Good Samaritan and Detectives Save Elderly Woman From Blaze

Drawn by black, billowing smoke that filled the sky, a Thousand Oaks man and two sheriff’s detectives rushed to a burning Camarillo house Monday afternoon in time to rescue an elderly woman trapped in a second-floor bedroom.

“Thank God these good Samaritans were there,” said Joe Luna, a spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department. “I would hate to think what would have happened to her without them.”

Vahid Baha, 22, who saw the smoke while working at a Mobil carwash several blocks away, rushed to 1043 Dara St., where the fire broke out at 12:50 p.m. Within moments, Baha was joined by Ventura County Sheriff’s Dets. Brett Cox and Glenn Sander, who had been driving along nearby Lewis Road.

When he arrived, Baha found the tan, split-level house engulfed in flames and overrun by smoke. Two residents of the house--brothers Robert and Richard Stellman--were crying for help and attempting to battle the blaze from the front lawn with a garden hose.

“The two guys were screaming, ‘Someone get my mom! Help! Help!’ ” recalled a winded Baha, as he later rested on a curb in this quiet east Camarillo neighborhood of middle-class homes and well-tended yards.

The Thousand Oaks resident leaped into action, clambering up a red Isuzu pickup truck to a balcony outside the bedroom where Victoria Stellman, 78, slept--oblivious to the chaos around her.

With the help of a neighbor’s extension ladder, the detectives climbed to the second floor. Working as a group, the three men carried the disoriented woman from her bed to the lawn. By that time, firefighters had arrived.

There were no serious injuries during the fire, which gutted the Stellmans’ house, causing an estimated $161,000 in damages. At the same time, a second fire began across the street at 1042 Dara St., causing damage of about $20,000. Fire officials continued to investigate the cause of the two blazes, but a flying ember from the first fire may have ignited the second home’s brittle wood-shake roof.

Some 50 firefighters and 10 engines helped extinguish both fires within two hours.

Luna said “an extensive fire load” of newspapers, magazines and cardboard boxes fed the fire at the Stellman house, causing it to spread quickly.

The Stellmans were treated at the scene before being taken to St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital, where they were treated for smoke inhalation. Richard Stellman, 44, suffered moderate burns on his hands and face, and Robert Stellman, 41, received a cut on the bridge of his nose. Robert and Victoria Stellman were later released, while Richard Stellman was kept overnight for observation.

Baha said he was relieved that the injuries were all minor.

“If I did save someone, I’m very happy about that,” he said. “But I didn’t even take time to think. I just went to help, like any normal person would.”

He shrugged off the label “hero,” as did Dets. Cox and Sander.

“We weren’t even on patrol when we saw the fire,” said Cox. “We thought we’d pull up and be looky-loos and watch the firefighters at work. But they weren’t there yet.”

The self-effacing Sander said Baha deserves the credit for saving Victoria Stellman. “He was just a huge help,” Sander said.

Milling around as firefighters finished their work, neighbors were impressed with the three men and their fast thinking along with the firefighters’ quick response.

“The firemen got here really fast,” said neighbor Wanda Derley, who was on her way to lunch with her husband when they smelled the smoke.

Others who saw how quickly the fire spread considered it a warning signal.

“There’s so many [wood] shake roofs around here,” said neighbor Paul Helbert. “It’s scary.”