Good Samaritans in San Antonio Save Man from Burning South Side Home

By Mark Dunphy

As Christopher Garcia drove down South Flores St. Thursday afternoon, he saw smoke rising into the sky.

Garcia initially thought the smoke was coming from the Tamale Boy restaurant. He realized as he drew closer that it was billowing from the home next door.

Within an hour, Garcia and other bystanders were listening to a San Antonio firefighter thank them for pulling a person who uses a wheelchair out of the burning building.

Garcia and his wife Alondra pulled over and called 911 when they saw the source of the smoke, a single-story residence on the 5300 block of South Flores.

While waiting for firefighters to arrive, they banged on windows and listened for a response inside.

No one answered their screams, Garcia said, but the pair found a white poodle chained to a pole at the back of the house.

Garcia set the dog — barking at the orange flames leaping from the building — free.

Neighbors heard the couple yelling, came outside, and informed them that a young man in a wheelchair was home alone inside the building.

Garcia, along with one of the neighbors and another bystander, kicked in one door then another in search of the man.

They found him lying on his bed inside a room black with smoke.

“The room was so full of smoke that all you could see was his toes,” Garcia said. “It was bad. It was real bad.”

The bystanders lifted the man and carried him out of the home. Amanda Mascorro, a medical assistant who had pulled over behind the Garcias, treated him until EMS arrived.

Fire Chief Charles Hood lauded the three men for charging into the home.

“The heroic efforts of the bystanders going in and removing this young man potentially saved his life, because we don’t see a way that he was going to be able to extricate himself from this fire,” Hood said.

The man, in his early 20s, was outside the home when firefighters arrived and was treated on the scene.

commercial buildings.

No firefighters were injured as they knocked down the fire. The residence suffered significant damage and the family will be displaced.

Arson investigators were examining the scene Thursday in search of the cause of the fire.

The neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said he did not think about his asthma when he kicked down the door. He was focused on saving the young man inside.

Garcia agreed.

“I didn’t care about the smoke,” he said. “Let’s get this kid. Let’s get him out.”

Article/Source: https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/SAFD-battling-house-fire-on-South-Side-15190747.php