WHITTIER : Deputies Rescue 8 From Smoke-Filled Home

Two sheriff’s deputies who smelled smoke in a Whittier-area neighborhood rescued eight sleeping people from a smoke-filled home early Monday, authorities said.

Deputies Christopher Hapsas and Clipper Hackett were on patrol at about 3:20 a.m. when they smelled smoke coming from a house on Carmenita Road in the unincorporated Whittier area, Deputy Ron Weber said. They found the entire house filled with smoke and no one answered the door. “Fearing that someone might be trapped inside they kicked the door open and found eight people asleep inside,” Weber said.

The deputies awakened the six adults and two children and ushered them to safety.

“Apparently they had left something cooking on the stove when they went to bed,” Weber said. There was no smoke detector in the home, he said. No one was injured.