News Reports

Good Samaritan saves elderly woman from fire

Sep 18, 2005, 12:56 AM EST

CORPUS CHRISTI - A house fire almost ends in tragedy as one elderly woman finds herself trapped inside. At 10:30 Friday morning, flames broke out at a home on the city's west side. Just as the flames grew a 76-year-old disabled woman found herself in need of assistance.

The fire did not engulf the entire home. Crews contained the blaze to this back laundry room. By looking at this end it's pretty much destroyed. A family member said a dryer suddenly burst into flames, quickly sending smoke through the home.

A woman and her three kids managed to escape, but Rosa Caballero was left inside. She is disabled and uses a walker to move around, so she couldn't get herself out of the home. Luckily, a Good Samaritan heard the cries for help and rushed to the scene to rescue Caballero.

"He did a good job by getting her out. He's pretty much a hero for self evacuating her...helping her to get out of the building. There's no telling what could of happened in the latter minutes," said Corpus Christi Firefighter David Saenz.

A smoked filled house was the first sign Raymond Gutierrez noticed. But it was the screams coming from the home that really got his attention.

Monica Caballero grabbed her two children and fled the house, but Monica's 76-year-old grandmother, Rosa Caballero was left behind. Disabled and unable to walk, Caballero had no options, but wait for rescue. That help eventually came from Gutierrez who was across the street.

"I couldn't see her with all that smoke," said Gutierrez. "That black smoke, she could barely breathe. She was going like this...getting some air. So I took her out." Fire officials credit Gutierrez with saving the elderly woman's life. If he chose not to go inside, this story could have ended differently.

"I don't consider myself as a hero. I consider myself as helping somebody," Gutierrez said. The Caballero family thinks otherwise.

"Thank you, and I was glad he was there," said Caballero. Fire officials are still investigating the cause of this fire. The family believes it may have been an electrical fire. Because Rosa 's granddaughter was drying clothes back here when for an unknown reason smoke billowed from the drier.