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2 heroes take action in Redwood City saving woman from burning car
Two employees of an ACE Hardware Store in Redwood City took action to pull an elderly driver from her burning car. This, after police say she confused the gas pedal for the brake and plowed into the store, sparking a fire.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Officials in Redwood City say a female driver plowed into the front of the Hassett ACE Hardware store in the Woodside Plaza Shopping Center on Monday night.
"And I heard a big sound and I thought it was a gun or something, but it was a car that went into the ACE Hardware," said Lath, an employee at neighboring Hellen's Cleaners. "We were standing there."
"We heard the car go off," added an ACE worker who did not want his identity revealed. He was inside the store at the checkout lane and narrowly missed getting hit.
"I was trying to pay attention to my kids, because I know they were there. They were walking in. I was at the first register and I walked away too. And I stood a foot away too. I think it was just god. God looks out for you," he said.
After the initial impact, a worker pulled the driver from the burning car as 16-year-old co-worker Ricky Pera assisted.
"She was kind of going through her belongings in shock. She didn't get out of the vehicle, and my coworker had to go and grab her out of the vehicle," said Pera.
Added the unidentified worker, "I think she was just in shock…I just opened and I had to get her because the car's in flames already."
Repeated attempts to douse the flames failed as Redwood City firefighters responded to what was now a two-alarm fire.
"The area where they drove into is where they have the butane and some of the lighter accessories. So I believe possibly those things may have been burning," said Glendon Chan, a battalion chief for the Redwood City Fire Dept.
It took firefighters 20 minutes to tap out the flames. Officials said there were no injuries and the structure is still sound.
"It’s been a great asset to the neighborhood and I'm very, very sorry that this happened to them," said Debbie Hudson, a regular shopper at the mall.
By Tuesday, amid the lookyloos and would be customers, remediation workers were on site, and said the damage to the interior was severe. Some surrounding stores sustained water and smoke damage and are temporarily closed. But officials say there were no injuries or loss of life.
"That’s a blessing. All that other crap back in there can be replaced. It can be repaired. The blessing we gotta take from this is no one got hurt," said shopper Jose Villanueva.
It's a blessing one man paid forward immediately, and said he doesn't believe his actions in the heat of the moment were anything special. Pera disagreed.
"I see him as a hero because he's the only one who stepped up and really got in there and got her out of there," Pera said.
The hardware store will be closed for quite some time as repairs are made. A timeline for reopening isn't exactly clear. The other affected businesses could reopen much sooner.
Redwood City police investigators said it appears this was a case of an elderly driver mistaking the pedal for the brake and that no charges have been filed.
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