“I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “Even with the T-shirt over my face, I couldn’t breathe in there.”
First, she went to the living room where she found the homeowner, 81-year-old Betty Potter, standing with her walker near the flames.
“She was very out of it,” Esteb said. “She didn’t want me to touch her or do anything. She was really resisting me.”
So Esteb picked up Potter and her walker and got her safely outside. Then she went back in for the woman’s son and caregiver, 56-year-old Tracy Potter.
“He was very out of it,” she said. “He didn’t want to leave the house. In his mind, he had it under control, but the entire living room was on fire.”
Esteb pulled Tracy Potter outside and told him to call 911. The call, made just before 8 p.m., alerted crews from Clark County Fire District 10 to the emergency at the house, 36216 N.E. 119th Ave.
“The entire house was in flames by that time,” she said. “This was (within) five minutes, maybe six minutes.”
Though the main floor of the house was ablaze, Esteb went back inside — this time through the basement entrance to save her pets. She grabbed her two small dogs, Angel and Enrico. She found her cat carrier, but couldn’t find her cat, Pandora.
With flames spreading to the deck above the basement, Esteb ran back outside.
Arriving firefighters said flames were shooting out of three sides of the building as well as the roof. They doused the blaze, which they said destroyed 80 percent of the house. When they got to the basement, they found Pandora sitting on Esteb’s bed.
“It was a miracle she made it through that,” she said. “She’s my baby.”
Clark County Assistant Fire Marshal Richard Martin said that improperly discarded smoking materials caused the fire. Martin commended Esteb for her quick thinking.
“If she hadn’t been there, it would have been a different story line. I think it would have been a fatal fire,” he said. “(There) was heavy smoke by the time she got them out of there. They would have probably been down within another half-minute or so.”
No one was injured, but the blaze caused an estimated $180,000 in damage to the structure and $120,000 in damage to belongings, Martin said.
Esteb is staying with family in the area and said the Potters stayed with neighbors for at least one night. Even though she lost her place to live and her furniture in the fire, Esteb said the incident didn’t ruin her holiday.
“They’re alive. None of us are hurt,” Esteb said. “It’s just a fire. It’s just material stuff.”
