Years later, Aurora firefighter battles PTSD
By Denise Crosby ~ [email protected] June 9, 2012 8:14PM
Updated: June 10, 2012 2:49AM
It was Aug. 27, 2004, when the fire — and the controversy — ignited in the basement of a home in the 600 block of Palace Street on Aurora’s West Side.
Lt. Joseph Bartholomew, a 26-year veteran firefighter who had spent two decades with the Aurora Fire Department, was the first responder in Engine 1. When he and his two-man crew arrived, heavy smoke was already billowing out of the first and second floors of the home, with flames licking hungrily from the basement windows.
Engine 1’s job was search and rescue — they had no idea if people were in the house — and, in firefighter lingo, to “put the wet stuff on the red stuff” and get the damn fire out.
The flames did not look particularly menacing. But Bartholomew had been around long enough to know there’s no such thing as a routine fire. The beast can grow quickly … doubling in size every minute.
The men first tried to get into the home through the side door off the driveway, but orders came down they were not to force the entry. Instead, the crew raced around to the back and came through the kitchen door. Dropping on all fours, the firefighters crawled through the smoke toward the basement. Feeling the sag of the floor, Bartholomew knew there was a good possibility it could collapse at any minute.
The three firefighters retreated from the house and attempted to get to the basement through the front door. But that route proved just as futile, so they went back outside and popped a basement window, dumping enough water on the fire so they could descend the stairs.
Once in the fiery pit, Bartholomew dropped to all fours. It was obvious the blaze, stretching across the top of the ceiling, was quickly spreading. The basement was filled with thick steam from the water hitting the flames; with so much black smoke, the lieutenant could not even see the beam of his flashlight in front of him. He shouted to his nozzle man to hold his breath for three seconds to cut off the noisy air supply and allow them to listen to what the fire was saying.
They could hear heavy crackling, like logs burning in a fireplace.
