MILWAUKEE --
On fire, a Milwaukee Fire Department firefighter jumped into a snow bank to put out the flames.
Firefighter Catches Flames, Jumps Into Snowbank
The Milwaukee Fire Department responded to a house fire at 6415 W. Keefe in Milwaukee on Thursday morning.
The firefighters were trying to remove gasoline from a building when an explosion caused them to catch fire.
A tenant in the building was working on a car gas tank. The fire started out small in the basement. The firefighters were trying to keep the situation contained, only to have the fuel source blow up on them.
"My son was in the basement fixing on something and I heard something go like 'vooo'," said building resident Theresa Harlow. "And then the next thing you know, the house got all smokey and my son said, 'Momma, get out, get out.'"
Firefighters say Harlow's son was repairing a gas tank before noon in the basement and the vapors traveled to the water heater's pilot light, igniting flames. Harlow's son put out the fire before firefighters arrived. But the firefighters noticed the fuel tank with gasoline still inside.
"They were attempting to carry it up the stairs," Milwaukee Fire Department deputy chief Randall Zingler said. "As they did, so the gasoline was sloshing back and forth, the tank spilled out and it erupted into a fire ball."
Teneka Hart and her 11-year-old son had already run out of the smokey building when they saw a firefighter running for his life.
"I saw one of the firemen. He had come and threw his self in the snow," Teneka Hart said.
"They were bailing out of the basement as fast as they could because they were on fire. They were literally on fire," Zingler said.
One fire fighter was treated for second-degree burns on his back, wrists and face. Another had burns on his nose and a third was treated for smoke inhalation.
Theresa Harlow's son also had burns to his right hand. She says he's sorry for being unaware of just how dangerous the gasoline vapors are.
"He didn't know that was going to happen though. He didn't know," Harlow said.
None of the injuries to the firefighters were life threatening. The deputy chief says the firefighters were veterans of the department and were wearing their protective gear when the second fire broke out.
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