PEORIA, Ill. — An occupant of a North Valley home that caught fire Wednesday morning sustained burns severe enough to require transport to a hospital for treatment.
Peoria Firefighter/Paramedics responded just after 7:00 to the 900 block of NE Madison Ave.
They encountered thick, black smoke and extreme heat coming from the basement, where they found a fire in a bedroom.
Once that was out, they went to the upper floors and found the blaze had spread to multiple rooms.
The person who was injured suffered what Battalion Chief Rick Morgan described as “second to third degree burns,” although Morgan said the person had been brought to safety by a civilian by the time crews arrived.
The civilian also successfully rousted a second person who was asleep at the time of the fire but was uninjured.
Morgan said the occupants of the home were fortunate the fire happened when it did because of the circumstances of the civilian’s presence.
“I think it was like a handyman of the owner of the home, and he was coming there to get an assignment or something like that, and he actually discovered the house was on fire,” Morgan said.
“At that time, he was the one who got the [injured] person out of the basement, and he ended up getting the owner out of the home, as well, and she had no injuries.”
The injured person’s burns were to his upper right arm and upper right leg. He was taken by a medic to UnityPoint Methodist.
Crews had the fire out within about 45 minutes.
