Emergency ladder saves family in Chesapeake blaze

CHESAPEAKE

Three people were hospitalized, two with burns, after flames swept through an apartment building on Nicholas Court on Friday, leaving eight people homeless.

The toll could have been worse if not for a father's emergency planning that allowed a young couple to flee the burning building by ladder.

The two-alarm fire in the Governor's Pointe complex, near the intersection of Battlefield and Great Bridge boulevards, was reported at 2:40 p.m.

Rapidly spreading flames blocked all common exits from the third floor of the building, said Capt. Steve Johnson, a Fire Department spokesman.

The young couple, Raven Lawrence and Michael Thompson, appeared to be trapped with their infant child.

"But they had the presence of mind," Johnson said, to grab an escape ladder from the closet. They hung it from a third-floor window.

It became their survival route.

"We don't have a lot of people who do that kind of planning," Johnson said. "I wish we had more."

It turned out the good foresight came courtesy of Lawrence's dad, who gave her the ladder after she moved onto the third floor two months ago.

She thought he was being overly cautious. The ladder, still in its box, was tossed in a closet.

On Friday, the couple had just gotten home from work when they heard people yelling in an apartment one floor below.

They ran to their door, finding their escape blocked by flames and smoke. The only other way out was the window.

Thompson said he remained calm only because he knew, if he panicked, he'd "make bad decisions."

He fetched the ladder from the closet, snapped its base to the window sill "and just threw it over."

A stranger climbed up and they handed him their 6-month-old daughter, Kaliyah, bundled in a jacket, Lawrence said.

He carried the infant down to safety. The couple followed.

"My heart was thumping," Lawrence said. "I thought I was going to die."

Afterward, Lawrence called her dad and told him how his gift of the ladder had proven to be a gift of life, three times over.

"He cried," she said.

While that was a positive lesson in the wake of the blaze, the fire also had a negative aspect - its cause.

A resident who was using a home oxygen tank "lit up a cigarette," sparking the fire, Johnson said.

There were two people in the apartment where it started, he said.

It is believed that one of them was hurt while trying to put out the fire, "although we are still trying to piece all that together," Johnson said.

Investigators went to the hospital to interview the injured, he added.

The names of those hospitalized were not released. One was in guarded condition, Johnson said. The other two are "walking wounded," he said.

Johnson said there will be no charges because there was no intent to start a fire, but he issued an appeal for people who use, or assist someone who relies on, home oxygen systems to be cautious - especially if there are smokers in the home.

Smoking is "never, never, never a good idea anywhere near or in the presence of oxygen," Johnson said. "It has an explosive, burning capacity."

In the past two years, there have been two fire deaths in Chesapeake traced to someone smoking while using a home oxygen system.

Both victims suffered severe facial burns that eventually killed them.

The Red Cross is assisting the displaced residents, Johnson said, including those taken to the hospital.

Six apartment units were affected by the fire.

The one where the blaze started was largely gutted, Johnson said. The others had varying amounts of smoke and water damage or electrical problems related to the fire.

It took firefighters about a half hour to control the blaze, which was limited to the one apartment building in the 18-building complex.

Steve Stone, (757) 446-2309/2319, steve.stone@pilotonline.com

Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5555, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com