A smouldering chesterfield cushion was on the front lawn of the London home but no one seemed sure how it got there.
By Steve Green | The London Free Press
Police Sergeant Don McKinnon helps firefighters carry Elwood Atkinson, 70, to an ambulance after he was rescued from a burning house in London. A passer-by was the first to see flames shooting from the house. Atkinson was in critical condition late Tuesday.
The quick actions of a passer-by may have saved an elderly London man’s life in a house fire Tuesday.
James McKee, 42, was on his way to his Egerton Street hobby shop when he noticed flames “shooting” though the front door at 78 Glenwood Ave. in the southeast area of the city. He alerted a neighbor across the street to call for help.
IN CRITICAL CONDITION: Firefighters found Elwood Atkinson, 70, in the house and he was taken by ambulance to Victoria Hospital where he was in critical condition late Tuesday. Firefighters said he was the only person in the house and lived there.
“There was no way I could get in,” McKee said, “I figured there was someone in there because there was a chesterfield cushion on the front lawn, still burning, and the front door was wide open, but I couldn’t see inside,” Mckee said. “I went to the front and the back; the heat was so intense I could hear the glass shattering.
“But it was just one of those thing where you couldn’t do a damn thing.”
Fire Inspector Dave Pottruff said he couldn’t explain how the cushion got on the front lawn. He also said he hasn’t determined the cause of the fire, but his investigation is continuing.
The interior of the house was destroyed, said police Sergeant Don McKinnon, who was the blaze was over minutes after firefighters arrived. “She went quick.”
Source: London Free Press
