Trenton (MERCER)--- Just
before 9:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009, members of the Trenton
Fire Department were dispatched to 250 Clay Street in Trenton’s historic
Mill Hill neighborhood on a reported house fire with entrapment. First-due
crews arrived to find heavy smoke and fire showing from the 2.5-story
semidetached dwelling. A female victim was located safe outside, while a
male victim (reported to be the woman’s son) was rescued from the rear
second floor by firefighters. Both victims were attended to by EMS. Crews
from Engines 10, 7, 3 and 1, Ladders 4 and 2, and Rescue 1 brought the blaze
under control in less than a half-hour.
TRENTON — Carlos Diaz is a disabled city man who
struts around with a cane.
But that didn’t stop him from becoming a city hero yesterday morning
when he rushed inside his neighbor’s burning home and rescued
64-year-old Addie Mae Campbell from a residential inferno in Mill Hill.
The fire erupted inside the second-floor bedroom of Campbell’s home on
the 200 block of Clay Street about 9:20 a.m., firefighters said.
Diaz, 59, was on the computer in his Clay Street home when his daughter
shouted to him that their neighbor’s house was on fire.
“I put my sneakers on backwards and just ran in the house,” Diaz told
The Trentonian hours after he put his life on the line to save his
longtime neighbor and friend. “I can’t pick up anything over 50 pounds.
I didn’t have time to think.”
When Diaz ran out of his house, he saw two other neighbors trying to
force open Campbell’s front door. The neighbors kicked open the door and
Diaz followed behind them inside the smoky residence.
“You couldn’t see anything,” Diaz said. “I was feeling around and ran
upstairs to where her bedroom is. She was put up against the wall. I put
my hands on her waist and got her out to the landing.”
Firefighters said the heat and smoke “was pretty intense on the second
floor.”
From the landing area, Diaz and the other Good Samaritans helped escort
Campbell down the stairs and out the front door. Then the unexpected
happened. “We just made it out to the front porch — and the glass
exploded,” Diaz said.
A glass shard fell and struck Diaz in the shoulder area, causing a
laceration. “The hospital took care of that,” Diaz said of the wound.
“I’m OK. I didn’t get too much inhalation.”
Diaz said Campbell was shaken up with smoke inhalation when he helped
evacuate her from the burning home. Diaz said the woman had little
clothing on, so he brought her into his house until firefighters and
medics arrived.
Firefighters doused the blaze in about 10 minutes, according to city
Battalion Chief John Gribbin, who said the cause of the blaze remains
under investigation but doesn’t appear suspicious.
Campbell was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition, but “when
I left the hospital, she was OK,” Diaz said.
Diaz said he has known Campbell for more than three decades as fellow
Mill Hill residents.
Asked if he thinks of himself as a hero, Diaz said, “I don’t see myself
that way. It’s a good neighborhood. We help each other out quite a lot.”
Diaz’s 15-year-old son, also named Carlos, said, “I always see my dad as
a hero.”
Campbell’s two sons, ages 46 and 44, were in the house when it was
burning, Gribbin said. Firefighters rescued the 44-year-old from the
roof in the rear of the house, Gribbin said. The 46-year-old son made it
out through the front door.
Gribbin said the older son was treated at the hospital for smoke
inhalation and that the other son suffered “a little smoke inhalation”
but refused treatment.
The blaze rendered Campbell’s home uninhabitable. The son who refused
medical treatment was provided with lodging by the local American Red
Cross, firefighters said.
The oh-so-humble Diaz downplayed his heroic actions, preferring to
applaud the city firefighters for their professionalism in getting the
situation under control.
“The firefighters are worth their weight in gold,” the civilian hero
said.
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