4 Saved From Blaze : Ex-Paramedic Gets One More Chance for Daring Rescue

Ari Tuura, a former paramedic in Finland, considered becoming a firefighter after he came to the United States in 1982, but decided he’d seen enough crises to last a lifetime.

“I don’t like to see people dying all the time,” said Tuura of North Hollywood. “I didn’t want to see it anymore.”

But Tuura, a furniture salesman, wasted no time early Saturday jumping into the role of firefighter and rescuing a family of four from a burning apartment building in Tarzana.

Grabbing a ladder from a nearby truck, Tuura made three trips to carry Elad Gefen, 9; his 14-year-old sister and their mother, Rachel Gefen, to safety from their flaming second-story apartment. The father, Michael, scrambled down the ladder after them.

2 Apartments Gutted

Officials from the Los Angeles Fire Department said they do not know what started the fire about 3 a.m. at the Tara Village apartment complex in the 18300 block of Hatteras Street. The fire gutted two apartments, causing $175,000 in damage and displacing nine people.

No injuries were reported, however, and witnesses credited Tuura’s heroic rescue with helping to prevent any tragedies.

The flames had engulfed most of the Gefens’ apartment and blocked the front door, leaving a back window as the only escape.

“They were screaming ‘Help, help!’ and tying the bed sheets together. Smoke was pouring out of the window, and flames. The lady wanted to jump,” said Carla Molina, whose apartment faces the burning building.

Michael Gefen tried to lower his son to the ground using the rope of bed sheets.

“All of a sudden, this boy on sheets was coming out the window,” Molina said. Another neighbor, Sylvia Sallus, said: “The man was holding the little boy over the window. He looked like he was just going to drop him.”

Enter Tuura, who awoke in a nearby apartment to the sound of screaming. As he ran toward the boy dangling from the window, he spotted the ladder on a truck parked nearby.

“I was the first one out there; I saw him hanging the young guy out the window and I saw the ladder there and I just knew I had to get it,” Tuura said. “Sometimes people lock and chain their ladders to the truck. I just kept thinking ‘No chain! No chain! No chain!’ ”

Luckily, the ladder was attached to the truck with a simple Velcro strap. Tuura rushed to the apartment building as members of the family were becoming hysterical. “The kids were really scared. They were crying and screaming.”

The truck belongs to air-conditioning contractor John Argiso, 29, who arrived almost immediately to help steady the ladder.

In the past, neighbors had grumbled about Argiso’s unsightly truck parked on the street. On Saturday, however, Argiso said he doesn’t expect to hear any more complaints.

Though neighbors gushed praise over the heroics of Tuura and Argiso, the men said they never paused to consider what they were doing.

“You don’t really think about it,” Argiso said. “My girlfriend said there were flames shooting out the window and I didn’t even notice.”

Tuura said: “I used to work in this kind of business in Finland. I got used to people in need of help. Usually, there is no time to think. You see what you have to do and you do it.”

After their escape, the Gefens went to stay with relatives and could not be reached for comment.

Davood Yahyavi and four members of his family were also left homeless by the blaze, officials said. A local chapter of the American Red Cross helped them find temporary shelter.