DENVER (KDVR) — One person was killed in a house fire early Sunday morning in Denver. It happened in a single-family home near West 6th Avenue and Utica Street.
A next-door neighbor said he attempted to save the person who was trapped inside, running into the house while it was on fire. Juan Gutierrez was just getting home early Sunday morning when it happened.
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“We were in the backyard and we smelled, like, burning rubber,” said Gutierrez.
He went to check the front yard and saw it was coming from the house next door.
“I could see the fire, I could see the smoke,” said Gutierrez.
He said he immediately jumped into action.
“An intrusive thought that told me, go in there and help, go in there and help,” he said.
Gutierrez said he initially wanted to get his neighbor’s dog out, which he heard barking. So he rushed to break through the locked front door, punching it until it opened.
Once through, the dog ran out. He believes it wasn’t barking for its own sake.
“I feel like the dog was just trying to call for her help. Because, like, as soon as I walked in I heard her,” he said.
Until that moment, Gutierrez had no idea a woman was stuck further inside the home.
“I heard her screaming help me, help me,” he said. “Just a picture I won’t get off my mind.”
Gutierrez called to his cousin to grab their garden hose. He started spraying inside but eventually had to stop.
“The water hose didn’t reach, it was to a point where I couldn’t go further and I was losing my breath,” he said.
Gutierrez said the smoke became overwhelming and he had to go back outside, wishing he could have done more.
“It was one of the worst things I could’ve, like, felt in my heart,” he said.
Denver Fire Department arrived on the scene not long afterward. Crews found the victim and brought them outside, but they died at the scene.
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