Armando Lopez, a man preparing to drive for Lyft in the area, drove by the structure and immediately sprung into action to stop the flames.
SAN DIEGO — A man in the Downtown area drove by a building engulfed in flames Monday morning and temporarily became an honorary firefighter to “save people’s lives.”
San Diego Fire-Rescue Department received several calls around 6 a.m. with reports that a shed or outbuilding was on fire in the 2100 block of India Street in the Downtown area.
Before firefighters could arrive, Armando Lopez, a man preparing to drive for Lyft in the area, drove by the structure and immediately sprung into action to stop the flames.
“I saw the building on fire, I approached the building, I jumped the fence, and I took it in my arms to get a water hose and start spreading water on all the tanks that were going to blow up,” Lopez said.
Video shared with CBS 8 from OnScene.TV showed Lopez scaling a small fence and running directly towards towering flames close to igniting a nearby structure and propane tanks.
Doug Aguilard, a photojournalist with OnScene.TV asked Lopez, “What were you thinking?”
Lopez said, “…Save people’s lives who are sleeping. I wouldn’t want to get woken up burned.” Lopez added he wasn’t scared – it was just a “brave moment in life.”
“Crews quickly knocked the fire down at 6:32 a.m. and prevented the fire from spreading to nearby structures. No one was found inside the structure,” San Diego Fire-Rescue Department said.
About $25,000 worth of items were destroyed in the fire.
No injuries were reported.
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