CLOSE CALL The Roscoe-Rockland Fire Department’s Keith Travers was the first to respond to an early morning house fire on Riverside Drive. Once there, he helped a mother and her two children off the roof. Abby Olivo photo
Firefighter helps 3 off burning roof
Keith Travers was first on the scene
By Abby Olivo | Manor Ink
DOING THE RIGHT THING RRFD’s second chief Keith Travers. Abby Olivo photo
Roscoe, NY – On Saturday, Mar. 21, at 4:30 a.m., the Roscoe-Rockland Fire Department was dispatched to a structure fire with possible entrapment. Keith Travers, the department’s second assistant chief and a 35-year veteran, was first on the scene. “When I came through town,” said Travers, “I could see the smoke because it was right over on the other side of the bridge. I got to the stop sign at the bridge and I saw the flames.”
As he was driving, Travers was formulating a plan, knowing he would probably be the first person there. When he arrived, he put on his gear, which he keeps in his truck, and immediately saw a woman and two children on the roof.
“So my first concern was to get them down,” explained Travers. “I was looking for something to try to get up there, but I couldn’t find anything. Well, I’m tall enough, and I was able to reach up, and she was able to lower me down the toddler, which I think was two years old.”
His next problem was where to put the baby while he helped the other child and the woman. He was about to put the toddler on the ground but as luck would have it, a bystander showed up just at that moment. That person took the toddler and Travers was able to get the other child and the mom off the roof.
Travers credits the mom for doing the right thing. “All I did was help that woman down. That woman got her children as safe as she could by putting them on a roof. As for me, I was lucky enough that I was home, I was close by, and I was there to help them down. But for me, the mother, really, she got them out the window and got them on a roof, and that takes a lot.”
The Livingston Manor FD, and the Roscoe Volunteer Ambulance Corps were also on the scene. After checking to see if there were any other occupants in the house, the firefighters had the fire under control within an hour. Travers said they spent more time after the fire cleaning up than they did on the actual fire itself. Due to the structural damage, the family was not able to move back into their home. They did, however, have a place to go and the Red Cross was called in to help out.