SAN DIEGO (KGTV0 - A North Park man is searching for the good Samaritans that saved his mother's life, as she escaped the Eaton Fire in Altadena.
“Dear Father, God, thank you! Thank you for getting my mother and I out within minutes of this thing go up, with just the shirts on our backs,” Jim Salazar is heard exclaiming in cellphone video from Jan. 8.
The video shows his fully engulfed home in Altadena about a half hour after he and his 76-year mother, Sara, woke up to their home and surrounding homes on fire. With the power out and cellphone reception spotty, they hadn’t gotten updates on the spread of the fire.
“Embers flying horizontally, black smoke really dense,” said Salazar.
He and his barefooted mother scrambled out of the house and drove off in two different cars.
Salazar drove back to make sure his neighbors out, eventually ending up in front of his home.
‘This is three years of blood sweat and tears … so many memories,” said Salazar says in the video, choking back tears.
Around the same time, his mother was some five blocks away, and turned onto a street, encircled by flames. Two of her tires blew out, and her car caught on fire.
“I really thought the car was going to blow up … I really thought I was going to die,” said Sara Godoy.
Sara says, at that moment, a man in his 40s, appeared with a fire extinguisher and put out the flames under her hood.
Then, a car appeared, as a woman in her 40s, urged her to get in. The woman drove Sara to safety, but in the chaos, Sara never got either of their names.
Sara's son and North Park resident Andres Godoy says the two good Samaritans, saved the life of his mother, who was recovering from a knee injury and wouldn't have gotten to safety.
“In that moment of complete chaos, for them to stop, I view them as absolute heroes in a moment of tragedy. They were trying to save their own lives and they helped my mother,” said Godoy.
Godoy now hopes to find those heroes.
“I just want to thank them,” said Godoy.
Godoy's mother and brother will be staying in San Diego, as they begin a long road to recovery.
Godoy, a Navy veteran, takes solace in the one thing that survived: an American flag, in the front yard.
“It’s a symbol of hope for us,” said Godoy.
A Gofundme campaign has been started to help the family with living and other expenses.
