Two people suffered minor injuries during a fire in an apartment house in Shelton Friday evening.
A resident burned his hands in the fire, while a Shelton firefighter sliced his hand, according to initial reports from the scene. Both men were taken to Griffin Hospital to get checked out.
The fire was reported at just about 7 p.m.
Christopher Denton was driving in his car on Wooster Street just up from Plumb Memorial Library with his wife, Stephanie, and 6‑month-old baby daughter, Lilly, when they saw smoke coming from the rear of a house at the intersection of North Oak Avenue.
Denton figured it was outdoor grilling.
“But it was a lot of smoke,” Stephanie Denton said. “We thought it was a barbecue, but then I said, ‘It’s coming out of the roof.’ Then I made him turn the car around.”
Christopher then stopped the car, got out, and ran into the apartment house.
“I just started knocking on doors,” he said.
“There was nobody on the first floor, and when I got to the second floor, the people were just realizing there was a fire,” Christopher said.
The fire was on the outside wall in the rear of the house. A man was on his deck trying to pour water on it to put out the flames, Christopher said.
“Then the firefighters got there and told us to get out,” he said.
Shelton Fire Department public information officer Nick Verdicchio said crews were greeted with heavy smoke coming from the back of the apartment house, second floor, upon their arrival.
“People standing outside told us there was someone trapped on the second floor,” said Shelton Fire Department Captain Steve Hoffman. “A crew went to the second floor immediately to try to make a life rescue. It turned out the guy was on his back deck trying to put the fire out with a pot of water.”
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Firefighters then extinguished the fire on the outside wall, then busted open the wall to see if flames had extended to other parts of the structure.
There were some hot spots, Hoffman said, but the bulk of the fire was on the rear exterior wall.
“We held it basically to the siding and the eaves,” Hoffman said.
“We had a quick knockdown and everything under control in about 15 minutes,” Verdicchio said.
Denton said he didn’t see a grill on the deck, nor an electrical box.
Shelton Fire Marshal James Tortora is investigating the cause and origin.
About 50 firefighters responded to the call from the Echo Hose, Huntington and White Hills fire companies. The Pine Rock company was on standby in case other calls came in. EMS crews were also on scene.
