A Detroit firefighter is recovering Friday after an attic floor collapsed underneath him and he fell into the first floor, and a piece of equipment pierced his cheek.
“It was a freak accident,” Deputy Fire Commissioner Jonathan Jackson told Ann Zaniewski of the Free Press.
Jackson said 33-year-old Adam Mlinarich was crawling through the attic of a home on the 4000 block of McGraw, near Livernois and Warren, checking for hot spots when the floor gave way. It was just before 6 p.m., and firefighters were nearly finished putting out a fire at the house.
Another firefighter was standing on the floor below with a pike pole, a long metal-topped pole with a hook end that is used to search for fires behind walls and ceilings.
Jackson said as Mlinarich fell, his face struck the top of the 6-foot pole.
“It went through his left cheek and impacted his jaw,” Jackson said, with the top three or four inches going through his cheek. Jackson said Mlinarich was taken to Henry Ford Hospital and is in stable condition. He said he was hopeful that he would be able to go home Friday morning.
