‘Hero’ low-key after saving three lives

Cathy Scott

Monday, March 9, 1998 | 9:55 a.m.

Officer Don Teti doesn't believe he's a hero.

But he's being hailed as one for pulling an elderly couple, their son-in-law and two dogs from a burning mobile home and house.

Teti, an 11-year veteran on the Clark County School District Police force, was in a patrol car about 9:20 a.m. Friday heading with his partner to Eldorado High School when he noticed smoke. He drove toward it, thinking he would back up firefighters, he said.

But when he arrived at 4815 Irene Ave., near Bonanza Road and Nellis Boulevard, there was no one around and the smoke from a house and 40-foot recreational vehicle was getting thicker.

He told his partner, Officer Joe Barris, a rookie cop who was in field training with Teti, to radio for help and wait outside. Teti said he went inside to clear the house.

"It was hot in there," Teti said. "Two of us dying wouldn't have made sense."

Once in the house, Teti saw an elderly woman lying on a sofa in the living room. Her hair was on fire. An elderly man near the sofa was walking in circles. His hair was burned off.

"They were dazed," Teti said. "I think they had given up. I grabbed the woman first. I put out her hair with a pillow and pulled her outside."

He handed her over to Barris, who put her in the patrol car and comforted her while they waited for paramedics, Teti said. Then Teti went back inside to get the woman's husband.

"He was gooey and sticky from being burned. I grabbed him by the neck and shoulders and pulled him out," Teti said.

Once outside again, Teti said the woman told him their son-in-law was also inside.

"I went in to the back of the house and pulled him out," he said.

By this time, the house was fully involved in smoke and flames, he said. So was the mobile home next to the house.

He ran to it, opened the door and saw a small dog hiding under a chair.

"It bit me," he said. "I grabbed him and took him outside."

Then he went to a second house next door to clear it. He kicked in the door and found "a big, old dog," he said. He pulled that dog out too.

Once outside, he said he waited for paramedics to arrive.

"I was having a hard time breathing," Teti said.

When paramedics arrived a few minutes later, they took him and the couple to University Medical Center. Teti was treated and released for a dog bite and smoke inhalation. The hair on his arms was singed and he had some minor scrapes and scratches on his arms, he said.

The couple, whose names have not been released, were in serious but stable condition today, a nursing supervisor said.

The 86-year-old woman suffered from first- and second-degree burns on her face, arms and hands. Forty-five percent of her body was burned, said Tim Szmyanski, spokesman for the Las Vegas Fire Department.

Her husband, 78, suffered from burns over 20 percent of his body, Szymanski said.

The son-in-law escaped injury.

Fire investigators determined that the fire started in the mobile home, Szymanski said. Damage was estimated at $30,000 to the RV and $5,000 to the house, he said.

The woman was inside the RV where they live when the fire broke out, he said. She ran outside to tell her husband their home was on fire. They both went back into the RV and tried to put out the fire, Szymanski said.

When the fire got out of control, they left and went into the house to tell their son-in-law, he said. The fire broke through the bedroom and "filled the house with smoke," Szymanski said. All three were overcome, he said.

Teti saved three lives, Szymanski said.

Teti said it looked to him as if the couple had given up and were waiting to die when he found them.

"I went to the hospital to visit them," he said. "They were very grateful."

Teti, who six months ago switched from the graveyard shift to day shift, said saving people "is part of my job."

"It's what I do for a living," he said. "Any other cop would say the same thing. I've been shot at, stabbed, had two-by-fours thrown at me. Pulling people out of fires and burning cars comes with the job."

Teti's wife, Christine, their two teenagers, Teti's parents and his brother's family celebrated Teti's heroism Sunday during a family get-together.

"He's always been my hero," Christine Teti said of her husband.