American Disposal Services News

January 26, 2010

Virginia House Fire - Two American Disposal Employees' Heroic Efforts

By SHERRI LY/myfoxdc

An early morning fire engulfed a Springfield house in flames. When firefighters finally got inside, they discovered two men dead.

Neighbors say the fire spread so quickly, there was nothing they could do but stand by helplessly watching it burn.

Two trash workers first spotted the fire on Heming Avenue around 6:30 a.m. They put their fears aside and rushed toward the house.

"We open the first door, we see too much smoke," said Arquimides Gutierez.

He didn't wait for firefighters. With smoke and flames coming from the house, he had to try and save the people inside.

"We go to the door, bop, bop, bop," Gutierez said, making a pounding motion with his arm. "I say anybody's there? Come out, come out. Nothing."

He and Jose Cuellar were picking up trash for American Disposal when they saw the house burning. Cuellar ran to neighbors and then tried to find another way in.

"He broke the window, he broke the window, the smoke is coming out," Gutierez said, describing his co-worker's attempt to reach the victims.

A few doors down, Dave Klimaj saw the garbage collectors stop and heard the commotion. When he went outside he saw the flames out back.

"The men that work for the trash company were the heroes," he said. Klimaj and other neighbors called 911. They knew an elderly man and his son were likely inside.

When firefighters arrived they ran into trouble immediately.

"The fire was really intense. The first floor gave way, collapsed down around crews," said Dan Schmidt, spokesperson for the Fairfax County Fire Department.

One firefighter was taken to the hospital, but was not seriously hurt. During a secondary search firefighters found the bodies of the two men.

The fire appeared to spread very quickly. It was so quick, that one neighbor across the street took their kid to the bus stop and didn't see anything. Five minutes later, the garbage collectors were knocking on Nancy Kaegi's door saying her neighbor's house was on fire.

When she walked outside, she says there was "smoke billowing out both ends of the house it was already and coming out the back. There was smoke everywhere," Kaegi recalled.

Natural gas inside the house fed the flames.

"It kept igniting and re-igniting," Schmidt said, hampering efforts to put the fire out. Investigators don't know whether a gas leak or something else caused the fire.

Neighbors say just last year the elderly man's wife died. Now, another loss.

"It was just heartbreaking," said Kaegi watching the home burn.

It is heartbreaking too for the two garbage collectors. Gutierez said he was saddened to learn the two men died.

"It's no good," he said almost tearing up. They made a valiant effort, but in the end could not save them.

Source: myfoxdc.com