CLEVELAND — Mark Hall has praise, appreciation and admiration for the Cleveland Fire Department, after department Battalion Chief Bill Gorey saved the life of his 47-year-old sister during a roaring blaze at the family's Gray Avenue home Friday morning.
Halls sister was overcome by the heavy smoke when she went back into the burning home, because she thought an 11-year-old family member was trapped on the second floor of the house.
“I definitely appreciate it, I wanted to be a firefighter at one time, so I can do nothing but salute," Hall said. “I’m very grateful, I’m very grateful, like I said, all of the first responders were there and I was very grateful.”
Cleveland Fire Public Information Officer Mike Norman said working smoke detectors at the house helped to get other family members out of the house in time.
Norman said the Cleveland Fire Department will sound alarms at 6 p.m. on Nov. 6 to remind people to change the batteries in their smoke alarms when they move their clocks back one hour this weekend.
Norman said the Gray Avenue fire was another lesson that no one should go back into a burning home.
“She believed that there was an 11-year-old, a child on the second floor, so she was trying to go up and get that child out of the house," Norman said. “I think that the important lesson for people is not to go into a structure like that, we’ve got the equipment and the training.”
"Smoke produced by burning home items is very toxic. They’re mostly synthetic, they burn hotter, they burn quicker. There is less time to get out of structure fire than you did 20 years ago,” he continued.
Norman wanted to remind homeowners the Cleveland Fire Department is working with the Northeast Ohio American Red Cross on Operation Save-A-Life, a program that provides free smoke detectors for residents.
To get information on the program, homeowners can call 216-361-5535, or log into the Cleveland Fire Department fire prevention webpage or theOperation Save-A-Life webpage.
Meanwhile, Norman said Battalion Chief Gorey, whose father and brother are lieutenants with the Cleveland Fire Department, doesn't believe his life saving effort makes him a hero.
“Well he would tell you he was just in the right place at the right time," Norman said. "He did his job, he followed his training."
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