A California woman is recovering in the hospital after a stranger and two officers rescued her from her burning home.
One of her heroes, Nas Mohamed, was working as an Uber Eats driver when he came to her rescue at her home in Vista, a city in San Diego County. Mohamed’s early morning ride is normally uneventful, but on Friday he smelled and followed his nose to the fire in the early hours.
“As soon as I got there, I started knocking on the door, on the side,” Mohamed told NBC 7. “And then I looked back. I saw a man and he said to me, ‘I live here, I live here.’ I said, ‘Is there anyone in the house?’ He said, ‘Yes, my wife is inside and the two cats.’ ”
Nas said he heard the man’s wife screaming inside the mobile home.
“She was literally next to the fire,” Mohamed said. “The fire surrounded her. And I went in. I started looking for her and kept saying, ‘Talk to me! Talk to me!’ That was the worst part, because I was breathing, you know, while I was talking to her.”
Mohamed said he eventually found her and tried to get her to safety. But the women let go of his hands after she shouted that her cats were still trapped.
“And that was a nightmare because I couldn’t find the window because of the smoke and the light from my phone wasn’t enough,” he said.
First responders arrived just in time to find them and help Mohamed lift her out of the window and even rescue one of her cats.
Without protective equipment, Mohamed himself suffered injuries. As he watched a video Friday afternoon of a deputy pulling him to safety and then gently placing him on the ground, gasping for air, he said the only feeling that surpassed his pain was his relief at hearing the woman’s voice.
“The first thing I heard was I heard her talking, and I thought, ‘She’s doing well,’” Mohamed said. “At the same time, my eyes are burning from the smoke, I can’t breathe. I felt it was a relief, you know, more than a pain. I know I’ll be fine again soon.’
Mohamed said the woman expressed her gratitude and wanted to know his name.
“She says, ‘What’s your name? What’s your name?” said Mohamed. “Three, four times, you know, and I can’t breathe. I can’t talk. Every time I talk I start coughing and black things come out of my mouth. So finally I told her my name, and she held my hand, and she said, ‘You saved me.’ I told her, ‘God saved us.’ ”
Mohamed has no medical background that trained him for that moment.
“As a man, you hear a woman – an old woman – screaming, burning, you know?” said Mohammed. “I can’t stay outside.”
First responders airlifted the woman to the hospital but could not yet provide an update on her condition. Mohamed also spent the night in hospital recovering from burns and smoke inhalation.
Looking back on the morning he had, he said he was grateful to be in the right place at the right time to save a life.
“You don’t have to hurt yourself or sacrifice yourself if you think it’s a losing game, but go for it if you’re going to help someone, a person, someone with blood like you, just go for it,” Mohamed said. . “Why don’t we break a window or a door to help people?”
Mohamed, who is an interior painter and also makes Uber Eats deliveries, spoke to NBC 7 on Friday after being awake for 25 hours. When asked about his plans for the rest of the day, he said he would take a nap and then take the rest of the day off.
San Diego sheriff’s Lt. Matt Carpenter said the cause of the fire remains under investigation, but he suspects the woman may have left food on the stove. He said it is especially important to stay alert with the holidays and many cuisines approaching.
The sheriff’s department released a statement praising Mohamed and their deputies’ role in the rescue.
“I am incredibly proud of every deputy who responded to the call,” Carpenter said in the statement. “I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to the courageous community member who risked his safety to help a stranger. His courage and quick response played a vital role in saving a life.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
