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       #Post#: 223--------------------------------------------------
       DC FIREFIGHTERS RECOUNT EXPERIENCES
       By: wolfie Date: April 22, 2011, 4:48 am
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       D.C. firefighters injured in Northeast blaze recount experience
       for first time
       Text Size PrintE-mailReprints
       By Theola Labbé-DeBose, Thursday, April 21, 10:49 PM
       D.C. firefighter Theodore Douglas remembers hearing the call
       crackle over the radio just after 12:30 a.m.: single-family
       home, heavy fire in the rear.
       Within minutes, Douglas and his crew were at the wood-frame
       house in Northeast Washington. As thick smoke filled the air,
       some firefighters swung their axes to break windows. Others put
       up ladders.
       ( Bill O'Leary / THE WASHINGTON POST ) - Firefighter Warren
       Deavers, center, speaks as comrade Theodore Douglas looks on.
       Also present were Marion Jordan and Janis Orlowski of the
       Washington Hospital Center and Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe.
       Douglas was among those who went inside. They were ready to
       tackle the blaze. But a fire is unpredictable, even to those who
       are trained to tame them.
       “We were preparing to hit the flames,” he said. “That’s when the
       back of the house collapsed, and all the heat and flames got
       pushed back on us.”
       Douglas, whose ears were burned, was among five firefighters
       injured in the April 8 blaze. On Thursday, he recounted the
       experience during a news conference at Washington Hospital
       Center, the first time any of the injured firefighters have
       spoken publicly about the incident.
       Douglas appeared with another injured fireman, Warren Deavers,
       and Marion Jordan, the doctor who leads the hospital’s Burn
       Center. The firefighters said they received excellent care from
       the doctors, nurses and support staff and were eager to get back
       to work.
       Deavers, who was burned along the back of his arm, spent three
       days at the hospital. A bandage on his upper left arm that poked
       out from his short-sleeve shirt was the only outward sign of his
       injury.
       The most seriously injured firefighter, Charles “Chucky” Ryan,
       suffered burns to roughly 30 percent of his body and has had
       three surgeries, Jordan said. Ryan, who is also the chief of the
       volunteer Riverdale Fire Department, remains hospitalized and is
       slated for more surgery but is “progressing well,” Jordan said.
       Officials said firefighter Robert Alvarado had been released
       from the hospital and was recovering. Firefighter Ramon
       Hounshell, who required skin grafts, was doing well, too, and
       left the hospital Thursday.
       The injured firemen have experienced an outpouring of support
       from fellow firefighters and others across the region, said
       Jason Woods, director of the D.C. Firefighters Burn Foundation.
       People have brought meals and donated blood. A group even went
       to one injured firefighter’s house to mow his lawn.
       Officials said the cause of the fire, at an abandoned home in
       the 800 block of 48th Place Northeast in the Deanwood
       neighborhood, has not been determined.
       Having several firefighters hurt in a single incident rattled
       the entire department. Fire Chief Kenneth B. Ellerbe, who
       visited the injured, said there is also a separate investigation
       into how the firefighters were injured.
       “We’re going to be very deliberate, very cautious and take as
       much time as we need to get to the bottom of what occurred,”
       Ellerbe said.
       Jordan said doctors can often tell by the nature of the injuries
       which firefighters were closest to the flames. He said the
       hospital would assist the fire department in its investigations.
       The Burn Center, on the third and fourth floors of the main
       hospital, is the only speciality treatment burn unit for adults
       in the Washington region and sees nearly 700 patients a year,
       some from as far away as Virginia. Staff members and the
       firefighting community have forged a tight bond.
       On Thursday, Douglas and Deavers said little about their trauma.
       But Ellerbe said the effects of that night linger.
       “As minimal as they may have made it seem, this is not just your
       everyday occurrence, and it requires a tremendous amount of
       skill . . . to be able to survive something like
       this,” Ellerbe said. “Now it’s going to take some time to heal
       physically and mentally.”
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