84-year-old woman is rescued from house fire

Erica D. Johnson and Dan Kulin

Monday, Oct. 28, 2002 | 11:23 a.m.

An 84-year-old Las Vegas woman said today that even though she was "petrified," she kept her wits and contacted the fire department as smoke filled the Las Vegas home where she had resided for 31 years.

Las Vegas Fire Department firefighters were sent to the house in the 3200 block of Lava Avenue near Mojave Road and Owens Avenue Sunday just before 6 a.m. They had to force their way through steel bars to rescue Hazel Benavidez.

They took her to Valley Hospital, where she was treated for smoke inhalation. She was listed in good condition.

"I had gotten up on my own to go to church, and when I opened my bedroom door I couldn't even see down the hallway with how thick the smoke was," said the great-grandmother who moved to Las Vegas in 1965 from Michigan. "I had enough sense to close the door immediately."

Benavidez called 911 on the phone next to her bed and was put on hold for one minute, she said.

"That's when the panic started to set in," she said. "I was petrified."

When the 911 operator told her to get on hands and knees, put a towel over her head and try to crawl to safety, she said: "I can't crawl, I'm 84 years old! I haven't got on my knees even to pray for 20 years."

Benavidez said firefighters got to the scene fast: "I knew then I was in good hands. I didn't worry about what was going to happen."

Firefighters had to force open the steel bars on the front door and unlatch the door from the inside, Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said.

Once inside rescuers carried Benavidez through the smoke-filled house and out of the front door because steel bars on the bedroom windows couldn't be opened.

Two firefighters carried her out.

"God wasn't ready for me to go yet," Benavidez said.

She asked one of them to go back and get her purse because it had her insurance information in it, she said.

Szymanski said the firefighters will probably be given a citation for saving Benavidez.

"Was (the rescue) heroic? Yes, that's what they do," Szymanski said. "That lady could not have gotten out on her own. She'd been trapped in the back bedroom, she probably would have died. ...

"When it's a bad situation they went in and didn't hesitate. ... They saved her life."

While the bars on the front door met fire code regulations, Szymanski said, the the bars on the windows lacked the emergency release that is required for all protective bars.

Szymanski said steel bars like the ones on Benavidez's windows often make rescues difficult.

"People have to remember that if you make it impossible for people to get in, you also make impossible to get out in case of the emergency," he said.

Szymanski said the fire started in a small room in the hallway, where the water heater was located.

The house's single smoke alarm wasn't operating because its battery was missing.

Fire officials are still investigating the cause of the fire. Damages are estimated at less than $5,000.