Body cam shows rescue of woman trapped in burning home
By Eric Grossarth
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IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (East Idaho News) — A woman in a wheelchair can be heard yelling for help as flames and smoke fill an Idaho Falls home.
Idaho Falls Police body camera video obtained by EastIdahoNews.com through a public records request shows those tense moments as officers tried to rescue the 71-year-old woman trapped inside the burning home Thursday night. Officers and Idaho Falls firefighters rushed to the house on the 2000 block of Greentree lane around 10:30 p.m. after the homeowner called 911 and said his elderly mother could not escape.
“It sounds like the mother is still in the house,” a dispatcher is heard saying as an officer drives with his lights and sirens to the scene. “… The mother is handicapped.”
The dispatcher continues to relay information, saying the woman is confined to a wheelchair and trapped in a hallway.
“This is going to be dicey,” one officer is heard saying while driving to the home. “We’re not waiting for fire.”
Without any protective gear, four Idaho Falls Police officers run to the front door of the home. Smoke is seen in the video pouring out of the open door as flames make their way up the basement stairwell.
“Help!” the woman trapped inside repeatedly yells as officers try to save her. The officers make multiple attempts to get inside, only to be overcome by the heavy smoke and intense heat from the flames.
Just seconds later, the Idaho Falls Fire Department shows up donning their fire bunker gear and masks to help them breathe. The homeowner continually yells how the woman is only 10 feet inside the doorway by the hallway near the burning stairs.
Firefighters found the woman and she, along with three police officers, were taken to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. The officers were treated and released. The woman remains at the hospital in fair condition as of Wednesday morning.
Franklin Orrchauski, the homeowner, shared his thoughts on an EastIdahoNews.com Facebook post the day after the fire started. He wrote that once the fire broke out, he and his wife were able to get the wheelchair carrying his mother down the hallway. As the smoke and flames grew, the wheelchair got stuck. Overcome with smoke, the couple was forced out of the home.
First responders then arrived and saved his mother.
“It was the most heroic thing I have ever witnessed,” Orrchauski wrote. “God bless our men and women who serve our community selflessly.”
Idaho Falls Fire Department spokeswoman Kerry Hammon says the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Part of the video was not released as Idaho Falls Police said medical procedures and other information would “constitute an unwarranted invasion of the individual’s personal privacy.”
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