Officer pulls man from explosive blaze

It started with a pop as a canister of propane used to fuel a small grill exploded on the deck of a side-by-side condominium atop Billy Goat Hill overlooking the Port Washington police and fire stations.

For Barb Patterson, who lives next door, the sound was loud enough to wake her from a nap at 5:40 p.m. Sunday.

“I heard what I thought was a gunshot,” she said. “Then I heard a big boom. I thought, ‘OK.’ Then my husband ran in and yelled ‘We’ve got to get out. There’s a fire.’”

But for Port Police Officer Tony Becker, a four-year member of the force who was sitting in his squad car in the police department parking lot making a phone call, it was a call to action.

Becker heard a loud bang, Police Chief Kevin Hingiss said, then a crackling sound. He looked around and saw flames coming from the condo, then heard a small explosion and saw a fireball.

He headed toward the condominium at 404 N. Wisconsin St. and called for the fire department to be dispatched, Hingiss said. Becker directed one person away from the condo, which was engulfed by flames on the south side.

After learning the homeowners, John and Annie LaCount, were still inside, Becker headed toward the condo, Hingiss said. Annie LaCount, 74, was on her way out but told the officer her 79-year-old husband was still inside. Becker headed through the thick smoke billowing from the garage toward the house calling for John LaCount. Eventually, LaCount answered him.

Becker told LaCount to get on his knees and to crawl toward him, but LaCount couldn’t locate him. Becker entered the house and found LaCount, helping him to the garage. Once there, Hingiss said, Becker realized they needed to get out quickly and pulled LaCount outside.

LaCount and his wife were uninjured, but Becker suffered from smoke inhalation and was treated at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton. He then went back to work, finishing his shift.

“He did a good job,” Hingiss said. “Part of it was right place, right time. Part was the fact he took decisive action.”

Fire Chief Mark Mitchell, who arrived at the condo as Becker was leading LaCount out, went further, saying, “Officer Becker was their guardian angel.”

The fire, Mitchell said, started on the south-facing deck of the condo, where Mr. LaCount had turned on a small gas grill to dry it out after a rain storm that afternoon.

Hingiss said it is believed that excess heat built up, causing some of the many small propane canisters stored near the grill to overheat and explode and start the condo on fire.

The sound of the exploding propane canisters could be heard throughout downtown, officials said.

A 20-pound propane tank on the deck did not explode, Mitchell said, noting such tanks have a trigger release valve that likely prevented this from occurring.

“Thank God it didn’t go when our guys were up there fighting the fire,” he said. 

The LaCounts were on the lower level of the condo when the fire started on the main floor deck, their daughter Lisa LaCount said. 

“They heard what they thought was a gunshot,” she said, and her mother headed to the main level to get her phone. Her mother heard a boom and “that’s when she saw the flames,” Lisa LaCount said. “It was engulfing the living room.”

Hingiss noted that Mrs. LaCount told officers she saw fire on the balcony and siding and “the patio window was melting.”

Mrs. LaCount grabbed her chihuahua Lulu and ran out of the house, yelling to her husband to get out, their daughter said.

Once outside, she said, their neighbors took care of the couple and notified her of the fire.

“They could not ask for better neighbors. They were so good to them,” Lisa LaCount said. “It was very close. My mother has a very hard time walking. My father was a little disoriented and has a hard time hearing. He didn’t exactly know what was happening.”

Becker, she said, “was awesome. They’re safe and OK because of him.”

Mitchell said a south wind pushed the fire into the condo, where it grew unchecked until firefighters arrived.

He said that when he was driving down Wisconsin Street to the fire, a plume of smoke could be seen coming from the condo and when he arrived flames were visible.

Mitchell said eight of the county’s fire departments responded, with all but the Grafton ladder truck stationed on top of the hill. The ladder truck was positioned on Jackson Street below the condo.

  The condo’s location atop the hill was a complicating factor, Mitchell said.

“It was a very difficult scene in terms of getting to the fire,” he said. “One of my guys had to slide down the hill a little bit and we had to slide the hose to him so we could get an angle on the fire.”

Mitchell said it only took about 20 minutes to knock down the bulk of the fire, with firefighters rotating to extinguish the blaze.

“We kind of lucked out,” he said. “If that would have happened when everyone was in bed.... Sometimes, you need a little luck.”

Mitchell said the fire destroyed the main floor of the condo and there is significant smoke and water damage to the lower level.

Looking at photos of the damage, he said, “It’s pretty devastating. I would have sworn that had been burning for hours. There’s hardly any drywall left. The studs are charred. That tells me what we had was a very hot fire.”

Despite that, he said, the neighboring condo was spared damage, largely because of the firewall between the units.

Firefighters were in the final stages of cleanup when the couple’s two sons arrived at the scene to help their parents, Mitchell said.

Although her parents were not injured, Lisa LaCount said, they were frightened and are still trying to grasp what has happened.

“They’re trying to figure out how to move forward having had every item you’ve owned for 50 years destroyed. It’s a nightmare. It’s beyond devastating.”

Lisa LaCount said she has started a GoFundMe page at https://gofund.me/c4ad7ba7 to help her parents, who live on a fixed income and need to start over with the most basic of things.