News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Bob Williamson, 37, of Tollgate, had gone to Ray's Food Place to buy is morning copy of The Oregonian from the boxes outside the store. He saw dark smoke over in The Pines, the subdivision just to the west, and at first thought someone was burning tires.
But Williamson, who used to work for the Portland Fire Bureau, decided it looked more like a house fire and took a short-cut over to investigate.
"There was nobody moving on the entire street. The front of the house was fully engulfed," Williamson said. "There were cars in the driveway, so I knew people were in the house."
He lay on his horn for a few seconds, which alerted next-door neighbor Bobby Keeton, then Williamson went to the side of the home and broke out the side window, waking resident Martha Martinez.
"As soon as I broke that window, fire rushed out, so she couldn't get out that window. I busted out the corner window and hauled her out. Seconds later, her entire room was engulfed," Williamson said.
"Bob was yelling `Come on! Come on!' and I said `I can't, I can't," said Martinez from her Red Cross-provided room at the Comfort Inn in Sisters. "I took one breath and felt the smoke in my lungs and the heat on my back. Then he pulled me out."
Williamson asked Martinez if there was anyone else in the home. She said Ron McGuire, 34, who rented a room from Martinez, was still inside. Williamson went around the house and could hear McGuire yelling.
Williamson broke out the window to McGuire's room as McGuire was breaking it out from the inside.
"I stuck my hand in there. As soon as he felt my hand he came flying out the window," Williamson said.
"In another four or five seconds, the whole house flashed over, just like you see in the movies, and everything ignited. I heard windows popping out on the other side. I have seen a lot of house fires, but in the 14 years when I did rescue work, this is the closest I ever saw anybody get with only minor injuries," McGuire said.
Martinez suffered a deep cut to her foot as she scrambled through the broken window to safety. McGuire suffered minor facial burns, smoke inhalation and cuts.
Neighbor Bobby Keeton arrived on the scene after getting some clothes on and telling his girlfriend to call 911. Keeton brought a hose and wet down the porch and heating-oil barrels next to the burning home. He carried Martinez to the ambulance when it arrived.
While their lives were saved, Martinez and McGuire lost everything else, including Martinez's young black and white dog, Savannah.
The day before the fire, Martinez even lost her job as a waitress at a nearby restaurant.
According to Sisters/Camp Sherman RFPD Chief Don Mouser, the fire is thought to have been caused by a cigarette smoldering in the living room couch.
There was no insurance.
"I saved no clothes, nothing, just what I had on my back," said Martinez. "But I am doing pretty good, considering how close I came to losing my life."
An account for Martinez has been set up at the US Bank in Sisters.
Reader Comments(0)