Dramatic footage from helmet cams captured the rescue of a homeless man from a burning California home by firefighters last week after he was trapped in the building.
According to Fresno Fire, fire crews had responded to a reported house fire on Oct. 4.
On arrival, they began fighting the blaze but video shows police officers informing them someone was inside the house and firefighters say they heard someone yelling for help and an arm waving through a vent near the bottom of the house.
The building was supposed to be vacant, ABC News affiliate 30 Action News reports, but a homeless man had wedged himself into a crawl space under a floorboard when the home became engulfed.
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“You don’t typically expect to find someone in the subfloor of a structure that has no intention of a basement,” Fresno Fire Chief Kerri Donis told ABC.
A pair of firefighters used axes to open the wall where they saw the arm until a large hole is formed.
Using their flashlights they were able to find the man and shout at him to come towards them.
One of the firefighters took the man to emergency vehicles.
Officials say the man was taken to hospital and has since been released.
Last Thursday’s fire was one of many vacant home blazes which have occurred this year.
Donis said more than 700 structure fires in 2018 and at least a third of them took place in vacant buildings.
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“It’s affecting our fire response and the firefighters’ capacity with the volume of fire activity that’s going on in our community on a daily basis.”
She adds with winter months approaching, investigators are expecting the trend of vacant home fires to continue and said the responsibility behind vacant buildings falls on the property owner.
“This year our vacant structure fires have more than doubled and we’re not even at the end of the year,” Donis said. “Last year we were at 33 and this year we’re at 76. That’s up 130 per cent.”
Investigators at this time are not sure what caused the Oct. 4 fire.
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