Lt. Raymond Vozzelli was one of three Philadelphia Firefighters who suffered burns in Tuesday night's deadly townhome inferno.
Lieutenant Raymond Vozzelli was accompanied by his wife when he left Temple University hospital Friday after returning for further treatment of the extensive burns he sustained Tuesday night in Northern Liberties.
Vozzelli and two colleagues were trapped on the second floor of the burning townhouse as they tried in vain to rescue a 70-year old disabled man trapped on the second floor.
The victim, Lewis Bell, a retired policeman, perished that night; the trio of firefighters was beaten back by the eruption of a huge flame known as a flashover.
"Just that quick the conditions deteriorated. I'm telling you, two seconds, one, two. It was time to evacuate the building. That's just how quick it was," Lt. Vozzelli explained.
The firefighters on the second floor with Vozzelli, Christine Lardon and Joseph Seeger, remain hospitalized; both suffering from serious burns. Seeger also has a fractured skull and ribs sustained when he was forced to bail out of a window to reach safety.
It was harrowing, but it's their job every day.
"Imagine turning your oven to the hghest temperature, 500 degrees, and multiply that by two. That's how hot it gets at these fires," said Vozzelli. "For people like that, it just awes me that we have men and women that can do that."
With 28 years in the dept, the Lieutenant has been seriously injured before, but he has no plans to retire. He'll be back to work as soon as doctors clear him.
Ann Marie, the Lieutenant's wife of 31 years, says she has learned to live with the danger her husband faces each time he heads out to work.
"He worked for the post office before he came here. One day he said, 'I'm going to the fire department.' I said, 'you're not, you're not'. From that day on he's been there ever since, and he's loving every minute of it," said Anne Marie Vozzelli.
"I've seen death before," said Vozzelli. "If you call 911 we're coming."
