Security guard saves four from fire-gas had been shut off, trying to heat w/charcoal in crock pot

[The Straight Story]

Security guard saves four from fire


Roderick Lavelle said he did the only thing that could have or should have been done when he saw a mother and her three children screaming for help from an apartment window full of billowing smoke early Wednesday.

He left his security post at the gated entrance to the Mon View Heights public housing complex. Standing beneath a second-floor window, he ordered the woman, Autumn Sanders, and her children to jump into his arms.

All four escaped the early morning fire without injury.

However, Mr. Lavelle, 53, who works for Centurian Security, said he suffered a minor back injury. He fell to the ground when he caught Ms. Sanders' teenage daughter, the last to jump from the window.

...

"I saw the smoke with the lady and the kids leaning out the window. I couldn't imagine not doing anything other than what I did," Mr. Lavelle said.

In a police affidavit, Ms. Sanders told investigators her gas had been shut off and she tried to heat her home by lighting charcoal in a ceramic crock pot.





http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10063/1040134-55.stm

[L0oniX]

1. K & R for security guards.

[Edweird]

2. I have no doubt the fire saved their lives. They would have died from Carbon Monoxide poisoning

from burning charcoal indoors.

[Kitty Herder]

6. That's what I was thinking, too. nt

[dysfunctional press]

16. yep.

that's just all kinds of stupid.

[panader0]

3. I don't know what charcoal costs where they live

but around here gas is cheaper.

[EFerrari]

17. The gas company turned the gas off because there was a leak

and the mom was at work so they had no access to the apartment during working hours.

So needless, all the way around. Thank gawd no one got killed.

[femmocrat]

4. The mom is facing charges:

"Ms. Sanders, 30, was arraigned Wednesday on charges of arson, risking a catastrophe and three counts of reckless endangerment."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10063/1040134-55.stm#ixzz0hY65Nnpq

[anonymous171]

5. So fucking unfair nt

[roguevalley]

10. PROBATION, G-D IT! Kick her while she's down. Nice.

[951-Riverside]

12. Good. Shes an unfit mother and a moron.

Anyone with a bit of sense knows heating a house with charcoal is deadly.

[Berry Cool]

14. No, they don't. Somewhere, they had to learn it. It's not knowledge people are born with

and people don't pick up understanding of scientific facts through "common sense." They have to learn them.

Obviously, no one ever taught this woman that you don't use charcoal for house heating.

She's not a moron, she's just ignorant. And her ignorance was almost deadly.

Why was she ignorant? Don't know. But she somehow missed this vital piece of information. Doesn't make her stupid. Just makes her ignorant.

[anonymous171]

15. An unfit mother would have let her children freeze. nt

[RamboLiberal]

7. Dispute over why the gas was shut off

It appears the fire started after Sanders tried to warm the apartment by burning charcoal briquettes in a ceramic pot in a hallway, Brucker said. When that didn't work, she poured an "ignitable liquid" on the coals, he said.

"It just got out of hand," Brucker said, adding that burning charcoal inside can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. "It was a recipe for disaster no matter how you look at it."

Sanders was jailed on charges of reckless burning, reckless endangerment and causing or risking a catastrophe.

She told fire officials that Equitable Gas crews turned off her gas Tuesday because of unpaid bills. Equitable spokesman Scott Waitlevertch said Sanders called while at work, to talk about her account, and said the apartment smelled like gas. Crews who investigated shut off service as a precaution, he said.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_669806.html


A neighbor next door said she and Ms. Sanders smelled natural gas Tuesday morning and reported it to Equitable Gas Co.

The children went to school and Ms. Sanders went to work. While they were out, the neighbor said, a gas company worker arrived and detected fumes. However, unable to get into the apartment, the workman shut off service to the two apartments.

Ms. Sanders' children spent after-school hours with their neighbor and later at their church in Homestead. They returned to their apartment with their mother after midnight Tuesday night, Mr. Lavelle said.

"I wish she had said something. I have an extra space heater she could've used," said Ms. Sanders' neighbor, Sandra Cook.

Though the fire was contained in Ms. Sanders' unit, smoke caused damage to Ms. Cook's apartment.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10063/1040134-55.stm#ixzz0hYAScswn

Dumbass move burning charcoal in a building. Since this is an apartment complex she endangered more than just her own family. Thank goodness the security guard was there to catch them.

[anonymous171]

9. How cold is it there at this time of the year?

[Hannah Bell]

11. pennsylvania. last i heard they had snow on the ground.

[Historic NY]

8. Nice going Mr. Roderick Lavelle.

[Snazzy]

13. right she's the loser

not whoever turned off the heat or the legislators who allow power companies to do that in the winter.

You turn off the heat, stuff burns down when freezing people freak the fuck out. Life in the big city. Who's the idiot?