A United Parcel Service driver at work recently charged into a burning home outside Los Angeles and carried a centenarian woman out to safety in what officials called a “remarkable” example of “people looking out for one another in a moment of need”.
As his heroics drew attention in online circles dedicated to finding uplifting stories in the media, Willy Esquivel told the Los Angeles news outlet KTLA that he was “just a UPS driver who was in the right place at the right time”.
“I just did what I thought was right,” Esquivel said to KTLA. “At the end of the day, she’s someone’s mother, someone’s grandmother, great-grandmother.”
It was 15 January when neighbors of 101-year-old Ann Edwards saw heavy smoke pouring out of her Santa Ana condominium. Smoke had filled the kitchen and set off the fire alarm, prompting neighbors to pound on her door and implored her to leave with them.
Edwards lives alone, and she was confused as well as reluctant to go, KTLA reported. Esquivel at that time was nearby completing a delivery, and the neighbors asked him for help, according to KTLA and a statement from the local Orange county fire authority.
Esquivel ultimately “picked her up and carried her to safety”, the fire authority said. He brought her to a neighbor’s home to rest on a couch and sought to keep her as comfortable as possible while firefighters were called to the scene.
“She seemed very disoriented,” Esquivel recalled to KTLA. “She just kept trying to talk, but she couldn’t really get words out, so I told her it’s OK.”
Meanwhile, neighbors tried to put out the kitchen blaze by using fire extinguishers on it, the authority said. One neighbor – a roofer – grabbed his ladder, climbed atop the home and sprayed water from a garden house into the kitchen vent to aid the effort.
The fire authority published a video on social media demonstrating the disorienting thickness of the smoke in the condo. Firefighters subsequently arrived, extinguished the blaze and brought Edwards to a hospital for evaluation.
Edwards’ son, Rick, said to KTLA that his mother remained in the hospital a day later. Nonetheless, she was expected to fully recover from the emergency.
“Tell you what, Willy – thank you,” Rick Edwards said in remarks to KTLA. “God bless you, man, for sticking with her and getting her out. Thank you.”
UPS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Esquivel. For its part, the Orange county fire authority hailed Ann Edwards’ rescue as “a remarkable outcome made possible by quick action, teamwork and people looking out for one another in a moment of need”.
A remarkable outcome made possible by quick action, teamwork, and people looking out for one another in a moment of need.
After KTLA caught up with him, Esquivel acknowledged his colleagues were praising him as a hero – but he made it a point to say he wasn’t searching for attention.
“I’m just glad I was able to lend a hand when [it] was needed,” Esquivel said to the outlet. “I hope she … has a quick recovery.”
