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Local resident honored for pulling woman from burning home
Posted
“I heard the fire trucks and I thought, ‘There’s no way they are going to make it here on time,’ so I just went up on the porch and flipped her over and grabbed her and pulled her out. She was already unconscious."”
A 65-year-old Apache Junction woman who pulled another adult female out of a burning home was recently honored for her heroic actions.
A Citizens Award for Extraordinary Actions recognition was held Dec. 18 at the Superstition Fire and Medical District Governing Board meeting.
Pam Frentz, who works as a server in the kitchen at Brookdale Apache Junction, an assisted-living facility, was on her way home from picking up her grandkids from school on Nov. 12 when she noticed smoke and saw there was a home on fire near Cortez Road and 16th Avenue.
“She noticed there was a car parked in front of the home so she assumed someone may be in there,” SFMD Assistant Chief/Fire Marshal Richard Ochs, public information officer, said.
“Mrs. Frentz immediately had her granddaughter call 911. She then got out of the car and went over to the home where she heard a faint cry for help,” he said.
“Well, it’s a neighbor behind me. I mean, I didn’t know her. I’ve only spoke to her once,” Mrs. Frentz said in an interview. “When she was yelling for help --- I’ve always been the type of person to do what I can --- and I looked at the situation and seen the smoke come out the door, but I didn’t see flames there. They were in the middle of the trailer, up on top,” she said.
“I heard the fire trucks and I thought, ‘There’s no way they are going to make it here on time,’ so I just went up on the porch and flipped her over and grabbed her and pulled her out. She was already unconscious,” Mrs. Frentz said.
After the victim was pulled from the immediate danger, other bystanders helped her get the victim further away from the burning structure.
“Yeah, there was a lady from next door who came over to grab her legs and she said, ‘She can’t walk?’ and I said ‘No, she’s unconscious. We’ve got to get her off here.’ And I could feel the heat from the fire on my leg on the trailer and I seen a man going by in a truck so I screamed at him to stop and help and he pulled over and grabbed her arms in front and I got her legs and we got her two trailers over,” Mrs. Frentz said.
“Within seconds of Mrs. Frentz pulling the patient to safety, the doorway was engulfed in flames. The person survived because of Mrs. Frentz’s extraordinary actions,” Assistant Chief Ochs said.
Mrs. Frentz suffered from smoke inhalation as a result of the event and was transported by ambulance to a local hospital, he said.
She receive a plaque and gift certificate when she was honored with the Citizens Award for Extraordinary Actions, she said.
“I wasn’t really expecting something like that. I kept telling them, ‘I’m not a hero. I just did what I would normally do’ --- not going to a fire or anything,” she said. “It was very nice and all of the firefighters were very nice. I even put on Facebook when they put it on there today --- that I said ‘No, you guys are the real heroes. You do this every single day.’ But it was really nice. They were very sweet people and stuff and yeah I got the little plaque and then they gave me a gift certificate to Fry’s. That was really nice,” she said.
Mrs. Frentz said she was assisted at the incident by her grandchild, Arayah Wilson, who called 9-1-1.
“My granddaughter called 9-1-1 and then they came over and got the dog because she had her dog chained up outside the front door,” Mrs. Frentz said. “And so they went and got the dog out of the way and stuff and got it back away from the trailer.”
Richard Dyer Managing Editor | East Valley @RHDyer
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia, Inc.. USA, since 1987.
Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions.
He also is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows
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