Waking up surrounded by flames on Nov. 14, Joshua White is in rare company as a fire survivor.
That being said, the last 11 months haven’t been easy for him, as he continues a long recovery and rehabilitation from extensive burns suffered in the blaze.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, there were about 3,700 civilian fire deaths and 16,600 civilian fire injuries in the U.S. in 2019, with property damages estimated at $14.8 billion.
Having fallen asleep in a chair in his lower duplex at 10th and Pearl streets after a late-night session of an ambitious, down-to-the-studs remodeling of his lower duplex, White, 40, awoke at 3:30 a.m. surrounded by flames.
“I woke up and I was just consumed in fire,” he recalled.
Due to the remodeling project, smoke detectors were not in place to wake White and give him an advance warning.