Warren neighbors and firefighters rescue woman from smoke and fire

Warren neighbors and firefighters rescue woman from smoke and fire

WARREN

The neighbors and Warren firefighters together rescued an elderly Beechcrest Street Northwest woman from her home this morning after it caught fire.

Jay and Shelley Wonders, who live next door to Richard and Jeanne Brugler, noticed smoke at about 11:15 a.m., causing Jay to investigate and find Richard on a stoop in the back of the house, but Jeanne still inside her first-floor bedroom.

Wonders learned that Jeanne was still inside.

“I got two to three feet inside and couldn’t see anything. It was all smoke, so I went back out,” he said.

He went around the front and to the other side of the house where Jeanne’s bedroom is and used a broom to break out the windows, but there was smoke inside that part of the house too.

“I called to Jeanne. I could hear her in the bed, but I couldn’t get to her,” he said. In a little while the Warren Fire Department arrived and pulled her out, still conscious.

It is not known how seriously hurt Jeanne Brugler is, and Richard apparently suffered smoke inhalation, Fire Chief Ken Nussle said.

Shelley Wonders, a teacher at the McGuffey K-8 School in Warren, who was the first person to notice the smoke, said she wasn’t working today because school was canceled because of the cold temperatures.

“It’s a good thing we didn’t have school today,” she said.