OXFORD – An Oxford firefighter suffered smoke inhalation injuries Monday after the flooded basement he and another crew member were pumping out suddenly burst into flames from an unknown amount of spilled gasoline.

Oxford Fire Chief Ron Martin Jr. said long-time Oxford firefighter Shane Ingraham was treated with oxygen at the scene and taken to Chenango Memorial Hospital as a precaution before being released later in the day.

The fire began at around 12:45 p.m. Monday afternoon while Ingraham and another Oxford firefighter, Alan Ross, were pumping water from the basement of a residence at 13 Butler St. in the Village of Oxford. The Fire Dept. was called by the homeowner after a significant amount of runoff began striking the side of the two-story home during yesterday’s rain showers, filling the basement and seeping into the home from beneath the front door.

“At about 10:45 or 11 this morning, the weather started kicking up and brought a stream of water down off the hill right into the side of the house, bursting into the porch,” said Nate Twitchell, one of the home’s occupants, Monday.

Twitchell said his girlfriend, who owns the home, called the fire department for help. The two firefighters then arrived a short time later with equipment and started pumping out the accumulated water from an outside entrance to the basement.

“Originally what happened is we had two guys up there to do a pumping detail – getting out the water. The pump was working sporadically as the water level got lower, so they went back down inside to adjust it. They were just inside the entranceway when the basement flashed,” said Martin.

Assistant Oxford Fire Chief Tim McGowan said the basement was basically being used for the storage of a lot of different objects such as old cloths, lawn chairs and other items – including a few containers filled with gasoline.

“As the water filled the basement, these cans mixed with the water and floating debris, filling the air with fumes that were eventually set alight by a pilot light or some kind of spark,” he explained.

Firefighter Ross, who is 18 years old and has been in the department for less than a year, said he smelled an odor just before he heard the sound of the erupting flames.

“I heard a ‘woomph!,’ like a furnace kicking on, but louder. There were flames kicking up everywhere and I pushed Shane right out the door and we ran upstairs to get everybody out of the house. We had no idea what was down there,” he said.