A fire broke out just after 4:30 on Monday in a mobile home in Nipomo. One man sustained burn injuries and was transported to Marian Regional Medical Center. The fire was determined to be a human-caused, accidental fire.
Just after 4:30 pm Crystal Coho was doing dishes with her son when she looked out her window and saw smoke coming from a neighboring home.
"I was like that doesn't look normal, and then so I started to walk over there just to double-check, and then I knew right away there was a back shack area that looked like smoke was coming out," said neighbor Crystal Coho.
Crystal Ran back to her house and had her mother call 911. Her mother thought she saw a person and heard a dog in the burning structure, so the pair went back over to help. The man inside was trapped between his bed and a wall and asking for help.
"So she went to open up the door and he started screaming help me, help me! So I went to go help," said Coho.
The two women were unable to move the man trapped inside on their own, so Coho ran outside and screamed for neighbors to help. Two men nearby ran inside and pulled the man out of the burning structure.
"At that point, I just started seeing smoke and fire and I knew I needed more than my mom and I the way he was positioned between the bed and the wall," said Coho.
Cal Fire said initially they got a report that a second person might be inside.
"After two searches they found that there was no second victim inside and that person was not home at the time of the fire, we confirmed that, and that person's okay," said Cal Fire SLO Public Information Officer, Adan Orozco.
But there was a chihuahua inside.
"I didn't see the dog, I heard the dog barking. We didn't know what part of the house," said Coho.
When fire crews arrived they were able to remove the dog from the burning structure and take it to paramedics on the scene.
"It seemed to be just about, almost gone. It was completely stiff, struggling to get any air at all in its lungs," said San Luis Ambulance Paramedic, Luke Remmers.
"So we, just out of instinct, just brought it back to the ambulance and gave it oxygen," said Remmers.
The dog opened its eyes and was breathing on its own within minutes.
"It came back miraculously. Really it was," said Remmers.
The dog is recovering with animal control.
