thedrifter
10-29-03, 09:05 AM
Posted on Wed, Oct. 29, 2003
'He's a hero' - Marine and friend badly burned in fires
TIM MOLLOY
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO - Steven Lovett threw Allyson Roach in the car. There was no time left.
With a wildfire knocking on the front door of their home, the Roach family and Lovett, a Marine who just returned from Iraq, were fleeing as quickly as they could through black smoke that choked off visibility.
Roach's parents had gone in one car, and close behind were Allyson's brother, Jason, and sister Ashleigh. Within moments, their car crashed twice, once into another car and once into a tree, and the fire caught up with them.
Jason, 22, escaped with burns, but Ashleigh, 16, was killed. Lovett and Allyson were badly burned, and remained hospitalized Tuesday.
Lovett had stayed at the house with Allyson until the last minute to help look for her cat.
"He's a hero," said Ben Montoya, a close family friend, as he stood across the street from the hospital where Allyson, 20, and Lovett, 21, were in the burn unit Tuesday. "He saved Allyson's life."
The car Lovett and Allyson were driving ran into a ditch but Lovett helped Allyson, who had already been burned, get to Jason's car, Montoya said. Soon after, that car also crashed.
Ashleigh had returned from her high school's homecoming celebration to a Saturday night Halloween party at her family's house. With a night of celebration over, the family was dozing off or finding places for their remaining guests to sleep.
But outside, the newly born Paradise Fire was growing closer - and moving fast.
Lovett was downstairs on the couch, planning to spend the night. His girlfriend of eight years, 21-year-old Elisabeth Laird, was watching television upstairs.
Allyson was counting beds, and realized there was nowhere for Laird to sleep. She offered her a ride to her house a few blocks away, and that's when they first saw the fire. Allyson went home.
"She turned around and that's the last I heard," Laird said.
As the fire roared closer, Montoya said, emergency workers told families they had 20 minutes to pack their things and leave. The family scrambled.
"By their description, the fire was basically hiting the door of the house as they were leaving," Montoya said.
Lovett was in fair condition Tuesday, said Emrys Eckre, nursing supervisor at University of California, San Diego Medical Center. Allyson's condition was not released, but Montoya described it as "grave."
Lovett's family and Laird were keeping vigil near his hospital room Tuesday. Lovett had returned in August from Iraq to his family's home on the San Pasqual Indian reservation. He had survived some close calls in Iraq, said his brother, 19-year-old Greg Lovett.
"If he made it through Iraq, he'll make it through this," he said.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/7129186.htm
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
'He's a hero' - Marine and friend badly burned in fires
TIM MOLLOY
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO - Steven Lovett threw Allyson Roach in the car. There was no time left.
With a wildfire knocking on the front door of their home, the Roach family and Lovett, a Marine who just returned from Iraq, were fleeing as quickly as they could through black smoke that choked off visibility.
Roach's parents had gone in one car, and close behind were Allyson's brother, Jason, and sister Ashleigh. Within moments, their car crashed twice, once into another car and once into a tree, and the fire caught up with them.
Jason, 22, escaped with burns, but Ashleigh, 16, was killed. Lovett and Allyson were badly burned, and remained hospitalized Tuesday.
Lovett had stayed at the house with Allyson until the last minute to help look for her cat.
"He's a hero," said Ben Montoya, a close family friend, as he stood across the street from the hospital where Allyson, 20, and Lovett, 21, were in the burn unit Tuesday. "He saved Allyson's life."
The car Lovett and Allyson were driving ran into a ditch but Lovett helped Allyson, who had already been burned, get to Jason's car, Montoya said. Soon after, that car also crashed.
Ashleigh had returned from her high school's homecoming celebration to a Saturday night Halloween party at her family's house. With a night of celebration over, the family was dozing off or finding places for their remaining guests to sleep.
But outside, the newly born Paradise Fire was growing closer - and moving fast.
Lovett was downstairs on the couch, planning to spend the night. His girlfriend of eight years, 21-year-old Elisabeth Laird, was watching television upstairs.
Allyson was counting beds, and realized there was nowhere for Laird to sleep. She offered her a ride to her house a few blocks away, and that's when they first saw the fire. Allyson went home.
"She turned around and that's the last I heard," Laird said.
As the fire roared closer, Montoya said, emergency workers told families they had 20 minutes to pack their things and leave. The family scrambled.
"By their description, the fire was basically hiting the door of the house as they were leaving," Montoya said.
Lovett was in fair condition Tuesday, said Emrys Eckre, nursing supervisor at University of California, San Diego Medical Center. Allyson's condition was not released, but Montoya described it as "grave."
Lovett's family and Laird were keeping vigil near his hospital room Tuesday. Lovett had returned in August from Iraq to his family's home on the San Pasqual Indian reservation. He had survived some close calls in Iraq, said his brother, 19-year-old Greg Lovett.
"If he made it through Iraq, he'll make it through this," he said.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/7129186.htm
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: