Dave (David) Yochem, the hero of the story, is my brother in law! (o:
- Bobbi Jo
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Manager, neighbor rescue couple from burning apartment
Man ran through glass in bare feet and carried woman down ladder, Huntington Beach fire officials said.
HUNTINGTON BEACH – A couple trapped in their second-story apartment by a raging fire were rescued by the complex manager and a downstairs neighbor who put a ladder next to the bedroom window and carried the woman to safety, city fire officials said today.
Without the rescuers' help, the couple, both in their 20s, could have died, Huntington Beach fire officials said.
"If they had not (helped), the people would have most likely inhaled enough smoke to pass out and possibly, it could have been fatal," said Fire Capt. George Shinrock.
Allyson Melvillue and Jason Awlins broke the window to their apartment to escape the heat and smoke coming from a fire burning between them and the front door about 3 a.m. Tuesday in the 7700 block of Garfield Ave., said fire spokeswoman Martha Werth.
Donald Snow, the apartment manager and maintenance worker, said he was woken by the sound of breaking glass and ran downstairs. He saw smoke coming out of Melvillue's and Awlins' apartment across the courtyard.
"My thing was, I needed to … find a way to get them out," Snow, 35, said in an interview today. "That was pretty much going through my head, to see whatever I could do to help them get out."
Snow grabbed a maintenance ladder and put it next to the window. That's when neighbor David Yochem, 29, ran out in his bare feet, sprinted through the broken glass and climbed the ladder. He carried Melvillue over his shoulder down from the window.
"It was pretty much instinct when you have people screaming to help them," Yochem recalled. "It was a little bit scary but pretty much the adrenaline and instinct took over."
Awlins followed Melvillue and Yochem down the ladder shortly after the fire department arrived. The couple's brown and black cat Kahlua had jumped safely from the window to the ground, Snow said.
Awlins and Yochem, who had some cuts and suffered smoke inhalation, were taken to Huntington Beach Hospital and released the same day. Yochem and Snow were not injured.
Shrinrock said this was the first time he has witnessed such a rescue in the 15 years he has been with the department.
"To help that girl out of the window – that was huge," he said. "I mean, total disregard for his safety to help someone else."
The total amount of damage from the fire is about $50,000, and all of the couple's belonging were destroyed, Werth said. The cause of the fire is under investigation, she said.
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