HEMET: Burning woman dragged to safety after cigarette sparks oxygen tank explosion

UPDATE: Sunday, June 17, 3 a.m.

(See original story, all photos, and videos below.)

HEMET — A bedridden woman who was burned after a lit cigarette caused an oxygen tank explosion inside her bedroom continues to recover at an area burn center. The victim’s husband, who was burned trying to save his wife returned home Saturday evening after receiving treatment for his injuries.

The couple was dragged to safety after another neighbor, later identified as Anna Marie Campbell, heard one of the victims calling for help and ran into the burning residence to help.

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Tanya Atencio, whose parents Larry and Mary Atencio were the couple injured in the fire, later told RCNS how grateful she was to Campbell and another park resident, a man who identified himself as Ray, for intervening on her parents’ behalf.

 

 

“I can’t begin to express how thankful I am to them both for pulling my step-mom and dad from their trailer,” Tanya said the morning after the destructive blaze that injured both her parents, killed one of the couple’s two dogs, and destroyed their home.

After the fire Campbell, the woman Tanya and many park residents are now hailing a hero, told local community reporters Will Whelan of Hemet Valley Incidents and Timothy Franzese of Public Safety Incidents that she had been returning home from walking her dog when she heard Larry at his door screaming for help.

“He was saying there was a fire inside the mobile home,” Campbell described, saying the panic-stricken man then ran back into his burning home to try to help his wife.

Despite thick, choking, black smoke pouring from the residence Campbell said she immediately dropped everything she had been carrying and without hesitation ran into the burning home.

Campbell explained that she felt her way through the smoke toward a back bedroom where she could see the orange glow from flames burning.

As she entered the room, Campbell said she found the bedridden victim engulfed in flames in her bed.

“She was on fire from her chest all the way down her arms,” Campbell described of the horrific scene.

Despite the fact that Mary was on fire and sitting in a bed surrounded by flames, Campbell saw Larry was trying to help his wife out of the house, “but he could only pull her burning body from the bed to the floor,” recalled Campbell, clearly still shaken over what she had just seen and experienced.

“I grabbed her and patted the fire out,” Campbell continued, saying she then carried the badly burned victim away from the growing fire inside the bedroom and out of the home.

After pulling Mary from the residence, Campbell carried her over to her nearby residence, where she provided aid and comfort to the injured woman until firefighter/paramedics and AMR medics arrived and took over.

Campbell’s neighbor Ray said from the scene he had also gone into the burning home and helped get Larry and the couple’s dogs out of and away from the house, just as it became engulfed in flames.

Tragically, one of the two dogs ran right back into the burning residence and was not seen again until firefighters found its body inside the charred remains of the destroyed home.

“Both dogs were rescued from the trailer but one ran back in, probably looking for my dad,“ Tanya later explained. “They were his babies. Unfortunately he didn’t make it.”

Now that the dog’s body has been recovered from the mobile home, Tanya said the family planned on burying him.

Tanya later explained that all her parents’ belongings, including their clothing, mementos, and personal items, were consumed and destroyed by the fire and she reached out to the community for help.

“We don’t need anything fancy, just the basics,” Tanya explained, saying she and her sister would take care of everything else.

Because her mom is bedridden, Tanya said she usually wears sleep wear and nightgowns and her father usually wears sweatpants and other comfortable clothes.

Anything would be greatly appreciated,” Tanya explained, saying her mother is a petite/small and that her father wears large/extra-large clothing.

Anyone with donations of any kind can reach Tanya via Facebook and she or another family member are willing to pick up anything offered.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

 

ORIGINAL STORY

HEMET — A husband and wife are recovering in a burn unit after a lit cigarette near an oxygen tank sparked a devastating fire that destroyed the couple’s mobile home and killed one of the pair’s two dogs. The structure fire happened Friday evening, June 15, at the Palm Villa Estates mobile home park at 430 N. Palm, south of W. Oakland Avenue, in Hemet.

According to witnesses, a caretaker – who had been with the victim just minutes before the fire erupted – had walked to the park’s nearby recreation room less than 100 feet away when the woman’s oxygen tank exploded.

The ensuing fireball from the concentrated oxygen caught both the victim, her bed, and surrounding room on fire, and eventually burned the entire structure to the ground. The victim’s husband was reportedly burned trying to drag his wife’s burning body from the home.

Fire and rescue personnel as well as the couple’s family are now crediting a neighbor with saving the couple, after she and another resident dragged the seriously injured victims and their dogs to safety.

Tragically, one of the loyal dogs reportedly ran back into the couple’s burning home searching for its owner and was believed to have died in the fire. As of this report, its body had not yet been recovered.

City of Hemet Fire and Police Departments along with AMR medics were dispatched to the mobile home park shortly after 8:30 p.m., after area residents reported that a bedroom inside the property manager’s residence had burst into flames.

Callers reported that a resident of the park had run into the burning mobile home where she found an elderly, bedridden woman on fire inside a burning bedroom. After extinguishing the victim’s burning clothes, the woman dragged the smoldering victim out of the home to safety. Before officials arrived, another resident helped pull the victim’s injured husband and dogs from the residence.

While about 15 firefighters from three engine companies, one truck company, and a paramedic squad were still headed to the location a battalion chief arrived at the scene. The Chief reported finding a back bedroom inside a mobile home along the park’s west side, near a community pool fully engulfed with flames quickly spreading to the rest of the trailer.

Due to the lack of maneuverable room within the park, only the first engine to arrive at the scene could enter the property, while all other incoming apparatus staged outside the park on Palm Ave.

While firefighters set up a defensive line and began their fire attack, paramedics evaluated the injured couple, quickly determining they needed to be taken to Arrowhead Hospital’s burn unit for further treatment.

Unfortunately, by the time firefighters began to put water on the burning mobile home, the entire rear of the residence had already been destroyed by the fast-moving, concentrated oxygen fed blaze. Despite firefighter’s efforts, they were unable to slow the fire’s advance and the mobile home was quickly consumed by the blaze.

No other homes were believed to have been damaged by the fire and no other injuries were reported.

The victim’s injuries were described as major and moderate by officials and their current conditions have not been updated and are not known.

During their preliminary on-scene fire investigation, officials determined the blaze had possibly begun when one of the victims lit a cigarette near an oxygen tank, causing the tank to explode.

Despite the initial finding, the full cause of the investigation is continuing and an arson investigator is assisting in the ongoing investigation.

Click any image to open full-size gallery.

Will Whelan/Hemet Valley Incidents video

Timothy Franzese/Public Safety Incidents video

Timothy Franzese/Public Safety Incidents video

 

Contact the writer: [email protected]

Trevor Montgomery, 46, recently moved to Shasta County from Riverside County and runs Riverside County News Source and Shasta County News Source. Additionally, he writes for several other news organizations, including Riverside County based newspapers, Valley News, The Valley Chronicle and Anza Valley Outlook, as well as Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County and The Mountain Echo in Shasta County.

Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident. (Click here to see segment of Discovery Channel documentary of Trevor’s accident.)

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations, including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center and Lake Elsinore Station, along with other locations.