A Hero’s Calling : Student Helps Grandmother and Girl, 2, Escape Fire in Huntington Beach

An 18-year-old college student punched out a window screen, tore away a fan and rescued a 57-year-old woman and her 2-year-old granddaughter who were trapped inside a burning house in Huntington Beach on Tuesday, fire officials said.

Dennis Atencio of Santa Ana was driving to classes at Golden West College at about 8:40 a.m. when he saw smoke billowing from the single-story home at 8391 Amsterdam Drive, fire officials said.

“People were trying to get in the front door and the side of the house, but the smoke was too thick,” Atencio said. “A woman was yelling about her mother and daughter . . . she was telling me to go around (to) the other side of the house.”

Atencio said he jumped over a backyard fence and heard “some yelling and screaming” from a window with both a screen and a fan. “I just kind of punched out the screen and pulled the fan out,” Atencio said.

As black smoke billowed from the bedroom, a severely burned Ima Hendley, 57, placed her 2-year-old granddaughter, Crystal, in Atencio’s arms.

But the woman was too heavy to pull herself out the window, which was about five feet from the ground, Atencio said.

“I asked her if she could get out,” Atencio said. “She said, ‘No, no I can’t.’ ”

Atencio climbed in. “I couldn’t see nothing besides her because the smoke was really, really bad and it was real hot in there,” Atencio said. “She was a heavyset lady so I had to shove her out. She went headfirst.”

Ima Hendley was flown by helicopter to the burn unit at UCI Medical Center in Orange, where a hospital spokeswoman said she was in critical condition late Tuesday with second- and third-degree burns over 60% of her body.

Her granddaughter and daughter, Cindy Hendley, who is said to be in her early 30s, were both treated for smoke inhalation at Huntington Humana Hospital in Huntington Beach and later released.

Two other family members, Cameron Hendley and his wife, Mary, were not home. Their son, Justin, 4, was in the house but escaped unharmed.

Fire Department spokeswoman Birgit Davis said Atencio, who arrived before firefighters, was instrumental in saving the lives of both Ima Hendley and her granddaughter.

“What he did was certainly heroic,” Davis said.

Fire officials said the blaze started in an area between the living room and kitchen, but the cause remains undetermined.

Loss Put at $85,000

The blaze destroyed the house; the loss to the structure was estimated at $85,000, Davis said.

Atencio, a former high school football player and an avid weightlifter, works as a box boy at the Vons supermarket at Harbor Boulevard and Edinger Avenue in Santa Ana. He is also a full-time student at Golden West, although he has not selected a major course of study.

“After today,” he said, “I think I’m gonna be a fireman.”