Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Passersby help a grandmother to escape from burning house

By Clarence Cromwell

An elderly Los Gatos woman was rescued from a house fire May 25 by her grandson, two strangers and a 16-year-old Los Gatos High School student, just before the upper part of the house became engulfed--including the room the woman slept in as the fire broke out.

The rescuers passed Pearl Beck from one set of arms to another to transfer her out of a second-story bedroom window, off of a roof and away from the burning house.

Flames gutted the attic and upper story of the house at 76 Blossom Hill Road, said Battalion Chief Kim Middlebrooks of Santa Clara County Fire Department. Inspectors hadn't determined the cause of the fire as of presstime, but the blaze started at the back of the building around 3:30 p.m.

First Beck and her grandson, Doug Beck, heard the crackling of burning wood in the house; in his backyard cottage, he thought he heard leaves rustling on the deck, and she believed her husband was making a lot of noise downstairs. But Alfred Beck was on an errand at the grocery store just then.

By the time Beck realized her house was burning, the flames had trapped her in the bedroom, she said. She opened the window and called for help.

She got a lot of it because five people noticed the flames or heard Beck's cries and tried to help.

Beck's grandson tried first to find a way to the upstairs bedroom through the front door of the house. He tried twice, but the smoke and heat turned him back.

Then he heard some people up above, walking on the flat porch roof just below Pearl Beck's window.

Two men broke the glass and removed a screen from Beck's bedroom window. One of them climbed in, picked Beck up and handed her out the window to the other man.

Beck's grandson, who had climbed onto the roof by then, took his grandmother and lowered her over the edge of the roof into the arms of Tim Sakoman. Sakoman was walking down Blossom Hill Road when the fire broke out and decided to help. The Los Gatos High School student had just finished working a shift at Boston Market.

Sakoman carried Beck about 50 yards to the end of the Beck's driveway on University Avenue, where Ranger Dave Gray had just arrived from Oak Meadow Park. Gray had noticed the flames about the same time the call went out at 3:41 p.m. He said he saw and heard the fire suddenly explode through the house as he rushed to the scene.

Beck was examined by paramedics at the scene. A short time later, she appeared unharmed by the fire as family members helped her walk to a shady spot to sit down. Neighbors and friends drifted over one by one to hug her.

The window through which Beck escaped gave passersby a view of the blackened, charred innards of the house, until it was boarded up that evening. Fragments of glass stuck in the window frame were warped by the heat and the eves above the window blackened because of the smoke and heat.

None of the fire's witnesses or victims knew who the two helpful men were, but one was later identified as Gary Rinfret.

After firefighters snuffed the blaze, the septuagenarian said: "If they hadn't helped me, I would've climbed out myself."

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