Christmas Tree Fire Kills 2, Injures 2 : Tragedy: A volunteer firefighter enters a Whittier house to save a 63-year-old woman but is unable to rescue her son or cousin.

Two people were killed and two others were injured Tuesday when a fire apparently ignited by faulty Christmas tree lights consumed a Whittier home.

Among the injured was Roger Domen, 25, an off-duty volunteer firefighter on his way to work when he traced a column of smoke to the single-story home on Inez Avenue. The first on the scene at 6:40 a.m., Domen dashed inside. With the help of a sheriff’s deputy, he pulled Minerva De Leon, 63, to safety.

Police and fire investigators later found the bodies of De Leon’s 60-year-old cousin Dan Pauna, who had been bedridden, and her son Francisco Lizarraga, 27.

As Domen pulled up to the burning home, an adult and two children who escaped the fire told him that at least two people were still trapped inside.

“I just went into rescue mode,” said Domen, a volunteer for the Santa Fe Springs Fire Department.

At that point, he said, flames were already shooting out the front and side windows. Though he had no air tank, he quickly donned his flame-retardant jacket and gloves and started breaking windows on the side of the house looking for a way in. He soon made his way to the back door and entered.

“I didn’t exactly know where [the victims] were,” Domen said. “It was very dark, very smoky and hot.”

Just a few steps into the house he heard someone wheezing near the floor, but he could see nothing and retreated. The sheriff’s deputy had just arrived outside and handed Domen a flashlight. The two went inside the house and pulled out De Leon. Fire and sheriff’s officials could not provide the deputy’s name.

It was too late for the two people still inside, fire officials said.

De Leon and Domen were taken to Whittier Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, where Domen soon recovered from smoke inhalation. De Leon, however, had burns over 61% of her body and was transported to County-USC Medical Center’s Burn Intensive Care Unit, where she was listed in critical condition.

The blaze caused about $175,000 in damage. A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department said the house had no working smoke detector.

Fire officials said the blaze was apparently ignited when faulty Christmas tree lights were left on all night.

County fire inspector Rob Graham said investigators were unable to determine whether the Christmas tree was particularly dry, which he said may have increased the fire risk.

Graham cautioned against leaving lights on trees that show signs of excessive dryness. He also recommended disposing of trees whose needles begin falling out rapidly or feel prickly to the touch.

“[Christmas trees] are going to become an increasing fire hazard as they dry out,” he said.

De Leon’s 7-year-old granddaughter was apparently the first to notice the fire, Sheriff’s Detective Gil Carrillo said. She had been sleeping in the living room next to her grandmother and 13-year-old aunt when she awoke and saw fire atop the Christmas tree.

The two girls, whose names were not released, apparently tried to awaken everyone in the house, but the only other person to escape was De Leon’s son Ramiro, 40. Once outside, they awoke family members in a separate property behind the house, who immediately called 911, Carrillo said.

Later at the Santa Fe Springs Fire Station, Domen reflected upon the rescue after being released from Whittier Presbyterian. He had never fought a house fire before, but training at the Rancho Santiago Fire Academy in Santa Ana--combined with instinct--got him through, he said.

“I really didn’t have a thought process,” Domen said. “My first concern was to rescue or to help [the victims] out as much as possible.”

Domen, who volunteers at the Santa Fe Springs station for one 24-hour shift a week, has been searching for a full-time firefighting position throughout Southern California, Arizona and Colorado. He works full time as a retail clerk at an Anaheim golf course.

A Yorba Linda resident, Domen volunteered at Brea Fire Department for a year before joining the Santa Fe Springs force last month.

He probably won’t be job hunting for long, said Santa Fe Springs Battalion Chief Arnold Marquardt. Although he has no room for a full-time, paid firefighter, Marquardt said heroes such as Domen are hard to find.

“A lot of [firefighters] find out at a later point that they don’t have what it takes to do that,” he said. “It’s like stepping off a high-diving board and looking down a hundred feet and deciding whether you’re going to go or not.”