Condo Fire Badly Injures Elderly Woman

An 84-year-old woman was in critical condition Thursday with second-degree burns after being rescued by firefighters who found her collapsed near the front door of her burning condominium.

A firefighter also was injured when he slipped from a ladder while battling the flames and fell through a ventilation hole, hurting his ribs, authorities said.

The woman, Edna Nolan, who might have been bedridden, apparently was asleep about 11 p.m. when the blaze broke out in her bedroom, said Capt. Scott Brown, spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority.

About 30 firefighters arrived at the residence on Leatherwood Way, which was enveloped in smoke, knocked down the front door and crawled inside to extend water hoses to battle the blaze.

“It was so dark you couldn’t see very far,” Battalion Chief Ron Blaul said. “You have to stay very low because it’s extremely hot, you’re talking about 500 to 600 degrees. And you wave your arms and kick your legs and see if you bump into anything.”

Capt. Steve Diersing said he and another firefighter, Paul Perez, found Nolan “still in her nightgown” moments after entering the house and carried her outside, where paramedics treated and transported her to UCI Medical Center in Orange.

She suffered burns on the upper body and was reported in critical but stable condition Thursday evening, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The injured firefighter was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he was treated for a fractured rib and released, Brown said.

Delia Benn, a next-door neighbor, said Nolan rarely goes outside and leads a reserved life. Another neighbor said Nolan appeared to be bedridden, but authorities could not confirm that. Benn also was asleep when she heard a “bang” and thought something had fallen on her condominium, which shares a wall with the scorched home.

“I heard a second bang, an even louder one, and realized something was wrong,” said Benn, 51. “I walked upstairs to check on my daughter and through the glass doors, I saw flames.”

Benn called 911 and evacuated her daughter and two poodles, Oscar and Roger. Her husband took a garden hose and sprayed the neighbor’s bedroom with water until firefighters arrived, Benn said.

“We are extremely lucky,” Benn said, pointing to the singed wood-shake roof outside her bedroom. “It could have been much worse.”

It took 23 minutes to control the blaze, which was sparked by an electrical failure in a hospital-type bed, investigators said. The fire caused damage estimated at $125,000 and investigators “weren’t able to find any remnants of a smoke detector,” Brown said.

“We just want to remind people that early detection is key in saving lives,” Brown said. “It buys you early warning.”