"It’s smoke detectors.

Wednesday, January 19, 2000

"It’s smoke detectors. They’re the key," Dan Wilson said. "I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Early detection and notification are what counts."

"You have to have early notification and detection," Wilson said. "If you don’t have them, it doesn’t matter how many firefighters you have."

Wilson is Austin’s fire chief and nobody preaches the gospel of fire prevention louder and more often than he.

In the aftermath of the second house fire in 24 hours in Austin, Wilson again was touting the importance of smoke detectors.

James R. and Georgia M. Underdahl didn’t have one in their owner-occupied home at 1011 Third Ave. NW, when fire broke out at 11:08 p.m. Monday.

According to Wilson, the Underdahls are lucky to be alive.

"If it weren’t for Mr. (George) Thomas and the police officers, we were within minutes of not saving that fire and we would be having an entirely different press conference today," Wilson said Tuesday.

The Underdahls share the fire chief’s assessment. "If it weren’t for that guy to come walking by, who knows what might have happened," said James, a retired barber.

Austin Police Department community service officer Ernesto Cantu had completed his shift and was on the way home when he heard a communications dispatcher’s request on the radio for firefighters to respond to the northwest Austin blaze.

Austin patrolman David McKichan also responded and the pair were the first on the scene. George Gilbert Thomas, 50, of 601 First Drive NW, was outside the house and told the officers he had been walking in the neighborhood when he saw smoke curling from the rooftop of the Underdahls’ home.

Thomas pounded on the front door and windows to alert the occupants. Mrs. Underdahl already was outside the home, but McKichan and Cantu entered the home in search of her husband. They found him and walked him outside the burning residence.

By then, the fire chief and firefighters arrived at the scene.

Learning that the home’s occupants were evacuated, the fire chief was relieved. "Anytime somebody doesn’t get out of their house, we have to go inside and that’s a dangerous situation for us," Wilson said.

Recently three Keokuk, Iowa, firefighters were killed entering a burning building to rescue its occupants. Three others perished in that blaze, too.

Last year, 109 firefighters and 175 peace officers were killed in the line of duty.

According to Wilson, those thoughts weighed on his mind at the scene of the Monday night house fire.

"Thank God," Wilson said, "the officers who went into that home weren’t hurt or worse."

On that point, Austin Police Chief Paul M. Philipp said, "Normally, we discourage people from entering burning buildings without the proper equipment."

"But," he added, "we leave that to the judgment of the officers at the scene. Our job is not to become part of the problem, but to be part of the solution."

Asked by a reporter whether the police officers’ actions were responsible for evacuating the elderly couple (Jim Underdahl is 65) and that they could be called "heroes," the police chief replied, "It certainly sounds likely."

The 911 call came from the home and it appears Mrs. Underdahl may have made it before exiting the residence.

Wilson marveled at the successful outcome of the emergency, when relating how earlier Monday Jim Underdahl had been cooking fish in the kitchen.

"He must have made some smoke frying fish, because he said the smoke alarm went off and he didn’t like the noise so he dismantled it," Wilson said.

"That’s why, when the fire started in the house, they were asleep and heard nothing until the passer-by started banging on their doors and windows and the police officers went inside to rescue them," Wilson said.

Pets are victims, too

There were extenuating circumstances Monday night, because of the five pet cats and one dog owned by the Underdahls.

Mrs. Underdahl was asleep on the couch in the living room of the family’s home.

"I wasn’t feeling good Monday and when I heard the dog bark, I knew something was wrong," she said.

Her husband had time to put on a snowmobile suit, but was barefoot when he was escorted outside the home.

Mrs. Underdahl was frantic that her pets were safe as she watched flames of fire engulf the home from a squad car nearby.

The dog was placed in a van that the fire chief drove away from the hot flames.

Three cats were taken from the home unconscious, while two others were in the basement and had to be captured by firefighters and taken outside.

Firefighter Pat Farnsworth took over giving oxygen to the three unconscious cats with help from a Gold Cross Ambulance Service crew also at the scene. The three cats were taken to Austin Veterinary Clinic where they recovered from smoke inhalation.

Wilson said the 911 call was received at the communications center at 11:08 p.m. Monday and firefighters were on the scene by 11:11 p.m. He praised the department’s full- and part-time firefighters with outstanding work, considering it was the second house fire in 24 hours.

An insurance adjustor and Deputy State Fire Marshal Steve Wolff of Rochester began sifting through the ruins Tuesday to determine the cause of the fire. The origin appears to have been in the ceiling above the hallway outside the kitchen. The "hottest" spot of the fire was between the kitchen and a rear bedroom where Mrs. Underdahl slept until being awakened by Thomas’ pounding on the front door and windows.

The Underdahls are staying at the Days Inn in Austin, where Terry and Rhonda Jarrett and their two sons and teen-age daughter also are staying. The Jarretts suffered a similar house fire Sunday night.

According to officials, the Jarrett home was "well-insured" with $129,000 on the structure and $55,000 on contents. It is not known at this time the extend of the Underdahls’ homeowners’ insurance coverage.

Ironically, the Jarretts’ house fire also may have originated in the kitchen ceiling area just like it appears the Underdahls’ did.

Also coincidental, the two house fires occurred nearly 24 hours apart with 31 minutes of each other: 11:39 p.m. Sunday and 11:08 p.m. Monday.

Now, Wilson is discussing with Austin Mayor Bonnie Rietz how to recognize citizen Thomas and the two police officers for their heroic actions.

Meanwhile, the Underdahls are in a state of shock.

"I’m just … lost," Mrs. Underdahl said, fumbling for the right words to describe her feelings a day after the blaze destroyed the couple’s home of 24 years. "I’m still shocked and in a daze."

Her husband needed the services of fellow veterans, who helped him obtain needed medications lost in the blaze, on Tuesday.

Now, the couple is discussing what course of action to pursue as they decide where to live.

"It’s shot," the husband said of the house. "It’s done."