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Chula Vista Parks employees save family from fire

The City of Chula Vista honored a pair of Parks employees who stepped in to save a family from a house fire.

CHULA VISTA (NEWS 8) – The City of Chula Vista honored a pair of Parks employees who stepped in to save a family from a house fire.

A man and woman were trapped on the second floor by the intense flames but were able to make it out alive thanks to the quick thinking of Chance Campbell and Sadoc Sanchez.

Campbell and Sanchez said the flames bursting out of the second story home caught their attention at separate times but both made the decision they had to help.

Campbell, who noticed the flames first, said “it was basically reactionary. You don’t really think in those situations. You just [got to] move. I [saw] a lady yelling out the balcony. The man was there too. I slammed it [vehicle] in park and called 911 and tried to do as much as I could.”

Sanchez said he saw the smoke from the park he was working at and ran to the home to help. When he arrived at the scene he noticed his co-worker, Campbell, was inside. “He said ‘there is two people trapped upstairs.’ I said, well, let’s go up there.”

The smoke and flames proved to be too much to get the couple that was trapped on the second floor. The only way to escape the inferno was by going down the balcony.

“The woman, she was scared at the top. We were convincing her, ‘we’ll catch you, don’t worry.’ We caught her – boom,” said Campbell. 

By the time firefighters arrived, everyone was out safe.

A week later, Campbell and Sanchez were honored by the City of Chula Vista for helping save two lives. They were awarded medals and even their very own firefighter headgear.

Both men said they believe it was just the right thing to do.

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