Hero of the Week: Bar Worker Saves Couple from Fire

This week's hero is an employee of a bar in San Francisco who noticed a building on fire and ran inside to save an older couple. Here's the story and photo.

Hero of the Week: Bar Worker Saves Couple from Fire

 Mission Local News  by CHUQIN JIANG, JANUARY 13, 2023

Josué Contreras entered a burning Mission District building in San Francisco, California to rescue an older couple who couldn't get out on their own. 

A fire broke out this evening (Jan 13, 2023) around 7 p.m. at a three-story apartment building at 3017 20th Street displacing 22 tenants including one child, according to the San Francisco Fire Department. No injuries have been reported, but at least one couple had to be helped out of their apartment.

Josue Contreras, the host at Trick Dog, a popular bar across the street from the building, said the fire started in an upper unit. He first noticed a burning smell and then saw someone come out of the building calling for help. It was the son of a couple still in the building. Contreras said that the son told him he kept trying to go up the stairs but there was too much smoke.

“I went in there and it was just smoke, smoke, smoke and at some moment I was like ‘oh, I’m going to die in here.'”

Contreras met the son on the stairway and helped with the mother. The father who was in his late 60s wanted to put on his shoes and get some papers. “So I had to drag him and pull him out,” Contreras said.

By 8 p.m. the fire was contained, but nine fire trucks remained and the tenants of the damaged building as well as the tenants from buildings of the same block were not being allowed back into their apartments.

Contreras said that given the amount of smoke, the damage was probably pretty bad. It was unclear if the elderly couple had to be treated for smoke inhalation, but Contreras said he was fine and already back at work.

(Photo: Firemen in front of the building at 3017 20th Street where a couple had to be rescued from the smoke. Photo by George Lipp)

Janis Rough, who lives nearby, said that she saw the tree behind the building burning. “I’ve never seen such a big fire before and I thought the whole block would burn out, but the firefighters came really fast and controlled it.”

The Red Cross was still on the scene at 9 p.m. offering residents help. The elderly couple rescued earlier was being attended to. The man had on only one shoe. His other foot was covered with a piece of cardboard fitted around his foot.

Jonathan Baxter, the public information officer for the fire department at the scene, said that just after 7 p.m., the department got multiple 911 calls about a fire. When they arrived on the scene, the second and third floors at 3017 20th St. were on fire. “The fire rapidly grew to a two-alarm fire bringing almost 75 firefighters to the scene,” he said. The fire extended to the multi-story building just east of 3017 20th St., he added.