Today’s Asbury Park Press has a breathtaking recap of how Sea Bright firefighters rescued Debra Yuhasz from the Fountains Condominiums fire early Monday morning.
The 47-year-old woman was lying unconscious on the balcony of her second-floor unit when Capt. Joseph Eskridge reached her via aerial ladder.
From the story:
Eskridge said he found himself staring into an inferno, with Yuhasz’s condo fully engulfed. The wind was whipping so strongly from in front of him that there was actually no smoke, which Eskridge said is an indicator of “a fire with very heavy flames. . . . It was like a broiler oven.”
Through the sliding glass doors on the balcony into Yuhasz’s living room, Eskridge could see only a roaring fire.
Press staff writers James A. Quirk and Michelle Sahn do a nice job of conveying a sense of what a terrifying moment Eskridge and his fellow firefighters faced.
Separately, the Press also has story about a cat that was presumed lost in the fire but turned up in what remains of its owner’s damaged apartment — alive, healthy, dry, and with “not one spot of dirt on her,” according to Sea Bright animal control officer Kerry Gowen.
