LONGVIEW, Texas — A Longview family was displaced by a house fire, but all escaped safely thanks to a 5-year-old and a passing EMT.
Firefighters responded on April 6 to the 100 block of Jester Circle where they found heavy fire at the front of the home, KLTV reported.
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All six people inside escaped safely after a 5-year-old boy woke to popping sounds and spotted flames above the front door, officials said. Jana Herrera, an EMT with Nueces County Emergency Services District 2 in Bullard, was driving by, saw the fire and rushed to help.
“The front door was completely in flames,” Herrera said. She then entered through a sliding glass door and found the boy pulling at a woman on the floor.
“Together we pulled her out of the building,” Herrera said. “She grabbed me and said that I needed to make sure that the other occupants in the adjoining structure were out because they’re bed-bound.”
She banged on the neighboring duplex door and was let inside, where she and the woman’s husband helped lift the woman from bed into a mobility lift as smoke quickly filled the home. They then moved her down the hall and got her out safely.
Herrera said the outcome could have been different if she had taken her usual route to work. Instead, she went the other way, a choice that put her at the scene as the fire broke out.
“I was the right person — the right place at the right time,” Herrera said.
