WTNH
Chief Alston at the scene.
A two-alarm blaze in the West River neighborhood killed an elderly woman and injured a firefighter Thursday afternoon.
The fire was heavy on the first and second floors of an occupied three-family house at 43 – 5 Mead St., near Barnard School. The call came in at 3:04 p.m.
Firefighters rescued a woman from a second-floor window with the help of a ground ladder, said Fire Chief John Alston Jr.
“That person said her mother was still inside and unable to get up,” Alston said.
So firefighters, while continuing to knock down the fire, went in to get her. They “removed her in a lifeless condition,” Alston said. He said he didn’t immediately know her age or name; he said she was “elderly.”
One firefighter suffered “burns to the side of his face” and is now being treated at Yale New Haven Hospital, where his condition is stable, according to the chief.
The fire displaced three adults, the chief said. The first floor had been vacant.
WTNH