Press Release 3Evanston
house fire investigation continues
April 24, 2008
The young Evanston police officer knew there was an elderly woman in the
burning house Monday afternoon, but he didn't know exactly where, and he
couldn't use his eyes.
"There was too much smoke to see, so I went in on my hands and knees,"
Officer Brian Brandenburg said. "I kept on going until I felt her, and then I
bear-hugged her," he added as firefighters finished striking the fire in the
home of Mary Gipson, 65.
Brandenburg, a two-year officer, carried Gipson about 20 feet through dense
smoke to the waiting arms of his partner, Ron Blumenberg.
She was breathing, said Brandenburg, but she didn't speak. She was taken by
ambulance from the burning house at 2115 Wesley Ave. to Evanston Hospital, where
she was in stable condition Tuesday, Evanston Fire Department Division Chief
Samuel Hunter said.
Evanston Fire Capt. Robert Wagner was hurt when he fell down smoke-shrouded
stairs during the ensuing fire fight, Hunter said. Wagner was treated for
injuries to his left wrist and shoulder, and released from Evanston Hospital
Tuesday.
Boy first saw smoke
The fire was first discovered by a 5-year-old boy, said his mother, Milagros
Gonzalez.
"Mama, there's smoke in my room," little Jacob told her.
The smoke was seeping from a hatch that joins their second-floor apartment
with Gipson's room, Milagros Gonzalez said.
She and her son fled the home, taking nothing, not even shoes for their feet.
"I was more concerned about him and Nana," she said, referring to her son and
Gipson, her future mother-in-law. "She's been very sick, taking chemotherapy,
and I'm very concerned about her."
But when she and her father, Alfredo, who had been visiting, tried to
re-enter the home from another door to reach Gipson, they found the door locked.
Alfredo Gonzalez smashed the window out of the door and broke the lock, freeing
the door.
Immediately, the two family dogs -- massive pit bulls named Adicus and Buster
-- burst from the door.
But it looked tough for Gipson.
"There was too much smoke," Alfredo Gonzalez said.
That was when police arrived, and Brandenburg pulled the elderly woman from
the house.
Taming the flames
Firefighters, arriving shortly after 3:20 p.m., split into two groups. One
prepared a "courtyard lay," a two-and-a-half-inch hose that split into two
smaller houses. They were used to aggressively attack the fire from the front
door, on the west side of the house.
Another cadre "went around the south side of the building, and that's when
they saw the police officers coming out," Hunter said. "And that's when it
flashed over."
Just behind Brandenburg, the south side of the home erupted in flame. The
flash-over may have been fueled by the rush of oxygen through the open door,
Hunter said.
Firefighters from Evanston fought their way through the front door, then
charged up the stairs with the two hose lines as the fire quickly reached the
frame house's second floor, Hunter said. An Evanston truck unit soon arrived to
ventilate the roof, letting the superheated gases escape.
Firefighters from Wilmette, Skokie, Northfield and Morton Grove joined
Evanston in the 45-minute fire fight.
Grateful, frustrated
As the firefighters were finishing, Gipson's son -- and Gonzalez' fiance --
John Gipson arrived, having been called at work. He was thankful to the officer
for saving his mother, and the firefighters for putting out the fire, but he
remained frustrated at being unable to do anything about what was happening to
his family.
"This is horrible," he said.
"I want to kick these broken windows out and put more windows in," he said.
"I just want to do something."
The Fire Department had not yet made a damage estimate Wednesday morning; nor
had it given a cause of the fire.
Milagros Gonzalez said Monday that Mary Gipson was a smoker, however, and "it
could have been started by a cigarette."
Hunter said Tuesday morning, "She told us about the smoking. We don't know if
that's the cause or not, and we're waiting to see what comes of the
investigation."
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