Flames advancing fast, the 75-year-old woman was trapped on the balcony of a two storey home, and but for a dramatic rescue, she might not be alive today.
Sam Sihalathavong was cutting his front lawn on Monday (April 29) afternoon, when he saw smoke coming from the house next door.
The 49-year-old dashed over to the smouldering home, and helped a man and a child out the front door.
He asked the man if there was anyone else in the house, and the man, choking from smoke inhalation, pointed a finger upstairs.
Sihalathavong ran around back to find a woman on an upstairs balcony with flames licking about a meter behind her.
There was a man from a local construction site who had brought a ladder and was trying to get her off the balcony.
Sihalathavong climbed up to help, but neither of the men could safely lift her over. A larger man, believed to be from a local halfway house, climbed the ladder to help.
While trying to get her placed on the ladder, the woman slipped, got a leg caught in a ladder rung and was hanging upside down.
Sihalathavong yelled to the other men they had to lift the ladder down with the woman on it. The other two leapt down, joining Surrey Const. Avtar Dosanjh, who was driving to another call when he saw smoke, and lifted the woman to safety.
“The quick actions of several members of the community and our officer were essential in removing this lady from a potentially fatal situation”, Surrey RCMP Cpl. Bert Paquet said Tuesday. “In the face of adversity, these heroes rushed in while most would run away. Like Const. Dosanjh, many of these individuals just went back to work or carried on with their normal activities and routine.”
The woman suffered second-degree burns to her left side and torso and her condition has been downgraded from critical to serious. The man and a child were also taken to hospital with minor injuries, but were later released.
The cause of the fire is not known.