CYPRESS : Paramedic Rescues Baby in House Fire

The house was in flames, and the frantic parents were screaming that their baby was still trapped inside as veteran paramedic Jeff Reinig arrived early Monday morning.

Pulling on his oxygen mask and goggles, Reinig thought fleetingly of his children as he plunged into the heavy smoke at 8551 Moody St. to search for 3-month-old Chelsea Burris.

“I thought about my own children while I decided to go in,” he said later. “I just crawled on my hands and knees probing for anything like a baby. The flames were in the hall and were wrapping around the room she was sleeping in.”

After about two minutes searching in the thick smoke, the three-year paramedic with the County Fire Department brushed up against something like a playpen, and he groped inside.

“I could feel what seemed to be a baby, but she was limp,” Reinig said. “I pulled her close to me and I could see her eyes open. She was barely breathing and covered with soot.”

But he got Chelsea out alive, and soon the child was hospitalized in critical condition while Reinig, 32, was being praised for his courage.

“It was like something out of a movie,” said Ben Morales, a neighbor. “One of those hero movies.”

Seven people, including three police officers, were treated for smoke inhalation from the fire that broke out at 12:18 a.m. Monday. It took 27 firefighters a half-hour to control the blaze that investigators believe was caused by a vacuum cleaner placed too close to a floor heater. Damage to the home is estimated at more than $70,000.

The family, asleep when the flames broke out, was awakened by a phone call.

“They are lucky to be alive, they didn’t have a smoke detector,” said Maria Sabol, spokeswoman for the Fire Department. “Someone happened to call them on the phone, and that is another reason they survived.”

Reinig knew in the ambulance on his way to the fire that mere seconds would count.

“On our way over, my partner and I heard the call that there was a baby trapped inside,” Reinig said. “We got there about three minutes later. So I knew there was no time to lose.”

Two La Palma police officers and another from Cypress were the first to arrive and made several unsuccessful attempts to rescue the baby, said Cypress Police Sgt. Larry Bandy.

Reinig said he saw the officers come back outside through the window and noticed that they were suffering from smoke inhalation and were about to collapse.

“I decided then to grab the garden hose to keep the fire at bay, but it wasn’t any use,” Reinig said. “I couldn’t wait any longer. I knew that she was already in there too long to wait for a fire hose, so I went in anyway.”

Reinig doesn’t consider himself a hero. He believes that anybody else would have done the same if children were trapped inside a burning building.

Reinig said the child was rushed to the hospital in a police car because it would be faster. He continued to give her cardiopulmonary resuscitation inside of the police car until they reached La Palma Intercommunity Hospital. Chelsea was then taken to Long Beach Community Hospital, where she is listed in critical condition.

Fire Department spokeswoman Sabol said: “It was an amazing rescue by the paramedic. He gets the baby through the window with the flames chasing after him. A few seconds later, he would not have been able to save the baby.”

Treated for smoke inhalation were the three police officers, Chelsea and her parents, Ryan Eide, 30, and Laurie Burris, 27, and the couple’s 5-year-old son, Michael Burris. The boy had been taken from the house by his parents, who were unable to rescue Chelsea.