ARLETA : Rescuer Honored for Heroism at Fire

After Joseph Varda braved the flames of a burning Arleta home and carried 65-year-old Jeanette De Motta to safety in April, he was told by a neighbor that “you deserve a medal.”

Varda brushed aside the comment.

“All I need is some oxygen,” he said before being whisked by ambulance to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

Little did he realize that a year later he would get exactly what the neighbor thought he deserved.

Varda, 23, is one of 29 recipients this year of the Carnegie Medal, given annually to people in the U. S. and Canada who risk their lives to save others. The medal, awarded by the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, carries a $2,500 grant.

“At the time, I didn’t think it was a heroic act,” said Varda, a Sherman Oaks resident and senior account executive with Burbank-based Parrot Communications. “Somebody needed assistance, so I went ahead and helped.”

The rescue began shortly before 2 a.m. on April 11, 1992, when Varda spotted smoke in the vicinity of Osborne Street and Snowden Avenue on his way home from a nightclub. Once he saw the house aflame, he started pounding on the doors and windows to alert residents.

An older man, George De Motta, was able to open the metal-bar door before fainting. When Varda carried him to the sidewalk, the man grabbed his arm and pleaded, “Please don’t let my wife die.”

Varda plunged into the pitch-black smoke filling the house and found Jeanette De Motta, who was paralyzed from the waist down, in a bedroom. Pieces of the roof fell on him as he carried her out but both escaped safely. Three other people living in the house, a couple and their 3-year-old son, were not so fortunate. By the time firefighters arrived, they were found dead.