Tragedy struck a North Park residence Tuesday in a fatal fire, but a postal worker may have helped save multiple lives with her quick thinking.
Ravenswood-resident Lucy Vasquez was walking her route Tuesday when she said she noticed something amiss in the residence in the 5200 block of North Bernard.
“I delivered the mail when I start smelling something no good,” she said. “And I ran inside and started ringing the doorbells.”
While she was inside, Vasquez said she encountered a mother and her two young children. Acting quickly, she grabbed the two children and brought them outside to her postal truck.
“I grabbed the two kids, I came outside holding the two kids,” she said. “They were on me, hugging me. I told them ‘don’t worry.’”
Before she could reenter the building, she said she heard a loud explosion, which shattered several windows and sent flames shooting from the building.
Firefighters were quickly on-scene after that explosion, but the resulting blaze claimed the life of a 19-year-old woman and left a 45-year-old man injured.
