MANCHESTER, N.H. (WHDH) - A firefighter was rushed to the hospital after going into cardiac arrest while battling a house fire in Manchester, New Hampshire on Monday morning.
Crews responding to a reported structure fire at 466 South Beech St. around 10 a.m. found flames and heavy smoke coming from a two-story home.
A 23-year veteran of the department rushed into the burning home and soon went into cardiac arrest, according to Manchester Fire Chief Dan Goonan.
“First man in went in to knock the fire down. They realized that he wasn’t responding to his officer’s commands and realized he had gone down with some medical condition,” Goonan said.
Neighbors looked on as fire crews performed CPR on the veteran firefighter.
“You could see him on the gurney and I’m nervous about it. It was terrible,” neighbor Muriel Labrie recalled. “And they were all pushing on his chest and everything and nothing could happen and they said, ‘Clear,’ and they did the metal things they do to shock him.”
The injured firefighter was taken to Elliot Hospital and is expected to survive.
“His life was saved,” Goonan said. “It’s amazing just to think when you’re walking through a scene like that, if he had gone in, went to search and he took a left instead of a right, if we didn’t see him for a few minutes, the outcome would’ve been much different.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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