Monday, June 21, 1999

Rescuer braves fire

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Apartments searched as flames rage

BY WILLIAM A. WEATHERS
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Assistant Covington Fire Chief Mike Rabe directs firefighters at 207 W. Sixth Street on Sunday. (Thomas E. Whitte photo) | ZOOM |

        COVINGTON — Mike Burton wasn't sure whether anyone was still inside the apartment building that was engulfed in smoke and flames Sunday afternoon.

        But rather than wait for firefighters to arrive at the three-story brick building in the 200 block of W. Sixth Street, he ran inside and searched for anyone who might be trapped.

        “He broke the door with his foot,” said Dawn Treadway, 22, of Florence, who witnessed Mr. Burton's heroics and called 911 to report the blaze.

        She watched anxiously while the 29-year-old Newport resident searched the building.

        “He was in there a good three or four minutes,” Mrs. Treadway said. “There was a big burst of flames shooting out 4 feet (from the windows). You saw stuff falling off the building everywhere.”

        Unable to find anyone and with the smoke becoming so thick he could no longer see, Mr. Burton abandoned his search. “He jumped out of a second-floor window,” Mrs. Treadway said.

        “I'm glad he didn't break a leg. He said he had to jump because he couldn't see any more. Even after that (the jump), he was yelling to see if he could see anybody.”

        Mr. Burton, who works next door as a cashier at Mac's Food Market, was taken to University Hospital in Cincinnati for treatment of smoke inhalation, where he was in good condition.

        Fire officials said all the building's residents were able to escape before Mr. Burton entered the building. Eight residents were displaced by the blaze.

        Assistant Fire Chief Mike Rabe said the second and third floors were fully involved in smoke and flames when firefighters responded to the 5:15 p.m. alarm.

        The cause is being labeled suspicious and the damage estimate was “at least $50,000,” Assistant Chief Rabe said.

        Mrs. Treadway, daughter of Mac's Food Market owner James Parrott, said Mr. Burton, who has worked at the store on and off since he was a teen, didn't hesitate to risk his life.

        “I don't think he even thought about,” Mrs. Treadway said. “It was like an unconscious act.”

        “It's a tough call,” Assistant Chief Rabe said of Mr. Burton's heroics. “Generally we don't want civilians running in a (burning) building.”

        Civilians don't have protective equipment, he said, and they could inadvertently open a door that could cause the fire to spread, he said.

        “But it's human nature to want to help somebody,” Assistant Chief Rabe said.

       

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