Three neighbors are credited with rescuing a woman from a burning home in Vancouver’s Rose Village neighborhood Friday afternoon.
One neighbor, Chris Elam, 34, said he was working on his home when he and another neighbor, Kevin Matlock, ran to their neighbor’s house after smelling and seeing thick smoke. Elam stayed outside and called 911 while Matlock kicked in the front door.
A third neighbor, Jose Vasquez, 38, was driving to pick up his son from school, he said, when he passed the burning house and saw a man kicking in the door.
“I just felt like stopping to help,” he said, adding that nothing was going through his mind at the time, including his own safety. “I just wanted to help.”
Vasquez and Matlock carried the woman out of the burning home by her arms and legs, Vasquez said, and laid her down out front. They stayed with her while waiting for firefighters and paramedics to arrive.
Elam said the woman was severely burned.
“She was in bad shape,” Elam said. “It was gnarly. … I will have a hard time getting that image out of my head.”