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Elderly woman saved from house fire in Watsonville by good Samaritans

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION-TV)- The Watsonville Fire Department rescued an elderly woman from a house fire Thursday morning.

Watsonville Police said they arrived at 9:30 a.m. at 49 Blanco Lane for reports of a structure fire. Two good Samaritans were helping an elderly woman who was trapped in the home when American Medical Response arrived.

Those two men were neighbors of hers but never met her until today.

“I was coming from driving my vehicle,” a neighbor, Miguel Hernandez said. “I saw smoke coming out of the home and I said, ‘Hey, that's not normal.’ I approached the house and there was a bunch of smoke. I kicked the door in and there was an explosion that kicked me back. And then at that time, an off-duty police officer assisted me in pulling the lady out of the home.”

Although Miguel Hernandez didn’t know the woman, he felt it was his duty to help.

“Because that's our job as a human being to help others,” Hernandez said. “And it's and it's a fire. It can happen to anybody. And I would expect somebody to help me out.”

Those close to the woman like Violet Gonzalez are glad the two neighbors were able to save her.

“They do know her,” Gonzalez said. “You know, we're our neighbors around here. One of them was actually a policeman. So he you know, it's very glad he was here on time. You know, it felt good to know that, you know, he was in there to help her.”

Firefighters could be seen putting out hotspots and investigating what could have started the fire. A fire that did a lot of damage.

“Very good,” Gonzalez said. “They did a good job.”

As far as the woman’s condition when they rescued her…

“Thank God she was conscious when she left,” Hernandez said. “She's going to be okay. I hope she's going to be okay. But that's the most important thing, is that she made it out alive.”

Gonzalez was there when Hernandez and the off-duty officer pulled the woman from the fire checking on her.

“What hurt me the most is because I know she was in pain,” Gonzalez said. “She has very severe back pain and just saw her laying on the floor. It just broke my heart. But knowing that she was conscious, and she was, I was talking to her, you know.”

The woman was taken to a burn center in Santa Clara County. No update has been given yet on her condition.

We checked and at this hour the Watsonville Fire Department is still investigating the cause of the fire.

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Karl Cooke

Karl Cooke is a Multimedia Journalist for KION News Channel 46

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