Neighbor rescues family from burning duplex in Grapevine

Dough Aguirre humbly denies he was a hero when he pulled a grandmother and her young grandson to safety from a burning duplex on Dec. 5.

But the facts speak otherwise.

Aguirre was home with his parents when his mother heard a child screaming and smelled smoke. She told her son, who was in a back bedroom and initially thought it was a 4-year-old neighbor in the adjoining duplex being rambunctious.

But he went next door to check it out and found the child barely walking and his grandmother lying nearly unconscious on the floor inside the screen and glass front door.

She was saying, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,’ ” Aguirre said. “And he was saying ‘please, help grandma, help grandma!’ ”

“They seemed very desperate,” the neighbor said. “Smoke was all over the place. It was surreal.”

Aguirre used an umbrella he found outside the door to break the glass while his mother, Ana, reached inside and unlocked the door. He dragged the woman and child to safety on the lawn. He said a dog bolted outside as soon as the door was opened.

“When I went in, the smoke hit me in the face,” Aguirre said. “The woman’s arms were burned so I took my shirt off to cover them.”

He said as soon as he pulled the two outside, “within two or three seconds the fire started consuming everything.”

Aguirre, 28, who works at a store at Grapevine Mills mall, said the Fire Department and other rescue personnel arrived quickly and “did a fantastic job.”

The grandmother was flown by helicopter to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas and the boy was taken by ground ambulance. Both were treated and released, according to the Fire Department.

Last week, the Grapevine Fire Department completed the initial investigation surrounding the fire that began at 1:04 p.m. at the Grapevine Housing Authority duplex in the 300 block of Starnes Street. The fire was declared under control at 1:20 p.m. with crews remaining on the scene until 4:19 p.m.

Grapevine fire investigators said the cause was an unattended child placing combustibles inside the family’s toaster. The fire caused approximately $50,000 in damages to the duplex.

The fire was mainly contained to half of the duplex, but both families have been been relocated. The local charity GRACE is helping Aguirre’s family replace items damaged by water, including a couch.

As Aguirre was clearing out his half of the duplex, which was deemed unlivable because of wiring and other safety concerns, he said it was scary but that he is “glad everybody is fine now.”

This story was originally published December 20, 2015 at 8:07 PM with the headline "Neighbor rescues family from burning duplex in Grapevine."