Man allegedly sets apartment on fire then calls friend for help
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POCATELLO – A local man allegedly set fire to his apartment before calling his friend while trapped inside the burning unit.
On Wednesday evening, the Pocatello Fire and Police Departments responded to an emergency call, alerting them to a fire at 1160 South Fourth Avenue. Emergency responders evacuated the occupants of the building and rescued a man trapped inside his apartment, who police say set the fire on purpose.
“It wasn’t an accident,” said Lt. Josh Hancock of the police department.
The person who placed the emergency call at around 6:45 p.m. was a friend of the trapped resident. Rather than call 911 himself, the man called his friend.
Arriving at the scene, “We were able to go make entry inside and bring the person out. They were able to exit the apartment on their own power,” said Shane Grow, Assistant Chief of Operations of the fire department.
After crawling out of the building under the smoke, firefighters immediately sent him to the hospital in an ambulance. As of the next day, the resident was still in an area hospital, according to Hancock, but he didn’t know what condition he was in.
The damage to the building wasn’t immediately apparent from the exterior. One of the windows was broken, and charred glass shards were still on the ground Thursday evening. Smoke streaks are visible on the entrance door.
Grow said that it only took them around 10 minutes to completely contain the fire and prevented it from reaching beyond the basement apartment building where it started, which is now uninhabitable. The apartment above it was unoccupied at the time.
The around eight to 10 residents evacuated from the building were allowed to return home at around 8 p.m.
While fire investigators were present at the scene, Grow explained that this isn’t abnormal.
“We always have investigators on scene. So we did work in conjunction with the police investigators, but that’s something that we do on a regular basis,” Grow said.
It’s unclear if charges will be brought forward against the rescued apartment resident. The incident is still under investigation by the Pocatello Police Department.