Grateful 19-Year-Old Woman Thanks Firefighters For Saving Her Life
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Los Angeles firefighters rescued a 19-year-old woman trapped inside her burning second-floor apartment in Van Nuys before dawn Saturday.
Mike Dinow, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, said the woman's apartment was gutted. It sustained at least $40,000 in damage.
"I went to my bedroom door, to see what was happening," recalls Blessing Okoli, "and a black gush of fire hit my face."
After calling 911, the dispatchers ordered Okoli to lay down on the floor of her bathroom with wet towels stuffed under the door. "She told me if it got really bad to put my nose on the wet towel."
Crews responding to the three-story building found smoke pouring out of Okoli's apartment. Firefighters, who arrived on the scene within minutes of the call, broke down the front door and carried the woman to safety.
"I heard them and then I saw the light from the flashlights, 'they're here, they're here!'"
Fire Captain Jesse Cisneros credited Okoli for keeping her head. "She kept all her senses. She listened to the dispatch. She remained calm. And she stayed put."
Okoli was not injured.
The cause of the fire is under investigation but officials at the scene believed it was electrical.
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