2 Bystanders Help Save 2 Children, Woman From Fire

VENTURA — An off-duty firefighter and a Ventura man are being considered heroes for rescuing a family of three from a burning apartment Thursday afternoon in west Ventura.

Gary Wright, who works for the Santa Barbara Fire Department, and Richard Lopez, 28, of Ventura climbed onto a second-floor balcony just after 1 p.m.

Smoke and fire poured out of the building as the men pulled 60-year-old Mary Sebsdiamma and her two young grandchildren to safety.

“I saw a lot of smoke coming out of the apartment and then saw this boy [3-year-old Visal Chourappa] on the balcony, so I just climbed up there to help him,” a flustered Lopez said as he stood in bare feet on the street outside the burned-out apartment at 32 S. Garden St.

“You know, it was just instinct,” said Lopez, who sprang into action as he was returning from having lunch with his wife.

When Lopez reached the balcony, he saw Wright, an off-duty firefighter, pushing the woman toward him and a sliding-glass door. Wright was also carrying an infant in his arms.

He shouted instructions to Lopez and the two, under clouds of smoke, pulled the family to safety.

Between gasps of bottled oxygen from a waiting ambulance, Wright apologized to Lopez for his harsh orders.

“Hey, man, I’m sorry for yelling at you,” said Wright, who lives in Ventura. “You know we just had to get them out of that smoke.”

Wright and Lopez picked up the woman and children, and passed them down from the balcony to Matt Albertson of Ojai, who was standing outside. They then quickly climbed down, with Lopez losing his shoes in the process.

“By the time we arrived, they had already gotten everybody out,” said Fire Inspector Jim Glew, who arrived with firefighters from Ventura Fire Station No. 1.

“They did a valiant job of rescuing those people. They saved that family,” Glew said.

Sebsdiamma is from India and does not speak English, but she was grateful as she and her grandchildren waited to be taken to Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura to be monitored for possible smoke inhalation.

Wright and the infant--7-month-old Nikhilgowda Chourappa--both had soot in their throats, a Fire Department paramedic said.

The quick-burning blaze, which fire inspectors believe started in a downstairs apartment, gutted two apartments and damaged two others, officials said. Damage was estimated at $146,000 to the structure and $26,000 to the contents.

The blaze displaced four families, said Anne Soble of the Ventura County Red Cross.

“It’s really too soon to tell where it started,” said Fire Capt. Barry Simmons, whose crew was the first to arrive.

Simmons said it took firefighters about 15 minutes to put out the flames and douse the embers in the charred-out apartments.

Overcome with emotion, neighbor Luella Scott cried as she looked at the devastation.

“I just don’t understand how this could have happened,” she said.

Fire investigators said later that they believe a child in one of the downstairs apartments may have started the blaze while playing with a lighter.