It happened in an instant. Scott Dalrymple and Joshua Doyon from Ladder 2 were the first Everett firefighters to run into a burning, three-family home on Morris Street, where a woman was trapped on the second floor on Friday at 1:45 p.m.
Dressed in protective gear, Dalrymple and Doyon immediately saw flames shooting from a heating vent inside the hallway, meaning the 3-alarm fire was roaring in the basement below, Everett Fire Chief Tony Carli said Saturday.
They scaled the stairs, but the heat and flames were so intense that Dalrymple and Doyon had to turn back, the chief said.
As they retreated, witnesses on Morris Street said a deafening boom erupted from inside the house. Doyon bolted through the front door followed by Dalrymple — both with flames shooting from their gear — as fire consumed the hallway behind them, the bystanders said.
“One firefighter came out tumbling,” said Mitchell Donnelly, 44, who lives across the street. “The other firefighter came out like he was a linebacker, head tucked down. He was totally engulfed in flames.”
Doyon, 27, who wasn’t as badly hurt as Dalrymple, 48, tried to help his colleague, who fell down the exterior stairs and needed to be sprayed with water.
“Josh was taking care of Scotty with a crew out front,” said Craig Hardy, president of Everett Firefighters Union Local 143, who was also summoned to the blaze. “He’s military trained. He didn’t worry about himself.”