesterday afternoon.