BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEWPORT -- The recent switch to advanced life support by the Newport Fire Department provided additional equipment and manpower for a fire that critically burned a man and injured his infant son early Thursday.
The fire, which fire officials think started from a burning candle that spread to a wall, destroyed a camper at the rear of a house in the 500 block of Lindsey Street in the city's west end.
Tom South, 22, who lives in the house but was apparently sleeping in the camper with his 1-month-old son, Tom, was burned over nearly 60 percent of his body and was listed in critical condition Thursday at University Hospital in Cincinnati. The baby was in fair condition at Children's Hospital.
Newport Fire Chief Larry Atwell said if the fire had occurred prior to July 1, "We would have had just one (EMS) unit on the scene, but because we went to advanced life support on July 1, we had two ambulances and two EMS (Emergency Medical Services) units. We were able to take the father to one hospital and the baby and his mother to another hospital without any delay."
The baby's mother, Angie Kruse, who lives about a block away and was identified as Mr. South's girlfriend, was also in the trailer when the fire started. She was treated for smoke inhalation.
Chief Atwell said Ms. Kruse handed the baby out the door of the camper to Mr. South's grandmother, Violet South, and then tried to extinguish the flames with a garden hose.
Another relative, who was not identified, helped Mr. South out of the trailer before firefighters arrived. The chief said the blaze was quickly extinguished.
"This was not a trailer, but an old camper that was sitting behind the grandmother's house for several years," Chief Atwell said. "No one was living in it. There were no fire detectors."
