Two Firefighters Injured Battling Blaze in Atlanta

Oct. 30--One firefighter fell 20 feet from a roof and another was burned Thursday morning while battling a blaze at a Buckhead apartment complex.

Firefighters were called to the two-alarm fire at the Victoria complex in the 3500 block of Roswell Road around 11 a.m.

Firefighter Spurgeon Putnam was injured when he fell 20 feet from a roof, fire department spokeswoman Janet Ward said. Firefighter Josh Martinson was burned on his shoulders. Both are from Station 21, Ward said.

"They were working on the roof during ventilation operations, and we don't really know the details of what caused [Putnam] to fall," Assistant Fire Chief Chris Wessels said. "As you can imagine, that's one of the most dangerous things our guys do -- wearing all that gear, the roof obviously has a steep angle to it. Fortunately, it looks like one of the vestibules broke his fall, so he didn't fall straight to the ground, he kind of fell in two smaller falls.

"It's actually easier the fact that he was at the exterior of the building, we were able to get right to him," he added. "Of course, in a fall, the primary thing we're concerned (about) is stabilizing his neck and spine and making sure that he doesn't have any serious spinal injuries."

Putnam and Martinson were both taken by ambulance to Grady Memorial Hospital. Ward said Thursday afternoon that Martinson had been released and was at home recuperating, while Putnam was "doing well" but will remain at Grady overnight for observation.

Roswell Road was temporarily closed in the area while the fire was extinguished. The cause remains under investigation. None of the residents of the apartments were injured.

Wessels said four units of the apartment building, which he believed had 16 units, were damaged in the fire.

--Staff writer Jon Gargis contributed to this report.

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