A mother and her young son were hospitalized after leaping from a balcony to escape a house fire in Rancho Cucamonga late Tuesday.
The mother dropped her 5-year-old child to a neighbor below before jumping from the home on the 8900 block of Reales Street at about 10:20 p.m., a Rancho Cucamonga Fire Department spokesman said.
"I was in my pajamas and I ran over here," Sam Lftikhar said. "The lady is screaming, 'save, save, help, help!' So She jumped and she broker her leg so I pulled her, and she says 'my kids are up there,' so from the side I climbed and I went up there. I grabbed the kids and the dogs, one by one."
Unfortunately, one of family's dogs couldn't be saved. A FEMA service dog that belonged to the woman's partner, who works with the Los Angeles Fire Department but was not there at the time of the blaze, was trapped in a kennel downstairs.
"The whole downstairs was on fire. They broke the front door in...smoke was coming out of everything upstairs," Tom Miller said.
Although one of their dogs couldn't be saved, the family was thankful for the several good Samaritans who didn't think twice about coming to their rescue.
"I am a neighbor, you know? If a neighbor doesn't help another neighbor, what is that for?," Lftikhar asked.
By daybreak, the house, that is about 6,000 square feet, was left completely gutted.
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A fire department spokesman said the pair were saved thanks to the property's fire alarms. They were transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
