Everett Firefighter Scott Dalrymple Hospitalized at MGH For 6-8 Weeks
Coming Back From Second and Third Degree Burns From Morris Street Fire
By Josh Resnek
From his hospital bed on the 14th floor in the Ellison Building at the Massachusetts General Hospital Everett firefighter Scott Dalrymple said there is still some pain from the burns he suffered.
Everett fireghter Scott Dalrymple is shown having his blood pressure taken by nurse Mary Sarton at the MGH burn unit Monday afternoon where he is revering from severe burns suffered while fighting the fire at Morris Street on July 13.
“But I am going to be OK. Six to eight weeks and I’m out of here,” he added optimistically.
Dalrymple suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns mostly to his hands, his head and his arms attempting to rush up the stairs of the burning home on Morris Street on July 13.
“One minute I was ok and doing my job. The next minute I was burning hot and rushing down the stairs and into the street,” he recalled.
“One minute I was OK. The next minute I almost died,” he said, his eyes welling with tears.
“It happened instantly,” he said.
He came out of that house with flames eating through his protective gear, his hand gloves and fire jacket.
“All I can remember is screaming. I was so hot. My skin was burning off.”
As he descended the stairs in the burning home, a flashover ignited the entire inside. Josh Doyon, who ran into the house with him, got out first.
Doyon was discharged from the hospital late last week.
At the time of this interview Monday afternoon inside his room on the burn unit at MGH, Dalrymple was being lovingly and carefully watched over by his wife, Brenda and the firefighter he trained, Tad Baxter.
It is a bit like a vigil for his wife and his colleagues who have never left him alone since he was transported to the MGH the day of the fire.
Dalrymple is recovering nicely.
He is fairly immobilized by heavy gauze bandaging which covers the half dozen skin grafts that have been performed by surgeons on his hands and arms during the past week.
He faces many more of those surgical procedures to restore his fingers and hands to a sense of normalcy.
“The surgeons say I am going to be OK. I will have the full use of my fingers and arms. I won’t be terribly disfigured.”
Dalrymple pointed his bandaged right arm toward his wife, Brenda.
‘She’s been having the tough time,” he said softly.
“She lost her mother, Carol, last week. She had to do everything herself,” he said.
Brenda chimed in: “But everything is going to be alright because Scott is going to recover and we can go on with our lives, again,” she said.