Two Saved in Superior Apartment Fire

One Resident And First Responders Make Right Decisions

UPDATE: Both victims of this fire are currently in intensive care units. A male victim, Ronald Stark, is in critical condition at the burn unit at Miller Dwan, and a female victim, Kellie Cook is listed in stable condition, but remains in the intensive care unit at Essentia Duluth.

SUPERIOR, Wis. – Heroic efforts by an apartment resident and the Superior Fire Department saved the lives of two people tonight, as a fire roared through their five story apartment.

Just home from work, resident of Regina Hill Apartments, Brandon Larsen, noticed something wasn’t right as soon as he stepped on the 5th floor.

“When I had come off the elevator originally I saw smoke and when I had looked down the hall it was through the course of the hall so I walked the hall up and down to see what was going on,” said Larsen.

Larsen saw smoke coming out of the apartment directly across from his own apartment and he quickly called 911.

“The dispatcher said that if I had seen smoke that I needed to pull the alarm and start getting people out of the building.”

When a fire alarm is pulled, the elevators stop working, and knowing that there were neighbors who were incapable of getting out, he quickly went into action.

“I did what I could to help people get out and help the fire department get to where they needed to go,” Larsen stated.

“Being as there are people that can’t get out of the building themselves, it’s a really high tension situation and it can cause a lot of problems, confusion people get hurt.”

The nearest fire department is just blocks away and they arrived in minutes.

“They went in there, it was so dark they were shouting to find if anybody was there, they heard some noises [but] didn’t know if it was the TV or a person but they found a person down,” said Superior Fire Department Battalion Chief Scott Gordon.

Soon after the first rescue there was another within the same apartment.

“While they were bringing out the first they kept searching the fire room found another patient radioed to me put another system in place to receive that patient that how we moved through,” Gordon told FOX 21.

On arrival, it is the responsibility of the truck captain to make the calls.

Captain Lindzi Campbell put her training in use and quickly made a critical decision, and according to her chief, the right decision.

“Main thing is making a decision, that first fire engine captain has got to make a decision. Am I putting out the fire or am I helping the patient?” explained Gordon.  “She made that decision, she made it correctly, she found the patients, she dumped what little water they had with the immediately dump that on the fire, then they shut the door.”

Over one hundred people live in the building and all but two made it out safely.

“Not exactly sure of their condition but I know they were transported right away. They were hurt pretty bad; they were in that room a lot of smoke for a long period of time,” Gordon says.

We do not know the names of the two residents.

They were transported to Essentia Health Duluth via Gold Cross ambulance and are currently in ICU being treated for smoke inhalation and physical burns.