Firefighters rescued an unconscious woman from a burning house in Palouse Friday night after two children escaped a blaze that is thought to have started near the kitchen.
Palouse Fire Chief Mike Baggott said the fire was burning in the kitchen and extending into the dining room and up to the second floor when he and 13 Palouse firefighters responded to a two-story home in the 300 block of West Cannon Street at about 9:15 p.m.
Initial reports came in that two children were in the home, but they had escaped before firefighters arrived.
Baggott said he was near the dining room after the bulk of the flames were knocked down when he found a woman lying unconscious on the floor.
The woman was carried out, and Baggott said one of his firefighters reported she squeezed his hand or arm on the way to medical personnel outside.
She was treated and taken to an airfield south of town, where a Life Flight Helicopter took her to St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston. Baggott declined to release the woman's name, but said as of Sunday afternoon he had received a report that she was stable and expected to recover.
Palouse firefighters worked with at least a dozen Pullman firefighters and four Colfax firefighters to extinguish the fire and received help from a Pullman ambulance crew as well.
The two children were uninjured and Baggott said they were upstairs, smelled smoke and the older child led the younger one out and also called 911.
Baggott said he and a few other Palouse firefighters were the last to leave the scene at about 5 a.m. Saturday and that the home, if it's not a total loss, would require extensive work to be livable again.
Baggott credited the other agencies for assisting with the incident.
Copyright 2012 - Lewiston Tribune, Idaho
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
