Penn. Firefighter, Neighbor, Rescue Two From Burning Trailer.

Nov. 15, 2005

2 min read

Two people were injured when their mobile home in the Holiday Mobile Home Park in north Union Township caught fire, trapping them inside.

The couple is alive thanks to a firefighter and a quick-thinking neighbor.

"I started pounding on the trailer, screaming, 'Hey, wake up, your trailer's on fire,'" said neighbor Michael Domer.

He got no response.

"So I smashed the window out of their bedroom, started screaming in the house," he said. "No answer. I said, 'Please answer me. Tell me where you're at.' I heard him gasping and he started coming, like, 'Hey, right here,' and he started pounding on the wall."

Domer fought through the smoke, finally connecting with 48-year-old Henry Saluga.

"They already pulled my uncle from the fire who was badly burnt," said Saluga's niece Amy McDowell. "My aunt was still trapped in the trailer."

"She never made a sound," said Domer. "I didn't know where she was at."

"We attempted to get her out of the window and we finally got her out of the window," said north Union firefighter Robert Mankovich.

The Salugas survived the fire that gutted their home, leaving behind only a charred frame.

"I think it was very heroic of them," said McDowell. "It's not everyday that someone will run up to a burning home, kick in the door and pull that person out from that fire. It takes a very special person to do something like that."

"Hey, hopefully somebody would do that for me," said Domer. "What goes around, comes around."