By Kathy Chaffin
Salisbury Post
Firefighters and rescue personnel responding to a fire on Peach Orchard Road after midnight Friday were able to save the life of a resident who apparently suffered a heart attack at the scene.
David Foster, 29, had awakened his wife, Amy, and their 11-year-old son in their basement apartment of his parents’ house, as well as Martha and Wayne Foster upstairs, and gotten them all safely outside when he collapsed to the ground. Deborah Horne, fire inspector/investigator for the Rowan County Fire Marshal’s Office, said two South Salisbury firefighters witnessed him falling and ran to help.
“They determined that he was not breathing and did not have a pulse,” she said, “and administered CPR immediately.”
Rowan County Emergency Medical Service employees transported Foster to Rowan Regional Medical Center, where he was examined and transferred to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem and placed on a respirator.
Foster, who had a history of heart problems, was resuscitated three times before being placed on the respirator. By Saturday afternoon, however, a family friend said he was breathing on his own, sitting up and talking.
He is not out of the woods yet, the friend said, explaining that his lungs had completely filled up with fluid.
Firefighters were able to contain the fire to one room in the basement of the 815 Peach Orchard Road home, Horne said, though the other downstairs rooms had smoke, water and heat damage.
Departments providing mutual-aid assistance were Locke, Faith, Granite Quarry and Salisbury. The Rowan County Rescue Squad and Fire Marshal’s Office also assisted.
Horne said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249 or kchaffin@salisburypost.com.