Homeless Man Hears Children Screaming, Rescues Them From Apartment Fire

December 5, 2017

A homeless man has been hailed a hero after running into a burning apartment to save two young children.

Anival Angulo / Credit: Twitter, LVFR

Anival Angulo said he heard children screaming and saw smoke coming from an apartment on Mesquite Avenue in Las Vegas.

He broke through a security door to get into the apartment, rescuing a 10-month-old boy and a three-year-old girl.

"Went to the door and saw the babies so I jumped the fence and I pulled on the screen door and I wrapped up the babies and pulled them out," Angulo told 3 News. "I knew I had to get them out."

Las Vegas Fire and Rescue arrived soon after to put out the fire.

"Fire investigators determined the fire started on the stove in a pan with cooking grease. One of the kids at the hospital told fire investigators the pan started on fire and got big really fast with lots of smoke and it made her scared. Their grandfather, who was watching the children, was in a back bedroom," Las Vegas Fire and Rescue wrote in a statement.

"Anival Angulo was walking by the apartment building and noticed smoke from the building and went around to see what it was. He then heard the children crying, he jumped a locked gate into the complex and found smoke coming out the security door. He saw the little girl standing near the door in the smoke filled apartment. She could not open the door, so Angulo starting pulling on the steel door and was able to bend it upward. As he was pulling up, the dead-bolt lock unlatched and the door opened. The little girl ran to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. He could see through the smoke the leg of an infant on the floor. He reached down and pulled the infant out."

The children were taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. There were no other reported injuries.