Firefighters rescue unconscious elderly woman from burning home: "Very proud of my firefighters"



MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee firefighters on Thursday, February 2nd were able to rescue an unconscious woman from a burning home.

It happened near 25th and Melvina.

"While we were en route, we were notified there was potential for people trapped in the building. We did transport the victim with a pulse. She was breathing. That`s a tremendous win for us," Dan Lipski, battalion chief with the Milwaukee Fire Department said.

Fire at 25th and Melvina



Inside the home, on the first floor, firefighters found an unconscious elderly woman on a couch. A man was able to get out of the home on his own.

The rear bedroom of the home was completely engulfed in flames -- with fire creeping up into the second floor.

Dan Lipski



"With smoke throughout the building and starting to pump out the door," Lipski said.

Lipski said luckily, a crew was just wrapping up their work at the scene of another fire a block-and-a-half away. Firefighters got to the home less than a minute after the 911 call came in.

"From the time that they arrived on scene, put on all their gear, made it down to the building, masked up and went in, they found the victim and given her to the paramedic unit in two minutes," Lipski said.

Fire at 25th and Melvina



Lipski said training and coordination paid off in this case.

The woman, covered in black soot, took a gasping breath of her own as she was delivered to paramedics. A few minutes longer, and this could've been tragic.

"I was very proud of my paramedics and firefighters that day," Lipski said.

Fire at 25th and Melvina



After the fire, the home was boarded up -- countless possessions destroyed. But thanks to the men and women of the Milwaukee Fire Department -- life wins.

"We in our profession look at it as a win when we can a difference -- a positive difference -- in somebody`s life," Lipski said.

Fire at 25th and Melvina



Lipski said the cause of this fire remains under investigation, but he said it does not appear criminal.

FOX6 News was told there were no working smoke detectors in the home.

No firefighters were hurt battling this fire.