NAME:
Princella Lee Bridges
DATE OF FIRE:
March 1992
LOCATION:
Greenville, S.C.
INJURY:
Burns on 49 percent of body as a result of a
house fire.
“In the grand scheme of things, how does the cost of putting in sprinklers at $1.25, $2.60, or $3.40 per
square foot, compare to the loss of a loved one. For me, the burns I suffered in a home fire led to not
only physical impacts, but also the loss of a marriage, and the loss of a career I loved. How does the
cost of installing sprinklers measure up to all of that?”
On what began as a normal evening in March of 1992, a quick turn of events and the blur of maternal instinct and
panic changed Princella Lee Bridge’s life forever.
Princella was busy with the evening’s chores of making dinner and helping her daughter with homework when her
son ran into the room to tell her the home’s heating unit was on fire. Princella went for the fire extinguisher, but
quickly realized that it was time to get her family out of the burning house. Using their escape plan, the family
sought safety outside.
“My son and my dad went out, and so did I. And I just assumed that my daughter went with us,” Princella says.
“That’s not what happened.”
When Princella, an operating room nurse and Desert Storm veteran, didn’t see her daughter outside, she panicked.
She shouted to nearby firefighters that her daughter was still inside, then ran back into the burning home to rescue
her on her own. In the meantime, firefighters had found her daughter and had begun treating her for smoke
inhalation.
The injuries that Princella suffered were much more serious. With burns on 49 percent of her body, Princella
remained in a coma for two months.
During her recovery, Princella faced a new battle: rebuilding her life. Because of the severity of her burns, she
underwent numerous painful and time-consuming surgeries followed by frequent hospital stays. She wondered
whether the ongoing process was worth it as she saw the toll it began to take on every aspect of her life. Her
marriage didn’t make it through her recovery. She lost her hands in the fire and was forced out of a successful
career as a nurse. She began to lose part of her identity.
“I was an OR nurse. I was an aero-medical evacuation nurse. I had just been discharged from Desert Storm,”
Princella says. “And now, society shuns me. It does all it can to put restraints on you. I have to explain myself to
everyone, and that can make you bitter.”
She has channeled her personal struggles and losses into Bridges from Augusta Inc., a nonprofit organization she
founded to help individuals and families who have suffered burn injuries and trauma as they transition back into the
community.
www.firesprinklerinitiative.org/faces
“There were no programs, no support systems and no one to help me get the follow-up care I needed. No one to
answer the questions I had about returning to live my best life,” Princella says about the founding of Bridges from
Augusta.
Princella is proud of the work she is doing now, but believes that, for her, all of this could have been avoided had
her home been equipped with fire sprinklers.
ABOUT “FACES OF FIRE”
“Faces of Fire” is a project of the National Fire Protection Association funded by a Federal Emergency
Management Agency Fire Prevention and Safety Grant. The campaign is a tool to help people and groups across
the country promote the use of automatic fire sprinklers in one- and two-family homes. By containing fires before
they spread, home fire sprinklers protect lives and property. The personal stories told through the Faces of Fire
campaign show the experiences of those who escaped or lost loved ones in home fires and those whose lives and
property were protected by home fire sprinklers.
www.firesprinklerinitiative.org/faces