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Wednesday, March 02, 2005

A BIT MORE ON YESTERDAY’S
FOGGY BOTTOM FIRE
[see below, 3/1/05],
FEATURING A LOCAL HERO



From today's Washington Times:


' An employee at George Washington University rescued several residents from a burning apartment building in Northwest yesterday before firefighters arrived.

Jordan Plieskatt, 23, was moving his car to avoid a ticket at a two-hour parking meter at about 11 a.m. when he saw smoke coming from St. Mary's Court at 725 24th St. NW.

"I saw smoke pouring out of the building," said Mr. Plieskatt, a former emergency medical technician who volunteered as a campus medic and as a medic in Alexandria.

Mr. Plieskatt, who works nearby at the university's biotechnology department, entered the apartment building, where a receptionist was on the phone with 911. "I rushed up to the fourth floor," he said. "There was a little smoke but no evidence of a fire."

Mr. Plieskatt ran to the fifth floor, where smoke was heavy. He pounded on doors, alerting residents to the fire before heading to the sixth floor.

Within minutes, Mr. Plieskatt helped three persons downstairs to the building's lobby before firefighters arrived.

Alan Etter, a spokesman for the D.C. fire department, said the three-alarm blaze erupted on the fifth floor of the nine-story apartment building. Mr. Etter said improperly disposed smoking materials were to blame.

Mr. Etter said the building is a federally subsidized housing complex and its 140 apartments are occupied mostly by senior citizens.

"This had all the makings of a potential disaster," Mr. Etter said. "Whenever you have a building that's on fire with that number of elderly people who need to be evacuated -- many of whom have ambulatory issues and respiratory issues -- it's a serious situation." '