Audio transmission captured from the Wilmington 911 dispatch system early Saturday morning tells the tragic details of how Wilmington firefighters rushed into a burning rowhome only to fall through the floor into a flame-filled basement less than a minute later.
The feed, pulled from an online archive system and posted on YouTube, gives voice to more than 28 minutes of emergency response by Wilmington Fire Department members as they worked to free firefighters trapped in the basement of a Canby Park rowhome. The feed ends before all firefighters have been freed from the home along Lakeview Road.
Lt. Christopher Leach and Senior Firefighter Jerry Fickes did not survive the blaze. Firefighters Ardythe Hope and Brad Speakman were critically injured and transported to Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Pennsylvania, where they remain hospitalized. Two others were treated for injuries related to the fire.
The broadcast starts with the original call for a residential structure fire at about 2:55 a.m., with callers reporting fire in the basement. In the transmission, a dispatcher says all occupants are described as being out of the house, though he tells responding fire crews that a daughter may have gone back inside to get pets.