Ex-Firefighter Pulls Man From Fire

A former Navy firefighter, on his way home with the family groceries Sunday, saw heavy black smoke seeping from an old house in his neighborhood, crawled inside and saved an 86-year-old man, officials said.

Westminster fire officials hailed Dave Harmon as a hero.

“Had he not taken it upon himself to save someone else, Mr. (George) James would not be alive today,” said Fire Battalion Chief Allan White, who said he plans to recommend Harmon for a special commendation of valor.

But Harmon would have none of it.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” the 40-year-old carpenter said. “This old man was screaming his head off, so I went in and got him.”

A firefighter with the U.S. Navy from 1968 to 1972, Harmon said he was about five blocks from home at a red light at the intersection of Hoover Street and Trask Avenue about 4 p.m. when he saw the smoke coming from a house about a block away.

After pulling up to the house, he took a step inside the front door of the burning home at 7652 Trask Ave. and called in to see if anyone was there. He heard the screams.

Crawling along the floor below the smoke, Harmon followed the noise until he reached a den and dining area. There he found James.

“He was standing in the middle of the room screaming, just screaming,” Harmon recounted.

Harmon said he dragged James out of the burning house through a set of patio doors and into the street, aided outside by a neighbor. He tried to ask the elderly man if anyone else was inside. But the response was incoherent. So he went back in, looking for more people, but found none and left, Harmon said.

James lives alone, fire officials said.

A few minutes later, 19 firefighters arrived and controlled the fire in about 25 minutes, White said. But the fire had nearly destroyed the home, causing $45,000 in damage, White said.

The fire apparently started in a rear bedroom of the one-story home, but its cause was unknown and under investigation Sunday evening, White said.

James was being treated Sunday night at the emergency room at UCI Medical Center for smoke inhalation and what fire officials described as minor burns to the scalp and neck. White said James had been the victim of a stroke in the past.

Harmon, an asthmatic, received oxygen at the scene but suffered no injuries.

The father of two, Harmon said his wife yelled at him after he got home for failing to use “some common sense” in even attempting the risky rescue.

But he said: “When I went in there, there was nothing in my mind other than making sure there was no one in the house--a child or something. . . . Who else was gonna do it?”