Neighbors rescue elderly woman from Goshen house fire

By Ed Ernstes (ernstes@wsbt.com)

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Goshen fire rescue

Juli Wilson, 10, and Heather Wilson, 12, sit in a swing in their Goshen yard on Thursday, July 30, 2009. The night before, the girls were sitting in the swing when they noticed their neighbor's house was on fire. They alerted their father, who rescued the woman from her burning home. (WSBT photo)

By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Jul 30, 2009 at 3:43 PM EDT

Story Updated: Aug 4, 2009 at 11:20 AM EDT

GOSHEN — A group of neighbors is credited with saving a woman from her burning home. The fire started Wednesday night on Goshen's south side. The rescue started with two young girls.

“Something like that, you don’t really think,” said Larry Crist. “You just do it."

Crist led the charge Wednesday night to rescue an elderly woman from her burning home across the street. His two daughters, sitting in a swing, noticed smoke coming from the home.

"Juli was listening to her MP3 player and she looked over at me and said, ‘Look at the flames!’ and she thought it was a fire pit and I looked over at her and I shook my head, and I go, ‘That ain't no fire pit,’ and we both started screaming and ran in the house,” said Crist’s daughter, 12-year-old Heather Wilson.

"My girls came in and told me there was a fire outside,” Crist explained. “I got outside, the neighbor's house was on fire. I walked over there and busted the front door, she was in the middle of the living room, didn't know which way to go, and I pulled her out the front door. She fought with me to come out the door because she didn’t want to leave her house.”

Once he had done that, others nearby joined in to get the woman, Clara Kuhns, safely from the home and put out the fire itself.

“I just ran over there and helped him get her off the steps,” said neighbor Jackie Davis. “I don't remember half of it — it just went really fast."

“I grabbed the fire extinguisher, and there was a fire on the steps, I sprayed it out,” recalled Howard Davis. “I sprayed the fire extinguisher inside the house and Dave, the other neighbor guy, grabbed the water hose, and me and him and were putting it out."

"I feel good about that because she's safe now,” said Crist’s other daughter, 10-year-old Juli Wilson. “I'm glad that we both got to help her.”

Crist says his hair was burned in the fire. He says his eyes are still burning the day after the fire.

Kuhns was taken to the hospital for burns to her face.

Firefighters don't recommend people run into a burning home, but they're glad the outcome was good. Investigators say they have not determined a cause.

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