Crime & Safety

Firefighter Hospitalized Battling Huntsman Drive Blaze

A Sacramento City Fire Department captain fell from the roof of a burning home Saturday.

A 24-year veteran of the Sacramento City Fire Department was hospitalized with a broken lumbar spine Saturday after he fell from the roof of a burning Huntsman Drive home, officials say.

The firefighter, Capt. Gene Dibble, is currently hospitalized at UC Davis Medical Center, the department said in a press release.

The fire, near Huntsman and Thilow Drives, broke out in the home's attic just after 9 p.m. The house had been significantly damaged in a fire two weeks ago, said Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District spokesman Christian Pebbles.

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"Interior crews encountered high heat and held by the front door until vertical ventilation was provided," Pebbles said in an e-mail, referring to a technique where a hole is cut in a roof to allow smoke to vent. "Engine 60 laddered the roof and began vertical ventilation. The captain from Engine 60 fell from the roof near the ladder and landed on the concrete driveway, where he sustained a back injury / fractured lumbar."

The cause of the fire is under investigation, Pebbles said.

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The home was vacant at the time of Saturday's fire, Sacramento City Fire Department spokesman Jonathan Burgess said.


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