Pittsburgh fire Lt. James O'Toole scooped up the coughing 86-year-old Nannie Felder and passed her through a second-story, front window to firefighters waiting outside on a ladder.
Then O'Toole, 51, worried about getting out of the burning house alive. Flames engulfed the staircase that he had planned to use.
So, he jumped out of a second-story window on the side of the house — the first time in his 17-year career that he had jumped out of a window to escape a fire.
O'Toole, one of seven firefighters injured in Friday's three-alarm fire along Wilkinsburg's Ross Avenue, suffered a concussion and second-degree burns to his right hand.
“It was pretty bad,” O'Toole said Saturday. “I'm just glad that we're OK.”
When asked when he might be able to return to work, he said, “Time will tell.”
The last two firefighters who remained hospitalized with injuries were to be released Saturday, said Ralph Sicuro, president of Pittsburgh Firefighters Local 1.
“They realize even more so (Saturday) how close they came to death,” Sicuro said.
Allegheny County spokeswoman Amie Downs said the Fire Marshal's Office has not determined the cause of the fire.