Homeless Las Vegas Man Saves Two Kids From Burning Home

LAS VEGAS, NV - Two small children are alive today because of the fast action of a complete stranger. In the ultimate act of heroism, Anival Angulo, 36 of Las Vegas, pulled two small children from a burning home on Friday afternoon, according to Las Vegas Fire and Rescue.

"If he wasn't there to have done what he did, either the kids would have sustained life threatening injuries, or they would have died in the fire," said Tim Szymanski of Las Vegas Fire and Rescue.

Angulo was walking past an apartment complex on Mesquite Ave. Friday afternoon when he noticed smoking coming from it. As he approached the fire, he heard children crying while smoke billowed out the front door of the apartment. Angulo saw a three year old girl crying for help behind a steel security door that could not be opened from the outside. He began pulling upwards on the door, eventually bending it upwards. The dead-bolt was pried undone, opening the door. The little girl ran out and hugged him. While she was doing that, Angulo saw the legs of a 10 month old infant and ran back in to rescue the small child.

The children were at the home of their grandfather, who was in a backroom at the time of the fire. He emerged from the fire at around the same time Angulo pulled the children from the apartment. The two children were brought to the hospital and treated for minor smoke inhalation, but are expected to be released, Szymanski said.

Angulo, who is currently homeless, didn't even hang around the scene long enough to take credit for saving the lives of the two children. Szymanski said that Las Vegas Fire and Rescue had to search for multiple hours to find him. They eventually found him by speaking with a nearby resident who was offering Angulo a place to sleep Friday in exchange for fixing a sound system.

"He's very modest, he's low key. Very quiet, didn't really want to talk about it, didn't stick around," Szymanski said.

When firefighters arrived at the scene two chairs inside the apartment were fully engulfed in flames and someone had thrown a rock through a window. The hole in the window fueled the fire with oxygen, and anyone in the house at the time would have likely died from the inferno, Szymanski said.

The grandfather did not have any reported injuries.

Images via Las Vegas Fire and Rescue