Rescuers Pull Woman From Flaming House : Heroism: Neighbors of 88-year-old pull her through hole in locked door. She has lived in home since 1942, and lost everything in the fire.

As an 88-year-old woman pleaded, “Help me! help me!” three men kicked a hole through the locked front door of her burning house and pulled her to safety just moments before flames engulfed the residence Saturday.

Fire officials credited the rescuers with saving the woman’s life.

The woman, identified as Betty Janzen, suffered first- and second-degree burns over 50% of her body, according to fire officials. She was transported to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where she was listed in serious condition late Saturday. Her home in the 1000 block of West 1st Street was destroyed. Fire officials estimated the damage at more than $100,000.

Battalion Chief Tim Graber said fire officials do not know what ignited the fire, which started about 1:45 a.m. in the kitchen, then quickly raced through the rest of the one-story, wood-frame house.

Janzen, who lives alone, apparently was trapped inside by the flames and heavy smoke.

Ben Castillo, 24, who lives down the street, had just returned from a nightclub when he smelled the smoke. He said he and his father, Larry Castillo, 51, followed the smoke to Janzen’s house.

“There were a lot of flames coming out the side of her house and out through the back and the kitchen area,” Ben Castillo recounted. “The door had a deadbolt lock on it, and we couldn’t kick it down, so we kept kicking the bottom part of the door in until we were able to break enough wood to see what was in there.”

Castillo said his father, Larry, stuck his head and arm through the opening and began to yell Janzen’s name.

“She was saying, ‘Help me! help me!’ ” Castillo said. “He (Larry) told her to put her hand out so he could grab her. She put one hand out and we each grabbed a hand and dragged her out of there.” A third unidentified man also assisted in the rescue but left shortly before fire officials arrived, Castillo said.

Roy Vetter, a family friend who returned to the house Saturday to help remove Janzen’s belongings, said Janzen bought the house in 1942 and has lived there ever since.

“Her whole world was in that house,” Vetter said. “Everything she had ever owned in her life was in there.”

According to fire officials, doctors expect Janzen to recover because she had been in good health.