GENEVA, Ohio -- City firefighters rescued two people from a burning house on Lawn Street early Thursday morning, Geneva fire reports show, pulling a man and a woman from the thick smoke and burning walls.
A woman called the fire department at 5:23 a.m. to report the fire, dispatch records show. Firefighters reported they could hear someone inside the burning house, but couldn't see them through the heavy smoke.
"The response time was five minutes," Capt. Randy Goff said. "The victims were removed from the house immediately and the fire was under control within 20 minutes."
Saybrook, Harpersfield and Madison fire departments provided mutual aid, Goff said.
A man was transported to Geneva Medical Center for burns. The woman in the house refused medical attention at the scene and said she would transport herself to the hospital for treatment, fire reports show.
Charred teddy bears and clothing were strewn outside the duplex hours after the fire. A neighbor said she wasn't home when the fire started, and a fire wall between the housing units saved her belongings from damage.
Some windows and a door were ruined in the second housing unit, the neighbor, who didn't wish to be identified, said.
"The firefighters even found my cat and stuck him in the basement after the fire was out so he couldn't run off," the neighbor said.
Goff said the fire, which began in the front bedroom, caused $20,000 in damage to the structure and $5,000 in ruined contents. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation and a representative from the Ohio Fire Marshal's office was at the scene, Goff said.
Copyright 2012 - Star Beacon, Ashtabula, Ohio
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
