Man rescued from Cedar Rapids apartment fire

PHOTO ADDED: A 59-year-old man was rescued from a Cedar Rapids apartment fire this morning.

Ryan Walker, age 23, saw smoke coming from a first-floor apartment at the two-story, 14-unit Creekside Apartments, 3009 12

^th

Avenue SW. Other neighbors also saw the smoke and were outside yelling that there was a victim still inside the apartment that was on fire.  Walker pulled the man out of the apartment unit just prior to the Fire Department's arrival.

Firefighters were dispatched at 7:19 a.m. and arrived on scene to find the victim outside the building near a concrete patio.  There was light smoke coming from the lower apartment.

Firefighter/paramedics began medical treatment on the victim, while other firefighters entered the structure to extinguish the fire.  Fire crews encountered light smoke and a room and contents fire, including a chair, mattress and furniture.  Firefighters contained the fire to the victim's apartment, which sustained heavy smoke damage, as well as moderate fire and heat damage.

The victim was taken by ambulance to St. Luke's Hospital, and later transferred to University Hospitals in Iowa City with life-threatening injuries.

The victim was the apartment's only occupant.  There was not a working smoke alarm installed in the apartment unit, fire officials said.

Occupants of the other 13 apartment units evacuated when neighbors pounded on their apartment doors to alert them of the incident.  There were no other injuries reported.

The fire originated in a waste paper basket between the bed and the chair.

Officials are still investigating the fire.

View Larger Map