Ed Werth was driving up Route 2 in his company van when the Deepwood Drive resident spotted smoke coming from the top windows of an apartment at 97 Mill Road.
Without hesitating, he took the Brewer Street exit, and turned right onto Hamilton Road. Pulling up, the former volunteer firefighter in Jamacia Plain, New York ran to the front door of the apartment where a young man was standing.
"He said he didn't have a key. I just pushed him out of the way and kicked the door in," said Werth. He looked up the stairway and saw two feet, and crawled up and pulled the man down the stairs to the bottom landing.
"He was pretty badly burned, and was in shock," said Werth who works for Mechanical Plumbing & Heating of Hamden. "I hope he makes it."
Werth calmly related his actions to firefighters and others. They advised him that counseling was available if he needed it, but Werth explained "I've seen it before - and a lot worse" when he was a firefighter in New York.
Fire Chief John Oates said 911 calls came into dispatch at 3:50 p.m. with three engine companies responding.
The burned man, who was described as in his early 60s by neighbors, was not identified by fire officials. Members of his family, some of whom lived in the next door apartment, were upset and declined to speak about the incident as they gathered in the nearby parking lot. Witnesses who saw the man carried out of the building said he was very badly burned.
Fire fighters quickly extinguished the flames which appeared largely confined to the second floor and the bedroom area. A burned mattress and clothing lay outside on the front lawn. Around the corner, a group of local children gawked at a television crew setting up to broadcast live from Hamilton Road.
Maintained by the East Hartford Housing Authority, Hockanum Park, a federally-owned housing development built in 1952, is the town's oldest public housing with 100 units in two-story, 4-unit stand-alone buildings on Hamilton Road, Mill Road and Holmes Street. It has 12 one-bedroom, 42 two-bedroom, 36 three-bedroom and 10 four-bedroom units.
Housing Authority workers began cleaning up the broken glass and debris when the fire trucks began to leave.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
