An accidental cooking fire heavily damaged an apartment in the 400 block of West Vernon Avenue early this morning, but working smoke alarms allowed the occupant to escape safely.
Just before 3:00 a.m. this morning, a skillet of oil on the stove ignited and set the kitchen ablaze in an apartment at 410 West Vernon Avenue. Smoke alarms alerted the resident who escaped quickly and called 9-1-1. Firefighters arrived and found heavy smoke conditions in a lower-level apartment and proceeded to extinguish the fire and search the apartment for any potential victims. During the search, firefighters found a cat, unconscious and without signs of life. Using a pet oxygen mask and providing compressions, firefighters were able to revive the cat, which was returned to the owner.
Firefighters brought the fire under control in about 15 minutes but spent about another hour or so on checking for hot spots and ventilating smoke from the affected apartment and apartment above.
“This is a prime example of smoke alarms waking up the occupant and giving them enough time to escape. With heavy smoke from a growing fire in the apartment, we were minutes away from a different outcome had the alarms not sounded,” said Matt Swaney, Public Information Officer for Normal Fire Department. He adds, “Obviously, the toxic smoke was enough to cause the near-death of a pet, so if the smoke alarms had not worked, the tenant may have been overcome by the smoke which could have lead to a deadly outcome.”
The tenant of the apartment is displaced by the fire. Young America Realty manages the property and is working with the tenant for alternative living arrangements. The tenant has renters’ insurance.
There were no injuries reported to firefighters or to any occupants of the building. The cat was left in the care of the tenant who will follow up with a veterinarian if necessary.
