A family of heroes

Deepa Bharath

There’s no such thing as being off-duty when you’re part of the “fire

family.”

Costa Mesa Fire Chief, Jim Ellis, knows that all too well. So does

his 21-year-old son, Kevin, who works for an ambulance company in

Fullerton and hopes to join the fire academy next year.

On Monday night, the chief and his son shared something very

special. They worked together to pull an unconscious man out of a

burning car. Doing so, they saved the man’s life.

Kevin Ellis was driving his parents home after a dinner with

friends Monday night near the intersection of Enterprise and Pacific

Park in Aliso Viejo. Kevin saw the burning car out of the corner of

his eye.

“Dad, we have to go,” he told his father as he pulled over.

They jumped out the car. Two cars had crashed head-on. A couple

was in one of the cars, but it was the other car and its driver who

were in real trouble. It seemed the incident had happened right when

the Ellises were driving down the street.

“The car was burning down pretty soon and we had to make an

assessment within a matter of seconds,” Jim Ellis said. “We decided

to pull the man out of the car instead of trying to put out the

fire.”

The victim had suffered severe facial injuries. They dragged him

about 25 feet away from car that, by this time, was fully engulfed in

flames. Fire trucks and paramedics arrived soon and took over from

the father-son duo.

This was not the first time, however, that Jim Ellis or his son

stopped at an accident scene.

“In my 27 years, I’ve stopped several times,” Jim Ellis said. “But

this was a telling incident. We saw for ourselves that if we hadn’t

gotten this guy out, he would’ve died.”

Kevin Ellis has had his share of incidents too.

“I’m like this black cloud,” he said with a laugh. “These things

have a way of finding me. Or I walk right into it.”

The pair didn’t have any equipment or gear.

“We felt kind of naked without all the protective gear,” Jim Ellis

said. “But this was instinct. It came naturally and it’s exactly what

any other firefighter would have done.”

But what was most special was working with his dad, he said.

“My dad’s my hero and being able to work with him was like a dream

come true,” Kevin Ellis said.

The chief said his son was “calm and collected and did what he had

to do.”

“I see a lot of me in him,” he said. “I’ve always loved doing this

and I think he’s getting into firefighting for the same reason too.”

His son also takes pride in the family tradition.

“He embraces the fire family,” Jim Ellis said. “This is not a 9 to

5 business. It’s not a job. It’s a lifestyle.”

Garrick Lazar, who works with Kevin, knows the feeling because his

father is also a fire chief in La Habra.

“I thought it was cool to see two generations coming together like

that,” he said.