Firefighter injured while responding to 2-alarm fire in North Naples

Reporter: Michelle Alvarez Writer: Nicholas Karsen
Published: Updated:
Firefighter injured
The firefighter airlifted to Gulf Coast Medical Center after responding to a one-story house fire in Naples. Credit: WINK

A North Collier Fire Department firefighter had to be airlifted as a trauma alert after she was injured while responding to a fire in North Naples.

North Collier Fire said the firefighter got hurt while the crew hooked up hoses to the fire hydrant.

The firefighter was taken to the Gulf Coast Medical Center, Monday morning. After several hours of surgery, she has now begun recovery.

Drone view of the North Naples Fire Department responding to a house fire in Naples. Credit: WINK

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office and the North Collier Fire Department responded to a two-alarm house fire that shut down a road near 536 97th Ave., at around 7 a.m.

The North Collier Fire Department Public Information Officer said the fire was extinguished. All lanes of Vanderbilt Drive have since reopened.

According to the PIO, the fire started in a bedroom of the single-story home, with nobody present inside the home at the time of the fire.

The PIO also mentioned that the owner of the home is a hoarder, which made efforts to extinguish the fire more difficult.

“If there isn’t anyone there, and there’s a lot of junk there as a result of it being hoarders, it could have burned for a really long time, which could cause it to burn down before the fire department arrived,” said Michael Norton, a neighbor.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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