Pennsylvania Firefighter Recalls Being Caught in Floor Collapse

Volunteer firefighter Bob Wysocki remembers the intense heat and thick smoke as he helped put out a house fire. Suddenly, he felt the floor weaken.

“The floor’s giving way,” he yelled and started to turn away. Before he could move, it collapsed, and Wysocki fell up to his shoulders into a hole.

Within seconds, his partner Alex Vogel pulled Wysocki out of the hole and, with another firefighter, out of the house ? another reminder of the kinship of this close-knit fraternity.

“I was kind of scared, but I wasn’t because my partner was right there,” Wysocki recalled on Sunday.

“I might have had a broken leg or broken arm because it was a good 10- to 12-foot drop,” he continued. “I was very thankful I walked away with a bruised shoulder and a bruised knee. It could have been way worse than that.”

Deputy Chief Bill Connors of the Baldwin Independent Fire Company said the crew received a call about 9:45 p.m. Saturday for a fire at the home of the Anthony Pasquini family in the 3000 block of Churchview Avenue in Baldwin. The family had a barbecue earlier that evening and believe the grill ignited the back porch, Connors said.

The family safely evacuated the three-story brick home as the fire spread.

Vogel, 21, of Baldwin had rescued other people in four years with the company, but this marked the first time he had to save a partner. Because Wysocki was wearing about 130 pounds of gear, Vogel had to pull out a man who basically weighed twice as much as he.

“I didn’t have to think about it,” Vogel said. “Adrenaline kicked in, and I grabbed him and picked him up.”

He said he didn’t even consider the possibility that he might fall into the hole, too.

“I was more worried about him at the time,” Vogel said.

Wysocki was treated at UPMC Mercy, Uptown, and released.

The incident marked the closest call he has had in three years as a volunteer firefighter.

“And I wouldn’t want it to happen again,” he said with a laugh. “It’s not on my things-to-do list.”

Connors said another firefighter suffered smoke inhalation, and a third was injured by falling debris, but neither was taken to a hospital.

Wysocki gave his partner a hearty thanks afterwards.

“I gave him a big old pat on the back and a big old hug to say thank you,” Wysocki said.

Wysocki’s wife, Deanna, 34, said she is not surprised that Vogel helped her husband in a pinch.

“Alex is a real great kid,” she said. “I knew he would have Bobby’s back.”

Still, she worries about her husband every day.

“We have four kids, and I want him to be around to see them all grow up,” she said.