Wis. Teen Burned in Kitchen Fire Runs to Hospital

Oct. 08--A 15-year-old La Crosse boy is hospitalized in Madison with severe burns suffered in a kitchen fire that started while he was cooking in an apartment Sunday afternoon.

The boy, whose identity was not released, ran from the apartment to the emergency room at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center a few blocks away after the fire started at about 3 p.m., fire Division Chief Tom Wallerich said.

Tenants had evacuated the other apartments at 1901 Miller St. in Wedgewood Commons by the time firefighters arrived, Wallerich said.

Apartment occupant Kelly Sanders told firefighters that her son was missing, so they searched the apartment, extinguished the blaze and rescued a small dog, he said.

After learning that the boy had been burned, firefighters called Gundersen Lutheran's emergency room, which confirmed that he had run there and was being treated, Wallerich said.

Sckilayre Eberhardy, who lives in the apartment directly above the one where the fire started, said during an interview, "I heard a guy down there screaming, and I could hear his sister screaming, 'Oh, my God.'"

Smoke was coming through the vents in Eberhardy's apartment and the area near her dishwasher, so she grabbed her two cats and her 4-foot ball python and ran from the building.

The boy's sister told Eberhardy he had been cooking when the fire erupted, she said. The parents weren't home, but the girl was calling them when Eberhardy talked to her.

"The fire department got here within three minutes," Eberhardy said. "It was crazy."

Eberhardy, who said she didn't know the names of the apartment's occupants, said she talked to the boy's father, who told her the youth's arms were burned severely.

Gundersen Lutheran was not able to release the boy's identity nor the name of the Madison facility to which he was transferred.

Fire damage was moderate, and smoke damage was severe, Wallerich said.

The fire department report listed the occupants as Sanders and Charles Uzoukwu. Nobody answered the doors at their apartment and the other three on the floor Sunday night.

Eberhardy said firefighters had deemed the second-floor units uninhabitable for the night because of smoke and carbon dioxide levels, but tenants on the first and third floors were allowed to stay in the their apartments.

Copyright 2012 - La Crosse Tribune, Wis.