By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
WYANDOTTE — A 59-year-old wheelchair-bound man was rescued from a housefire in the 300 block of Hudson Street Jan. 6 thanks to the accurate information obtained by a dispatch operator and the actions of two police officers, who arrived before firefighters.
Dispatch operator Beth Kusiak talked to the man, who was trapped in his smoke-filled bedroom and could not walk. The fire was later determined to have started on the mattress in the same room in which he was trapped.
The dispatch operator’s precise information allowed responding Police Officers Mike Sadowski and Nick Stathakis to quickly find the trapped man and carry him and his wheelchair downstairs to safety, despite the thick black smoke that limited their visual field and made breathing without apparatus difficult.
The wheelchair-bound man was the only person occupying the home, and he had no pets.
Wyandotte firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby houses. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.