Neighbors save woman from blaze

Keith Paul

Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2000 | 11:03 a.m.

Two men crawled through dense, black smoke and pulled an elderly woman from her burning apartment Monday.

The 82-year-old woman was listed in critical condition this morning in University Medical Center with burns to her chest and smoke inhalation. Her 85-year-old husband was able to escape from the fire at the Heritage Del Rey Apartments in the 6700 block of Del Rey Avenue Monday at about 11 a.m.

Michael Quenga, 39, and Cody Maldonado, 22, were working on a van around the corner from the woman's home when they saw the smoke pouring out of the garage.

They heard a woman yelling for help and started to make their way inside the apartment.

"I can't leave no lady to suffer like that," Quenga said. "It's something we had to do."

They were able to get her out of the ground-floor apartment, but she said her husband was still inside the burning home, Maldonado said.

The two men told Las Vegas firefighters the woman said her husband was still in the house. But firefighters later found that he had escaped before they entered the apartment and was standing nearby, said Tim Szymanski, fire department spokesman.

Fire officials determined there were two separate fires inside the apartment -- one in each of the two bedrooms. The bedrooms are on opposite sides of the apartment and there was no fire damage to the kitchen or living room -- areas in between the two bedrooms, Szymanski said.

The elderly man told investigators he found his wife with her clothes on fire earlier in the morning in one of the bedrooms. He said he thought he put it completely out, but a short time later both bedrooms were on fire, Szymanski said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.