Tale of two heroes

The smoke turned the room dark. With their thermal “imager,” the firefighters only saw hot and hotter, fighting through unseen debris — a table and a toppled television set.

Yet Capt. Mike Kreza and Capt. Rob Cagne — with the help of their team and modern technology — were able to pull a man to safety from a Bethel Towers fire March 1.

It isn’t every day you get to save someone’s life, but Kreza had an eerie feeling. Had he heard about a rescue like this before?

In fact he had — from his father.

On Feb. 3, 1970, Owen Kreza, a rookie on the Costa Mesa police force, was one of the first on scene at a Bethel Towers fire.

He thought he was evacuating the last of the residents, but he heard a woman cry for help. Charging into her room, he found her engulfed in smoke.

The fire was in another room, but black plumes had overwhelmed the complex.

Owen yelled out the window for assistance, and firefighters helped them down.

Like father, like son.

It was amazing for Mike Kreza, as well as Cagne, to find out Kreza’s father had nearly the same experience some 37 years earlier — reported in the Daily Pilot.

“I remember growing up as a young kid and going to the beach and saying, ‘Oh yeah, my dad, he rescued people out of that building,’” said Mike, 34, a Rancho Santa Margarita resident and Costa Mesa firefighter for eight years. His father worked for Costa Mesa police until 1975 before moving to Irvine’s department.

Most of Owen Kreza’s side of the family are police officers and Mike grew up with that influence. In reference to becoming a firefighter, he calls himself a “black sheep.”

But there are no ill feelings from his father over his career choice. His dad can’t stop bragging about his son. They exchange laughs, tell stories. It’s clear they have respect for each other’s professions.

Owen, 60, who retired from police work after working as chief of Irvine Valley College’s police department, has known for some time his son is a hero.

Mike enrolled in a firefighter explorer program when he was 17.

He went out on a call with the Tustin and Santa Ana units and something collapsed on a firefighter. Mike helped free the man, according to Owen.

“One of the firefighters thought he was a real firefighter,” Owen said.

Mike received the boy scout’s Medal of Valor for his efforts.

Owen isn’t the only one bragging.

Mike and Cagne give Owen “props” for the courage it took to help the victims in the 1970 fire, without the help of modern technology afforded to today’s firefighters.

At the March 1 fire, Mike and Cagne were on the fifth floor at Bethel Towers and couldn’t find the blaze.

A police helicopter notified them the fire was on the sixth floor. While checking rooms, one handle was hot to the touch. They entered the room to search for people but their team couldn’t use the hose to douse flames due to the threat of steam burns.

The smoke was thick and visibility was zero. So Mike and Cagne used their ISG thermal imager to see. Mike was able to identify the fire to their left and the two clung to the right wall, found the man — also with the imager’s help — burnt badly, near asphyxiation, and pulled him to safety.

“It was reverting back to rookie 101 school,” Mike said.

The imagers, at more than $11,000 a pop, are almost never involved in saving someone’s life, according to the men. Cagne, who helped acquire the grant for the imagers, was glad they earned their price tag.

The victim was treated at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana for severe burns and Cagne said he has started talking again. The fire destroyed the room it started in, but was contained to that area.

The Kreza family heroics are well-documented.

After a phone call from Mike about the 2007 fire, Owen pulled out an old scrapbook filled with stories of his accomplishments and letters of thanks from his superiors. It was the scrapbook that led them to their parallel tales. Mike can now begin to fill one of his own.

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.