Bashful Hero Pulls Mother, Uncle From Fire

When flames broke out in his Chula Vista home early Friday, 17-year-old Manuel Cole knocked down two doors to rescue his mother and uncle minutes before the fire engulfed the house.

Nobody was injured in the blaze, and his brother and neighbors are calling Manuel a hero for his actions.

Manuel said he believes a cigarette started the fire in the master bedroom occupied by his mother, Marina Gallegos. When Manuel heard his mother screaming, he tried to enter the room, but the door was locked.

“I looked under the door and saw the reflection of the flames,” he said. “I knocked the door down with my shoulder. . . . When I got it open, I noticed the bed was on fire, so I pulled her out.”

Manuel said he hit the door “at least seven times” before it broke open. After leading his mother outside, he re-entered the home to get his uncle, Frank Gallegos, who also lived in the house.

“I couldn’t breathe, so I had to go out and come back in because the smoke was too thick,” Manuel said. After a breath of fresh air, he broke down his uncle’s door and led him to safety. He entered again for the last time in a futile attempt to douse the fire with the bathroom shower hose. The only possessions Manuel said he saved were the clothes he was wearing and his wallet.

Meanwhile, his brother, Ricardo Cole, 16, had awakened by the noise and was at a neighbor’s house telephoning for help.

The Chula Vista Fire Department responded to the call at 1:20 a.m., Capt. George Smith said. The fire, in the 1600 block of Banner Avenue, spread rapidly and was extinguished by 1:50 p.m., he said. Damage was estimated at $150,000 to the home and $6,000 to two cars in the driveway. Three dogs died in the fire.

When the Fire Department “got there, fire was coming out of all the front windows and the front door,” Smith said. The building was a “total loss.”

The incident is under investigation as “suspicious,” which means arson is probably not the cause of the fire, but it has not been ruled out, Smith said.

“We believe it was caused by smoking materials,” he said.

Robert Gonzalez, 12, said he saw the blaze from his home, two houses away on Zenith Street. His grandmother, Jenny Gonzalez, also called the Fire Department.

“I opened the door and looked out and saw the flames, and I said, ‘Oh my God,”’ Robert said.

Ricardo Cole said he doubts that his uncle would have survived if Manuel had not helped him.

“I don’t think so, because my uncle sleeps a lot and sleeps with the radio on,” Ricardo said. “Something blew up. In five minutes, everything was up (in flames). It went up fast. We were fixing the house, we had new furniture, and it just went up.”

Manuel said that, during the rescue, he was “worried, but not scared.”

For now, the family is living with neighbors. Manuel, a student at Castle Park High School, said that, in a few days, he will go live with friends in Tijuana until his family’s life returns to normal.

He bashfully told his story as he wandered through the charred shell of the house. Singed oranges hung overhead on a tree and a partly melted dirt bike lay on the patio. Friends and his brother, Ricardo, encouraged him to claim credit for his heroism, but he refused.

Manuel skipped school Friday but went to work as usual in the afternoon, selling flowers on the street. Being a hero was one of the last things on his mind, at least until he was reminded of it by friends, neighbors and the media.