Newspaper Deliveryman Saves Woman From Fire

A newspaper deliveryman saved a woman’s life by pulling her out of a burning house early Thursday, San Diego fire officials said.

Bill D. Collins Jr., 35, was driving on Navajo Road, behind the 6700 block of Caminito del Greco in San Carlos, about 4:30 a.m., when he noticed a fire in a two-story condominium.

“The top floor of the house was completely engulfed by flames shooting 20 or 30 feet high,” Collins said.

“I slammed on my brakes, jumped out of my truck and ran toward the house. I jumped over two walls, and yelled out, ‘Is anybody here?’ and I heard a faint voice say, ‘Somebody get me out . . . somebody help me.’

“The front gate was locked, so I had to climb about eight feet and jump over.”

Collins said the front door was also locked, so he ran around to the back, where he saw someone inside through the sliding glass doors.

“I could see a woman crouching and moving along with her face to the wall,” he said. “She was headed toward the staircase, and I could see the flames starting to come down the stairs; so I yelled, ‘Stay on the floor,’ which she did, because that’s where I found her.”

After two attempts to break the glass by throwing patio furniture against it failed, Collins jabbed a hole in the screen door with a broom and kicked in the glass door, bringing a shower of glass on his head.

Running into the house, Collins found Isabel Mary Monahan, 46, on the floor, unconscious.

“I dragged her to the front door and at first I couldn’t open the dead bolt--the keys were still in it--but then I managed to turn the keys and open the door. I dragged her onto the porch off to the side of the house,” Collins said.

“There were burning embers from the house falling around us.

“In about a minute, the police came and then the fire department,” said Collins, who suffers from chronic bronchitis. “I inhaled a lot of smoke, so they gave me oxygen, took my pulse and my blood pressure. I was really shaky. My blood pressure was 170 over 130. It was all that adrenalin.

“They made me stay there until they were sure I was all right. Then I left and finished my rounds before going home to bed.”

Collins delivers the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times to vending machines and news dealers throughout San Diego County.

Monahan, who suffered second- and third-degree burns over 30% of her body, was taken by Life Flight helicopter to the UC San Diego Medical Center, where she was listed in critical condition Thursday night.

It took 30 to 35 firefighters from San Diego, El Cajon and Santee about 20 minutes to bring the fire under control, said Larry Cook, San Diego Fire Department spokesman.

Fire officials are still investigating the fire, which caused an estimated $60,000 in damage to the building, Cook said.

Cook said fire officials will recommend that Collins receive an award for his act. “It’s a risk . . . he risked his life to do it,” Cook said.

But Collins does not see himself as a hero.

“It’s just something that had to be done,” he said. “There was nobody around. I was the only one available. You don’t think about the danger . . . you just want to get them out.”