Firefighters used a ladder to rescue a man who was trapped inside an abandoned home early Tuesday morning.
Units found heavy smoke coming from the top floor of the two-story home on Elysian Fields Avenue at 5:15 a.m. The home appeared to be abandoned, with the windows and doors boarded up, a fire official said.
As crew set out to attack the fire, they heard a man yelling for help and spotted him hanging out a second story window.
Ladder 11 and Rescue 7 firefighters put a ladder to the window and rescued the man while other crews began attacking the fire.
“Once again our members demonstrated the type of professionalism we have within the New Orleans Fire Department," Superintendent Timothy McConnell said. "Not only did they save a victim who should not have been in the building, but were able to contain the fire before it was able to do considerably more damage.”
Fire officials said that a fire company that recently installed smoke detectors in the adjacent home.
Afterwards, they conducted an inspection of the home that burned, where they found holes in the floor and signs that squatters were occupying the structure.
The man who was rescued was treated at the scene.
Smoking is believed to be the cause of the fire.
