CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / PASADENA

As thousands of runners raced in the Pasadena Marathon on Sunday, a Burbank police officer near the starting line found himself racing into a burning home nearby and pulling a resident to safety.

Officer Kerry Schilf, a 17-year veteran who was working traffic duty Sunday morning, noticed smoke rising from a home in the 200 block of South Meridith Avenue at about 7 a.m., only a few blocks from Pasadena City College where the race began, and heard someone still inside the home, said Lisa Derderian of the Pasadena Fire Department.

She said Schilf kicked down the front door of the two-story home and pulled the resident, who was disoriented because of the smoke, to safety.

Derderian said authorities estimated the damage to the home at about $175,000 and that three of the resident’s cats were killed in the fire. A fourth cat was resuscitated by paramedics on the scene and was later taken to a veterinarian.

-- Ari B. Bloomekatz