Fireman Falls through Floor in Old Du Quoin

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Hundreds of hours of training and years of professional experience don't prepare you for that one burned-out or broken floor joist in the dark during a house fire.

Dowell Fire Chief and paid-on-call Du Quoin fireman David Hock "sounded" the floor as he entered the burning Old Du Quoin home of Larry and Serena Long at 9016 Birch Road Monday afternoon. He had done it dozens of times before.

Only five feet past the front door--in the room where the 4:29 p.m. fire broke out--Hock fell from the ground floor eight feet into the cellar below. At the outset firefighters believed Hock had a separated shoulder as he was taken care of by medics from the Pinckneyville Ambulance Service. An X-ray at Marshall Browning Hospital showed no fractures as Hock continued to recuperate today.

Repeatedly you could hear the sound of "Mayday! Mayday! Fireman down!" coming across the radio fire band at the scene. According to firefighting protocol that demands that all but emergency radio traffic pertaining to the recovery be shut down.

Chief Robert Shaw waited for a ladder to be pulled from a truck as firemen planned to climb down into the basement to assist Hock. In the meantime, Hock was feeling his way across the basement and found a cellar door. Minutes later he emerged from the back of the house and came around to the front, staggering to the ground where he was immediately met by firemen.

Owners Serena and Larry Long were not home at the time. A smoke alarm could be heard as firemen arrived. The house is insured. No cause has been determined. A neighbor on the other side of Old Rt. 14 called 911.