Smoke nearly suffocates woman, 75

Making her way around her Anderson home with the aid of a walker, Suzan Saladak Scranton, 75, moves slowly, trailing a long tube that feeds oxygen to her lungs. She requires breathing support at all times so the life-giving air tube trails behind her wherever she goes.

Scranton remembers going in her kitchen trying to boil some eggs for a snack before going to bed on Oct. 8. at 11:15 p.m. While in the kitchen, the oxygen tube got tangled in her walker, and she was stuck.

"I couldn't move," Scranton said. "The only way I could think to free myself was to get a knife and cut the oxygen (tube), not thinking that I needed this to breathe."

As she cut the tube, Scranton said the freed walker lurched from her grasp, she fell, and without her oxygen support, fell unconscious. Her plans to cook smouldered, filling her apartment with smoke.

Scranton said she must have crawled out of the kitchen to her bedroom, but she doesn't remember doing it.

At about 2 a.m., the cold night awoke Scranton's neighbor, Larry Just.

Just, 27, has lived in Anderson for about ten years and is an experienced plasterer. Now laid-off for over a year, Just said he's been doing odd jobs. He has four children, and he and his wife Meghan check in on their neighbor periodically.

Just had stepped outside of his house to get firewood to heat his home when he heard the loud beeping from an alarm within Scranton's house. Though he didn't notice any smoke, Just called the police to be safe.

"I couldn't go back to sleep with something like that on my mind," he said.

With APD on scene, Anderson Fire Protection District firefighters soon entered Scranton's smoke-filled house off Rupert Road at about 2:30 a.m.

Firefighters found Scranton and her dog, Buttons, unconscious in her bed.

"We put her on the oxygen sensor and she was at 76 percent," AFPD Fire Chief Andy Nichols said. "The normal oxygen level is 97 to 99 percent."

Scranton said she regained consciousness in the intensive care unit.

For Just's effort, the fire district will award him a certificate of recognition for saving his neighbor's life at the district's next board meeting Nov. 10, 6 p.m., at the fire hall at 1925 Howard St.

Scranton said her doctor was surprised she lived through the ordeal, considering her prior condition.

"My lungs are collapsing," Scranton said last week. "My doctor gave me two months to live - that was two and half weeks ago."

A Jehova's Witness, Scranton emphasized how important prayer has been for her.

"We have no fear of death," Scranton said. "I'm not afraid of going to sleep."