Robert Sotelo was surrounded by smoke and flames and struggling to breathe as he stood in a burning house Tuesday morning. Twice Sotelo went into the San Jose home in an effort to find a woman who he briefly saw standing inside the open front door before vanishing in the fire's haze.
Barely able to see, Sotelo found the elderly woman in a bedroom and began leading her out of the house back through the front door. But they were blocked by heavy smoke and flames.
With the woman beside him, Sotelo located a bedroom window. They both escaped safely.
Sotelo shrugged off his actions. All the attention he was getting was "kind of embarrassing," he said.
But firefighters praised Sotelo.
"His actions were very heroic," San Jose fire Capt. Mary Gutierrez said.
Sotelo was walking with his girlfriend and young daughter at around 11:15 a.m. when they saw smoke and flames coming from the roof of a house in the 1300 block of Farringdon Drive, located off South White Road. As they called 911, Sotelo and his girlfriend saw the woman.
She seemed to be signaling for Sotelo to come in.
He motioned for her to come out. When he saw her vanish through a cloud of smoke he immediately went into the house.
"I was telling her to get out," Sotelo said.
Sotelo said he couldn't breathe after a while and went back outside to take a deep breath. Then he resumed his search.
Once he found the woman "he took the shirt off his back to put clothes on her" and helped her escape through the window. Sotelo was helped by another good Samaritan who was outside the window.
"He made very good decisions in first recognizing the situation," Gutierrez said. "He called 911 first and then tried to communicate to have her come out, so he didn't have to enter that atmosphere.
"When she didn't, he put himself at risk and went inside to bring her out safely."
The woman, who speaks only Vietnamese, had just gotten out of the shower when she heard the smoke alarm going off. Gutierrez said the woman went back inside the house to get dressed.
"As soon as you enter that atmosphere charged with smoke, it takes very little time to succumb and then you become a victim as well," Gutierrez said. "He did put himself at risk."
When firefighters arrived about five minutes after receiving the call, they saw heavy smoke coming from the eaves and front door. Because fire crews had information that someone was still inside, they went into rescue mode, Gutierrez said.
The woman lived with seven other family members, including three children, all of whom have been displaced. The house suffered heavy fire damage in the kitchen and major smoke damage throughout, Gutierrez said.
Firefighters don't know how the fire started but do not believe it was suspicious.
Gutierrez said the fire department will be recognizing Sotelo for his rescue efforts.
Until recently, Sotelo was homeless and looking for a job. For about a year, he, his girlfriend and their 18-month-old daughter lived in shelters or with friends.
Their luck picked up when Sotelo recently found a job sorting mail at OnTrac, a delivery company. About a month ago, they could afford to rent a room. He has landed a second job as a barista at the new Ma8trix casino.
Though he said he and his family are still struggling to get by, Sotelo has dreams of getting a car and eventually going to college.
A few hours after saving the woman, Sotelo was asked if he felt heroic. "I feel pretty normal," he replied.
The way he sees it, if the woman had been his grandmother, he said he would have wanted someone to go inside the house after her.
Contact Mark Gomez at 408-920-5869. Follow him on Twitter @MarkMgomez
Copyright 2012 - San Jose Mercury News, Calif.
