Pregnant Woman and Three Others Displaced by Kitchen Fire

Just after 10:15 a.m. this morning, left the r and headed to a condo fire at 45 Jefferson Road.

Engine 1,  and  arrived to find four victims evacuated from their first-floor condo in the Thimble Island condo complex; smoke was billowing from the first-floor patio door.

According to Branford Fire Deputy Chief Ron Mullen, firefighters were able to determine that a kitchen fire, which started on the stove and spread to a nearby wall and cabinets, was the cause of the fire.

A 28-year-old female resident who is 6-months pregnant was successful in squelching the fire with an extinguisher but was injured in the process. Mullen reported that when the female retrieved a fire extinguisher from the condo common hallway, she broke the glass of the case with her hand. She sustained a laceration to her hand but was able to put the fire out. The victim also endured smoke inhalation.

The victim’s 7-year-old daughter and 29-year-old husband escaped the fire without injury. The victim’s 49-year-old aunt, visiting from Maryland, sustained a laceration to her foot and smoke inhalation and was transported with her niece to Yale-New Haven Hospital.

After putting out the smoldering fire and ventilating the apartment and the first-floor hallway, Mullen said firefighters were able to determine that the 49-year-old female had turned on the wrong stove burner by accident when attempting to cook and combustible material caught on fire causing the fire.

The condo unit is uninhabitable and the four displaced victims are seeking shelter for the night. Mullen reports that the victims had insurance.

There are 16 units in the three-story building where the fire occurred and no other apartments were affected.

The holiday weekend, other than this morning's back-to-back incidents has been “relatively quiet” reported Mullen.