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Oct. 29--OAK RIDGE -- An Oak Ridge firefighter's ears were scorched while trying to enter a burning house to search for a teenage occupant a neighbor thought might be inside, Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said Friday.
Dan Endsley was to report to a local medical clinic as a precautionary measure and a checkup for his blistered ears, Kerley said.
"If he hadn't had his helmet on, it would have melted his ears off," Kerley said. A hood covering the firefighter's face prevented worse injuries, the chief said.
Firefighters just before 6 p.m. Thursday responded to a report of an Arrowwood Road residence engulfed in flames, Kerley said.
Owner Gina Harrison and her two children weren't at home at the time. A next-door neighbor was unaware no one was inside and broke out windows in a search for occupants, inadvertently fueling the flames, Kerley said.
The small, wood-frame residence and its contents were destroyed. The local Red Cross chapter is providing emergency assistance to the family, the chief said.
