March 12--Firefighters carried an intoxicated man out of a Downtown Boise apartment Tuesday night after a furniture fire filled it with smoke, according to Boise Fire Battalion Chief Steve Rasulo.
Smoke was reported just before 9 p.m. by a resident of the apartment building -- a house converted into a fourplex -- in the 500 block of North 14th Street. The person who called 911 also pounded on the door where the smoke was coming from, and the resident inside did not come out.
Responding firefighters went into the smoke-filled apartment to rescue the man, who was so inebriated that he was unable to walk on his own, Rasulo said. They found him laying on the bed in his bedroom and carried him out. Paramedics checked him out and released him at the scene.
Investigators determined that a piece of furniture in the living room -- an older, wingback cloth chair with wooden legs -- had been ignited by fireworks and was smoldering, putting out a lot of smoke. They extinguished the fire and ventilated the apartment.
"There was no damage to the apartment, other than the smoke odor itself," Rasulo said. He said it's possible that if the neighbors hadn't been home, the man could have died of smoke inhalation or burns.
The man could be cited for violating city and/or state code on the use of fireworks, Rasulo said.
Katy Moeller: 377-6413
Copyright 2014 - The Idaho Statesman
