Two officers go into burning home before firefighters arrive at Garden Grove house fire
By Jon Cassidy
Orange County Register
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. — Two police officers who were first to arrive at a fire Monday pulled four elderly residents from the house.
Officers Nate Morton and Mike Guadan of the Garden Grove Police Department were each on patrol near the 13000 block of Anita Place when they heard a report of a fire at the house. They were the first to arrive on scene and saw smoke coming from the front door and kitchen windows.
Rather than wait for firefighters to arrive, Morton and Guadan headed in to see if anyone was still in the house.
Because of the heat and smoke at the front of the house, the officers went in through a side door, and found that the house had been subdivided into a warren of individual living spaces.
The officers started knocking on doors, breaking some of them open when nobody answered. In four different locked rooms, the officers found four elderly residents who were unaware the house was on fire. They brought the residents outside safely.
The officers were treated at the scene for minor smoke inhalation; Guadan hurt his ankle kicking open doors.
The Garden Grove Fire Department responded with seven units and 21 firefighters and quickly put out the fire.
The damage was estimated at $17,000. The cause of the fire was reported to be an overloaded outlet in the living room, police said.
The house, which had been subdivided into 9 bedrooms housing several families, was reported for code violations, the Fire Department reported.
Copyright 2009 Orange County Register