BERNARD HARRIS
Intelligencer Journal/New Era

Lancaster city firefighters were not expecting to find Steve Murray, or anyone else, inside the burning Zap & Co. store last week.

And they were just as surprised that he had survived the blaze, the firefighters said Wednesday, speaking almost a week after the fire gutted the vintage clothing store.

"At that time of night in a store, the last thing we were expecting was a body in the middle of the store," Tim Wilk, the acting officer on Engine 3 last Thursday night, said.

It was firefighters from Engine 3 who first entered the burning building at 315 N. Queen St.

The firefighters respond to automatic-fire-alarm calls frequently, sometimes several a day. Usually, those are false alarms.

Thursday night's call they knew was different.

There was an alarm, and, as they were driving, there was a report of smoke in the area and a second automatic alarm from the building next door.

Once they arrived, Wilk could see black smoke inside the store window. He placed his hand on the glass to gauge the heat, then put his hand in the mail slot. The fire was hot, but was not so intense that they could not enter the building.

Firefighter Ryan Lehr was the first in. He pulled a hose line, crawling into the heavy smoke as he moved forward. Wilk followed with a thermal imaging camera, scanning the ceiling for hot spots that could indicate the source of the fire.

The firefighters wore masks and breathing apparatus. They could not see through the smoke; only 12 to 16 inches were visible above the floor. Burning clothing and other merchandise were falling on, and around, them.

Lehr swept with his hands as he crawled. To his left, about 20 feet into the long narrow store, he saw something that looked like ankles.

"I said, 'I've got a body,'" Lehr recalled yelling to Wilk. "He said, 'It's a mannequin.'

"I said, 'No, it's a body.'"

The firefighters had passed a mannequin near the doorway to the store, a downtown Lancaster landmark that usually had eye-catching mannequins on the sidewalk and in the store window.

Lehr said he shined his light from the ankles to the long legs and knew it wasn't a mannequin. It might have been Murray's large feet - size 15, said his sister - that caught his eye, Lehr said.

"It was just dumb luck that Tim stopped where he did" to scan for hot spots, Lehr said.

Murray was lying near display cabinets, which might have diverted smoke from him, Wilk said.

With firefighter Jason Greer grabbing one of Murray's ankles, Lehr the other and Wilk under his arms, they quickly followed the white hose line back through the narrow aisle and out into the cold night.

Within 30 seconds of discovering Murray, they had him outside. Wilk tilted back his head to open an airway and began chest compressions. Murray wasn't breathing. After four compressions, Murray opened his eyes and lifted his head.

"I was shocked," Lehr said.

Wilk said he has carried bodies from fires before. Usually, he said, they don't wake up.

Most people who die in fires perish from the smoke they inhale, Deputy Fire Chief Sue Warchola said. Smoke, particularly from burning plastics, is toxic. Beyond the smoke itself, people die from the intense heat of that smoke searing their lungs, she said.

Murray passed out again, the firefighters said. Greer jumped in to continue the chest compressions while Lehr and Wilk returned to check the building for additional victims and fight the blaze.

All three are emergency medical technicians, Warchola said.

Within two minutes, Lancaster EMS paramedics on the scene were called forward and took over caring for Murray. He was taken to Lancaster General Hospital, then flown to Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Delaware County.

On Wednesday, he remained in critical but stable condition in the hospital's burn unit. Doctors have placed him in a medically induced coma, and he is expected to remain in it for a month.

The fire came two nights after one that cost a firefighter in Baltimore his life, Greer said.

Conditions inside the burning store worsened rapidly, Wilk said. It was not safe for the firefighters to be inside. The battalion chief called for them to clear the building.

What had started as an aggressive fire suppression and had become a rescue was changed to an exterior defensive strategy. Firefighters worked to contain the blaze so that it would not spread to adjacent buildings in the densely built block.

Afterward, Wilk said he realized that he knew the man he had saved. Many years ago, Wilk had shopped at Murray's store when it was across the street. He knew him in more recent years as a neighborhood activist.

"Like everybody says, he was like the mayor of the block," Wilk said of Murray.

The firefighters talked about the elements that contributed to Murray's survival.

"Everything just fell into place," Wilk said.

Warchola said the actions of Wilk, Lehr and Greer were a big part of that. "They need to know that we are very proud of them. They did a great, great job," she said.

Copyright 2011 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.
January 27, 2011