Seeing Fire, Local Woman Rushes to Evacuate Neighbor's Home

The loud popping noise that woke Sandy Romero at 2:30 a.m. sounded a lot like gunfire.

Though she was in bed when she heard the sound, Romero went to the window to investigate. Across the street, Romero saw a small fire in her neighbor's detached garage. Moments later she looked again, and the fire had grown noticeably.

“All of a sudden, it was engulfed in flames,” Romero said of the garage.

Rather than panic, Romero called 911. Then, over the protests of the emergency dispatcher, she ran to wake her neighbor, Kellee Engel, and evacuate her from her home, located on the 6300 block of Dilley Ave.

Romero knocked persistently on Engel’s door, evacuated the house and refused to allow Engel to move her car, which was parked near the garage and eventually caught fire as the blaze spread.

Though brave, it's not the sort of behavior that Inver Grove Heights Fire Chief Judy Thill recommends.

“If it’s a neighbor that first spots a fire before the actual resident, they are typically knocking on the door, screaming, trying to do something to awake the residents,” Thill said. "Obviously, we prefer that they don’t take any risks."

Thill was on-site the night of the fire. Though no one was injured in the fire, Thill said the empty, detached, single-car garage was engulfed in flames and potentially dangerous. Before firefighters could put out the flames, the fire consumed the garage, a nearby car and damaged the side of Engel's home. Eventually, the garage ceiling also collapsed.

The fire was ruled accidental and deemed to be the result of a recreational fire that Engel thought had been put out, Thill said.

Engel did not return repeated phone calls for comment, nor was she available when a reporter from Patch knocked on her door on Wednesday afternoon.