THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250354
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 65 lines
The heroics of a neighbor and a passer-by saved the life of a disabled 11-year-old girl trapped in her home as a fire swirled around her Wednesday.
The fire badly burned Amanda Fabian and gutted a home in the 3000 block of Landstown Court, near the Farmer's Market. Amanda's 77-year-old grandmother, Bertha Carpovich, and 4-year-old cousin, Shelby, escaped without injury.
Neighbors said Amanda has Down syndrome and probably became disoriented in the blaze.
``I don't know if I'm a hero or not,'' said the neighbor, Raymond Russell, a 39-year-old sailor assigned to Oceana Naval Air Station. ``I just tried to pull her out.''
After his wife spotted the fire just before 5 p.m., Russell scrambled out of his home and ran to his neighbors' front door. Smoke was seeping from the second-story windows. The grandmother and the youngest girl stood outside.
``The grandmother was shouting, `My baby's inside!' '' Russell said.
The blaze was building, but the fire department was just getting the call. Help was still several minutes away.
Russell kicked in the front door. Hot, oily smoke belched through the doorway. The smoke was too thick to venture inside.
He ran to the back door. It was already open.
``I could hear her crying,'' he said. He called to the trapped girl. Sobs were the only response.
``I didn't know where she was,'' he said. ``But I could hear her crying.''
Russell dropped to his hands and knees. Only 16 inches of clear air hugged the floor, and Russell began crawling inside, keeping his body and face beneath the hot smoke.
In a fire like this, temperatures at head-level can soar to 700 degrees, and then quickly double. The heat around Russell was rising fast.
He couldn't go on and backed out.
Outside, the grandmother's singed face was panicky. She begged Russell to try again.
Russell crawled back into the smoky house. He couldn't see anything.
His hands probed in front of him, sweeping side-to-side.
One hand brushed Amanda's leg. He grabbed her.
``I was trying to pull her out while staying on my hands and knees, but I couldn't,'' he said. So he stood up into the smoke. He began tugging, dragging the girl to the door. The smoke was robbing him of oxygen.
Outside, Bill Brite was driving by. Brite, who works as a planner for the city, saw the smoke and stopped to help.
He ran to the back of the house. Through the haze, he could see Russell struggling with the girl. Russell looked exhausted, dazed, Bright said.
``Please help me,'' Russell called to Brite. Brite dashed into the house, and the two pulled the girl outside.
Her face was raw and bloody. Her skin was peeling. Russell and Brite walked Amanda away from the house as the first firefighters dashed from their rigs.
Amanda was flown by air ambulance to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital with first-, second- and third-degree burns. Her condition wasn't available.
The grandmother was also taken to a hospital for observation. A dehydrated firefighter was also taken to a hospital.
The cause of the fire hasn't been found yet. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by VICKI CRONIS, The Virginian-Pilot
Raymond Russell, second from right, walks through the debris in his
neighbors' yard Wednesday. Russell, with a passer-by's help, pulled
Amanda Fabian from her grandmother's home.
KEYWORDS: FIRE RESCUE HERO by CNB