Smoke Inhalation

Fire investigators say an 89-year-old man was not seriously hurt in a house fire because he had a working smoke alarm. Authorities also say careless smoking is to blame for the fire that broke out Thursday evening in the 8000 block E. Tipperary off Rock Road. Police closed Rock for more than two hours to allow fire equipment and crews to battle the fire. The homeowner was treated for minor smoke inhalation. Damage is estimated at $500,000 to the structure and $100,000 loss to the contents.

Wichita emergency crews are on the scene of a house fire in the 3100 block of S. Yale.  Crews were called to the scene by an off-duty firefighter at around 6:10 Friday morning.  When they arrived, they found the house almost entirely engulfed in flames. Pictures from the Fire Scene A woman was home at the time of the fire.  She got out, but suffered minor smoke inhalation.  Fire officials tell us the home is a total loss, with damage estimates of $50,000 to the home and $20,000 to the contents.

An off-duty Sedgwick County detention officer helped keep a Park City house fire from spreading Monday afternoon. The man was driving near the 2500 block of Evanston Circle around 1:30 when he noticed the back of a home on fire. While he waited for fire crews to arrive, he grabbed a neighbors' hose and sprayed down the home's deck. Clint Reed, with the Sedgwick County Fire Department, says the fire was contained to the deck and damaged some of the home's siding. The detention officer was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation but has been released.

"Ember" was in critical condition from smoke inhalation after a fire January 19th on N. Chautauqua. There were no people home at the time of the fire but an adult dog and two puppies were found inside. More Pictures of Ember  Efforts to revive two of the dogs were unsuccessful. However, Ember did respond to CPR with help from pet rescue masks that were donated to the fire department. Ember's recovery has been slow. The six week-old Terrier mix was bottle fed for a few weeks and is now eating some solid food.

Quite a scene in Wichita this morning as a pickup crashes into several cars and signs along S. Broadway before catching fire. Wichita police tell us it all started at 63rd Street South and Broadway when a driver struck a city vehicle.  He kept going, striking another car at 55th Street S., then struck a bridge just north of MacArthur Road on Broadway.  The 75-year-old driver stopped as his truck caught fire. Officers pulled the man, who had caught fire, from the truck.  Those officers along with the driver were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation.  Their injuries are not considered life-threatening.

A night-light is blamed for a fire late Sunday night that sent a man to the hospital. Fire crews were called to the home in the 3200 block of south Knight around 11:30 Sunday night. Investigators say a man woke up to the smell of smoke. He went to another bedroom where he found a bed on fire. While the man made it out of the home, firefighters say he was overcome by the smoke. The man was taken to a Wichita hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation. The man was the only person at home and no one was in the bedroom where the fire happened.

A small fire broke out in the Sedgwick County Detention facility Wednesday morning and now the jail's operating under lockdown.  The sheriff's office says, an external electrical transformer failed and may have caused an electrical surge inside the building. In a press release, the sheriff's office writes that deputies immediately discovered and managed to put out a very small fire in the ceiling, where power runs through the building.  Some of those deputies were later treated for possible smoke inhalation.

A 54-year-old man burned in a fire last Thursday has died.  Authorities say Michael Durham died from the injuries he suffered when a space heater ignited in a garage. Fire investigators say the fire in the 1500 block of south Amsden was an accident. They say the people who live in the home were working on a gas powered scooter in the garage. They spilled some gasoline and a nearby space heater ignited the vapors. Click here to see photos of the fire Firefighters found two people laying on the front lawn upon arrival.

Fire crews call a second alarm on a fire at the Holiday Inn at Kellogg & Rock Road.  Firefighters were called to the scene at around 11:30 Wednesday morning when an air-conditioning and heating unit in a vacant room on the fourth floor caught fire. Wichita Fire Marshal Brad Crisp says the initial crews found smoke and flames coming from a fourth-floor room.  When they got to the area, they found significant fire in that room.  Crisp says the sprinkler system kept the fire in check and fire crews were able to finish putting out the fire.

Just a couple blocks from the fire scene the manager of a fireworks stand--who is also a mother--makes sure all her customers get a safety brochure.  "Come on, Wichita," Mitzi Rivers-Singleton says.  "Let's be safe!" Rivers-Singleton was reacting to the early morning fire in the 1200 blk of N. Glendale on Sunday.  Investigators say it was caused by someone placing discarded fireworks in an outdoor trash can.  They smoldered for hours before catching the house on fire.  When firefighters arrived they found the front of the home and the porch engulfed in flames.