Neighbors help out as a house burns

Patricia Perez could see that something was wrong at 4826 Daredevil Court from a long way away.

“Me and my mom saw the smoke,” she said.

They weren’t alone. Calls soon started to pour in reporting the fire.

“It was about10:43(Monday) morning that actually the Colorado Springs Fire Department responded to a smoke investigation.

The Springs Fire Department was on the scene within minutes. But the fire wasn’t in Colorado Springs, it was in Security. The two departments arrived at almost the same time.

“Engine 11 from the city fire department got on maybe a minute, minute-and-a-half before our ladder truck,” according to Joseph Cosgrove, an engineer and driver with the Security Fire Department.

Also arriving on the scene was Perez, along with fellow passer-by Andrew Davenport, they noticed that there was a dog in the backyard.

“He wasn’t very happy about someone coming into the backyard,”said Davenport.

Still, Davenport jumped the fence, getting bitten in the process. Perez followed and calmed the dog down while Davenport went on to search the house. He didn’t find any people but he did find something else.

“I found the cat unconcious and it wasn’t breathing, just lying on the floor motionless,” he said.

The cat recovered – potentially using one of its nine lives.

The Security Fire Department took command of the scene and continued the search. With the neighborhood so close to the boundary between the two cities, co-operation like thisis more common than you might think.

Cosgrove said, “with mutual aid, sometimes city will help the county agencies and county will help the city agencies.”

It wasn’t long before the fire was put out, but the house was heavily damaged. Still, it could have been much worse for this neighborhood if it wasn’t for the quick thinking of strangers.